The London Wi-Fi OpenRoaming trial achieved download speeds of 340 Mbps and upload speeds of 350 Mbps, according to project partners
The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) announced the completion of an advanced public Wi-Fi OpenRoaming proof-of-concept (PoC) in Shoreditch, London. WBA worked with streetside telecoms infrastructure asset provider CIN, digital infrastructure company Colt Technology Services and wireless ISP provider GlobalReach Technology. The trial reportedly achieved download speeds of 340 Mbps and upload speeds of 350 Mbps.
OpenRoaming is a Wi-Fi standard controlled by the WBA that allows a user to join any network managed by any provider within the established trusted federation of providers. For the London trial, the users were able to connect their phones to Wi-Fi in a congested environment and move between cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity via an existing OpenRoaming profile or app.
“OpenRoaming creates new opportunities for all organizations, operators and municipalities, to deploy secure access to networks and enterprise applications,” the WBA stated in a press release. “Users with OpenRoaming natively on their phone, via an existing profile or their preferred app, can access Wi-Fi automatically with no usernames or passwords, safe in the knowledge that the connection is secure, and their privacy protected.”
The PoC was based on the CIN “Street Arc” concept, a solution that supports mobile networks, Wi-Fi networks, edge and IoT networks. While it was originally developed to enable radio densification for mobile operators, the concept has been updated to integrate OpenRoaming capabilities. The installations use the Cisco Meraki MR36 access point and GlobalReach’s GlobalRo.am app to connect users to the Wi-Fi network via an automatic connection supported by the OpenRoaming standard.
Colt provided the fiber network connectivity for the PoC.
Last April, the promise of OpenRoaming was seen in Tokyo when KDDI and Wire & Wireless launched a free Wi-Fi network platform with OpenRoaming at the pre-registration counter and gate near the starting point of the Tokyo Marathon 2023, as well as in Shinjuku Central Park.
In a press release detailing the more recent London trial, WBA CEO Tiago Rodrigues said: “Cities and municipalities seek to provide automatic, quality, and secure Wi-Fi connectivity, this is exactly what OpenRoaming delivers. This is the kind of initiative our organization endorses; it supports our mission to enable collaboration between service providers, technology companies, cities, regulators and organizations.”
