U.S. telecom giant, AT&T (News - Alert) said that it will acquire privately-held Wayport, a provider of managed Wi-Fi services, for approximately $275 million in cash.

 

The company plans to acquire Wayport through one of its subsidiaries. This acquisition deal is expected to combine Wayport’s enterprise customer portfolio with AT&T's IP and 3G networks to deliver enhanced broadband connectivity at home.

 

Wayport hotspots are in locations such as select Wyndham, Marriott Vacation Club and Four Seasons hotels; HealthSouth and Sun Healthcare locations; and McDonald's restaurants.

 

Currently, the company provides back-office management for AT&T's Wi-Fi Hot Spots. Along with expanding such capabilities, the acquisition also brings management of Wi-Fi infrastructure completely under AT&T management.

 

AT&T said that this acquisition expands its Wi-Fi footprint to almost 20,000 domestic hotspots, and its global Wi-Fi presence to more than 80,000 locations.

 

AT&T sees an “exponential” growth of Wi-Fi-enabled devices such as smartphones. John Stankey, president and CEO at AT&T Operations, said this growth of Wi-Fi enabled devices is combined with continued dependency on 24/7, anytime, anywhere Internet access across business and consumer market segments.

 

With this acquisition of Wayport, Stankey explained that AT&T is giving consumers “more ways to stay in touch and building a more robust network management solution for businesses.”

 

Additionally, this latest acquisition is expected to extend AT&T's reach in the hospitality, health care, education and retail sectors.

 

The company also intends to provide a comprehensive solution for businesses looking for converged and managed network capabilities on one network. Also the combination of these two companies’ capabilities will allow enterprise customers to better utilize private-side applications including inventory management, remote employee learning, and more.

 

“AT&T's premier capabilities in both the enterprise and consumer industries will take Wayport's strength in delivering Wi-Fi solutions over converged networks to an entirely new level,” said Dave Vucina, chairman and chief executive officer at Wayport.

 

AT&T expects this transaction to close as early as the fourth quarter of 2008.