Nintendo teams up with Fat Port on wi-fi

AFTER NINTENDO'S recent announcement that Wayport would enable free wi-fi for the DS at nearly 6,000 McDonald's restaurants in the US it has now outlined its plan to extend into Canada.

Nintendo of Canada announced a partnership with FatPort, a broadband ISP. Under this agreement FatPort will offer free wi-fi from any of the access points it runs from public buildings throughout the country. FatPort has access to over 4,000 wi-fi spots worldwide and its list inside Canada includes shops, hotels and restaurants.

"We are thrilled to have come to an agreement with Nintendo of Canada to provide their Nintendo DS users access to the FatPort footprint across Canada," said Michael Kuhlmann, FatPort's VP of business development . "The intent is to make it as easy as possible for Nintendo DS users to access our network by way of silent authentication, opening up our network to an entirely new demographic of users. Our traditional focus on the traveling business person has just been augmented and we look forward to working with Nintendo to making this initiative a success."

This project is set to launch on November 14 as the first round of wi-fi enabled games are launched. The two games launching with wireless capability are Mario Kart DS and Animal Crossing: Wild World. Both will be playable online as well as the third party addition of Tony Hawk: American Sk8land.

The extension to Canada of the wi-fi service for DS bodes well for a European rollout. We can only hope it is managed as well and as capably as in Canada. For more information on DS wi-fi in Canada see here. µ