The GSMA is making a commitment to Wi-Fi, partnering with the Wireless Broadband Alliance to make mobile roaming easier for consumers. Together the two trade associations said they will work to create technical and commercial frameworks for Wi-Fi roaming. Dan Warren, senior director of technology at the GSMA, tells RCR that small-scale live deployments should emerge within 9-18 months. “Through combining the proven capabilities of mobile broadband and Wi-Fi technologies, users will have the freedom to move between networks with ease,” says Warren.
Mobile operators know they need to give customers the freedom to roam, but they would like to continue capturing data about user activities even when the users are off-network. GSMA says its goal is Wi-Fi roaming that will allow operators to use the phone’s SIM card to “uniquely and securely identify users whether they are on a mobile or Wi-Fi network.”
The WBA’s “Next Generation Hotspot” protocol and the Wi-Fi Alliance’s “Passpoint certification” technology will both be incorporated into GSMA’s Wi-Fi roaming. The initiative will also work to combine two different models for Wi-Fi roaming: GSMA’s GPRS Roaming Exchange and the WBA’s Wireless Roaming Intermediary Exchange. The two groups hope to be able to reach agreement on standards for security, billing, data offload, device implementation and network selection, so that the roaming experience will be fairly consistent across locations and carriers.
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