Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi at the WBA

Friday, June 25th, 2010 Barbara Nelson, CTO

 

I just got back from the 17th Wireless Broadband Alliance summit, in sunny San Diego.  The event was co-located with the Wi-Fi Alliance, and during the first day there was a joint Wi-Fi Ecosystem Summit.    At the summit, the Wireless Broadband Alliance also welcomed six new members, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Cisco, KT and Devicescape.   (Korea Telecom had previously been a member of their WBA, but let their membership lapse for a while, when their focus moved away from Wi-Fi.)

It is hard to believe how much has changed in the WBA since iPass joined in 2008.  At the time, the WBA was struggling to be relevant, whereas now it has a marquee membership list, and a new energy to take on a host of new projects, to support the needs of the new members.

So what is triggering the new interest in Wi-Fi?  AT&T and Verizon were very clear that their motivation to join the WBA is to ensure that the Wi-Fi networks of the world will support 3G offload. Licensed spectrum is expensive, and the owners of that spectrum are very keen to find ways to offload traffic to unlicensed spectrum, such as the spectrum made available by Wi-Fi providers.  Cisco is spearheading an initiative, currently called the Next-Gen Hotspot or Hotspot 2.0, which defines new protocols to enable seamless 3G authentication and secure connectivity on Wi-Fi networks, so that the 3G mobile operators may reliably and securely offload their traffic to the available Wi-Fi networks.

So, what does this mean for the world of Wi-Fi?  At a minimum, it provides a compelling new business case to increase the number and quality of Wi-Fi hotspots.  Korea Telecom has publicly stated that they plan to have over 42,000 hotspots by the end of 2011, to support their 3W strategy (smartphones that support WCDMA, WiMAX and Wi-Fi).  This new growth in Wi-Fi will give iPass customers more places to connect, and a more reliable service, as Wi-Fi providers re-invest in their Wi-Fi infrastructure to satisfy the data-hungry demands of the new smartphones.  This is very good news for us.

One very interesting question is how does this renewed interest in Wi-Fi as an alternative network for 3G offload dovetail with the trend we are seeing in the USA, where commercial Wi-Fi networks are being replaced by free Wi-Fi networks.  But, that’s a topic for another blog.  Stay tuned.

Tags: WBA, Wi-Fi