Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of WBA, who announced a year ago that OpenRoaming was “open for business”, said that the goal of Release 2, “has always been to provide users with a secure and frictionless public Wi-Fi experience as part of our broader mission to connect the world."
He added: "To make this happen, we’re working to attract businesses from across the ecosystem, by ensuring that the standard delivers commercial benefits for vendors, operators and retailers. Release 2 is one more step on that journey, and we encourage players from every part of the Wi-Fi ecosystem to join this movement and become part of the bright future we envision for OpenRoaming – One Global WiFi Network.”
To bridge the gap between Wifi and cellular coverage, MNOs, venues and other service providers are now able to deliver a defined, high-quality experience when their subscribers use OpenRoaming.
Release 2 includes a federation-backed “silver” tier that guarantees an “HD video streaming experience” with a downlink rate of at least 5 megabits per second and end-to-end latency of less than 150 milliseconds. Silver-tier service is already available across 95% of the OpenRoaming eco-system.
The release also makes it easier for Wi-Fi network operators to secure new revenue streams through updates to commercial roaming templates, giving them the ability to scale roaming relationships quickly and efficiently.
WBA, which represents the Wifi industry, took over OpenRoaming in March of last year, to facilitate the “broad adoption of OpenRoaming by new and existing Wifi Networks, identity and service providers and other technology partners across the global Wifi ecosystem”.
In May, AT&T became the first major operator to successfully complete a proof-of-concept (PoC) trial of its Wifi network with WBA OpenRoaming™ in areas of downtown Austin, Texas.
Rodrigues talks more about the release on this week's Digital Digest, out on 18 June.
