"A big issue in my opinion is how enterprises will control costs in light of all these options," said Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn. To help keep costs down, corporate IT shops must profile user types, allocate dollars to each user type and then track the money spent on each access method, he said.

For security, IT shops need to make sure laptops and other devices used by their workers operate over virtual private networks and have firewalls, Dulaney said. Companies might even want to encrypt the data being passed, he said.

One benefit of having several wireless service providers is that a business traveler might have monthly service prearranged with one service provider and take advantage of smart clients that make connections easy, said analyst Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group Inc. "If a user has a subscription to one of the new Atlanta-based services, they"re more likely to use it," he said.

Analysts estimate that there are now about 60,000 Wi-Fi hot spots in the world, including many at major airports.