Managed hotspot provider Boingo Wireless is leading the charge to bring virtualization to public WiFi networks, in order to reap the same benefits which mobile operators are targeting in their cellular platforms. Boingo says about 20% of its WiFi locations in US airports now support the NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) specifications, which are becoming a widely accepted standard. The company aims to expand NFV to most of its networks in US airports and large venues this year. Considering how new and largely untried NFV is, this represents rapid progress in an effort that started about a year ago, when Boingo announced a virtualization initiative with Procera Networks. Its aim is to reduce the need for hardware roll-out and upgrades, as…