Cable companies to share WiFi hot spots

Five of the biggest U.S. cable Internet providers have announced plans to allow their customers free access to the other companies' WiFi when traveling. Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Bright House and Cox said Monday they will open their 50,000 WiFi hotspots across the country to competitors' customers who are traveling outside their home network areas, CNN reported. In the next few months, the companies said, they will be working on technology that will store users' information so customers can be automatically logged in to hotspots that will carry the label "CableWiFi." The partnership follows the model of cellphone carriers that allow their customers to roam on other carrier's networks when traveling. "We believe that WiFi is a superior approach to mobile data," Kristin Dolan, Cablevision's head of project management, said in a statement. "Cable providers are best positioned to build the highest-capacity national network offering customers fast and reliable Internet connections when away from their home or business broadband service." A 2010 agreement between Comcast, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable allowed customers to roam on each others' networks of WiFi hotspots, but that was limited to the Northeast. The inclusion of Bright House and Cox in the new agreement extends coverage to Los Angeles, Tampa, Orlando, Philadelphia and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut.