The company partners with access point makers such as Ruckus Wireless, Motorola Solutions, Meru Networks and IP-PBX system makers such as Ottawa's Mitel Networks. Superclick also hosts a support service hotel customers can call for help.

There's also a cloud-based service aimed at big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and shopping malls that offer Wi-Fi access to customers.

Customer buy the solution either direct from Superclick or from IBM Corp.

In addition to AT&T, competitors include GuestTech and iBahn.

The deal took almost a year to jell. It was around November, 2010 when AT&T first made an offer for the company, which was rejected as too low by Superclick's mergers and acquisitions committee. There was some "back and forth" talks, Natale said, which accelerated when other companies became interested.