Patent ID: 8086245

Claim:
A process of determining locations of and services offered by wireless hotspots, said process comprising: requesting information regarding locations of and services offered by wireless hotspots, for wireless portable devices to wirelessly connect to an Internet, from a third party that acts as a go-between for a wireless telephone service provider that supports a wireless cellular telephone network and a nearby hotspot, the third party supplying hotspot services and advertising the hotspot services, the third party maintaining user account information in a first database, the wireless telephone service provider maintaining user account information in a second database; awaiting a response from the third party via the wireless cellular telephone network; receiving the information regarding locations of and services offered by wireless hotspots from the third party; providing data on a wireless portable device; supplying user account data for an account with an entity other than the wireless telephone service provider; authenticating, by the third party, the user that supplies the user account data for the account with the entity other than the wireless telephone service provider; and accessing the hotspot services supplied by the third party.