The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) has its roots in helping public WiFi operators to roam and interoperate across their hotspot networks. While its remit may be wider these days, it has returned to those roots by adopting Cisco’s OpenRoaming technology, with a view to establishing a global standard for WiFi roaming.
One of the disadvantages for WiFi operators, compared to cellular, is that they do not have the seamless, global, transparent roaming system that has been a key factor in the success of mobile networks from GSM onwards. That cellular roaming was hard-won, and challenges continue to arise with each new generation of technology – roaming between network slices is a popular topic of conversation now. But users greatly benefit from being able to access any cellular network without having to log in or establish security credentials.
Last month, the WBA established its OpenRoaming program with the aim of finally allowing WiFi users, too, to move between networks without having to re-register or sign in. This is even more important in WiFi than cellular, since hotspot networks tend to be fairly localized, so a person may need to access several different ones in a single day. But various initiatives, including Hotspot 2.0, have failed to achieve a commonly adopted global approach.
To try to address that, the WBA has taken over the management of Cisco’s OpenRoaming, which is built on Hotspot 2.0 foundations. Among the first to join its new program were Cisco itself, plus operators such as AT&T, Comcast, Boingo Wireless and Deutsche Telekom, and other stakeholders like Google, Samsung, American Tower and Intel.
Cisco’s wireless CTO, Matt MacPherson, told FierceWireless: “The number one problem really was just getting people on the network in the first place.” He said this problem would be solved at greater scale by an industry initiative than if Cisco tried to impose OpenRoaming unilaterally, and success would increase the market size for everyone.
The WBA’s CEO, Tiago Rodrigues, said the objective would be to connect as many WiFi networks as possible together with as many identity providers as possible, and those could be operators, ISPs, loyalty programs or webscalers.
Companies that join WBA OpenRoaming can allow their users to connect automatically to any WiFi network that is managed by a federation member, with no need for SSID passwords or other login mechanisms.