Boingo’s Michael Zeto says the next wave of wireless infrastructure is about smarter, more converged ecosystems
When Michael Zeto, chief commercial officer at Boingo Wireless, talks about the company’s work at Hollywood Burbank Airport, he’s really describing something much bigger than a single project. To him, it’s a blueprint for how venues — airports, stadiums, bases, campuses — are redefining connectivity as both a utility and a business enabler.
“Connectivity now is like water — it’s a utility,” Zeto said, adding that the economics of wireless have shifted. The days when carriers footed the entire bill for in-building connectivity are over. “That’s just not the world we live in today,” he explained. Instead, connectivity is increasingly “venue-funded,” delivered through partners like Boingo that offer managed services built for enterprise scale and use case.
Boingo’s approach reflects that shift. Rather than separating public Wi-Fi, private 5G, and distributed antenna systems (DAS), the company is designing converged networks that serve multiple functions through a single, managed infrastructure. The result, Zeto said, is fewer redundancies, lower RF interference, and more predictable coverage from curb to gate.
Airports, in particular, are under pressure to modernize without overspending — a challenge Zeto believes converged design can address by creating both efficiency and new revenue potential. By unifying systems, venues can generate income in areas that previously lacked connectivity, from tenant services to in-facility media. “When you design it in a converged fashion and you’re getting synergies there, you have revenue opportunities in the areas where you now have connectivity that you didn’t,” he said, adding that Tier 1 carriers often help offset deployment costs as well.
For Boingo, that evolution means acting less like a network vendor and more like an ecosystem orchestrator — blending carrier relationships, neutral-host infrastructure, and edge-enabled intelligence. “It’s all about being future-focused,” Zeto said. “One single technology platform, greater sustainability, fewer partners to manage, and you can have confidence in a trusted partner.”
Boingo already connects more than 130 airports worldwide, and as the company marks its 25th anniversary, Zeto sees airports as emblematic of the broader industry transformation. They are among the most complex, high-traffic environments in connectivity — and, in his view, a testbed for what’s coming next. “We think neutral host [and] … converged networks … [are] here to stay,” he said.