The Wi-Fi Alliance has enhanced Passpoint, the multivendor standard designed for seamless identification and authentication of Wi-Fi hot spots. Service providers can now distribute their specific subscriber policies, such as which networks to join and in what order of preference. In addition, users can more easily create a new account at the point of access, which should encourage more use of Passpoint-enabled hot spots.
“Passpoint is a critical solution for service providers who want to get the most value from investments in Wi-Fi,” said Suraj Shetty, VP and GM of Cisco’s service provider mobility solutions. “The expansion of the certification to include online signup and policy features is an important industry milestone.”
The companies in the Passpoint certification “test bed” are Aruba Networks, Broadcom, Cisco, Ericsson, Intel, Marvell, MediaTek, Qualcomm Atheros and Ruckus Wireless. Ruckus VP Rob Mustarde sees Passpoint as a gateway to Wi-Fi roaming.
“With Passpoint equipment, the islands of Wi-Fi connectivity that surround us can now be woven together through roaming consortiums to form a seamless and secure network experience with near ubiquitous connectivity,” said Mustarde. “With the newly introduced features, consumers can easily obtain the credentials to connect across a roaming footprint.”
First deployments
One of the first service provider deployments of Passpoint’s expanded capabilities is in Saudi Arabia. Mobily, which has 22 million subscribers, is working with Aruba to offload mobile traffic to thousands of public Wi-Fi hot spots.
“This added connectivity offers several distinct benefits,” said Mohammed Osman Alserier, executive manager for network planning support at Mobily. “It provides Mobily with the ability to offload subscriber data when in dense environments and offers subscribers a seamless mobile experience with ultrafast connectivity, while offering businesses a new opportunity to market to their customers.”
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