Wireless broadband provider SkyNetGlobal has forged a strategic alliance with Australian clearinghouse for wireless Internet networks, Hotspot Global, to create a common platform for WiFi roaming in anticipation of WiFi-enabled mobile phones.

"One of the key components of the strategic alliance is to work out a common platform on Hotspot Global's clearing house system that would allow WiFi roaming on mobile phones to work with the next generation of WiFi-enabled smart phones coming up," SkyNetGlobal CEO Jonathon Soon told ZDNet Australia  .

Soon said the two companies were unsure exactly when the WiFi-enabled mobiles would be available in Australia, but were eager to have the back-end infrastructure in place to service customers potentially as early as next year. "We don't control production of the phones," said Soon. "But some are already in production."

The move is designed to complement SkyNetGlobal's W Home initiative, which will offer wireless broadband to apartment blocks. "The W Home initiative is focused on consumer markets, this [deal with Hotspot Global] is focused on the business and road warrior market, but we intend them to merge."

"Right now W Home locations are really private hotspots -- at some point we plan to expand coverage outside the buildings," said Soon. This would give SkyNetGlobal a lot of coverage throughout the city, with each hotspot having a regular user base. However, this will have to wait because part of the agreement for the sale of its wireless network to Telstra in January was a restraining clause forbidding SkyNetGlobal from setting up a public wireless hotspot system until January 2005.

The alliance considers WiFi to have significant cost and speed advantages over emerging 3G mobile phone technology.

HotSpot Global has developed a billing, settlement and clearing house allowing public hotspot owners to allow access to and bill customers of multiple WiFi service providers without setting up bilateral agreements with each of those providers.

"Importantly, the Hotspot Global clearing house also provides a single bill for users no matter which member location they visit", read a statement released by the companies. The statement also claimed that research had shown the number of wireless hotspot users in Australia would hit 2.068 million in 2008, achieving annual compound growth rates of 130 percent per year, while Australian hotspot revenues would grow at an annual compound rate of 95 percent, reaching AU$273 million in 2008.

The deal also encompasses a multi-lateral global roaming arrangement allowing SkyNetGlobal subscribers access to all the public hotspots on Hotspot Global's Member Network on Australia's east coast and throughout Asia. For its part, SkyNetGlobal is rolling out a couple of hundred wireless hotspots in Singapore.

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