In a move that underscores the importance of WBA OpenRoaming™, Google has unveiled Orion Wifi, a new platform for Wi-Fi Roaming developed in Area 120, Google’s in-house incubator for experimental products. Orion Wifi lets public venues – stores, office buildings, stadiums and other locations – sell Wi-Fi capacity to cellular carriers.

Orion Wifi is designed to interoperate with OpenRoaming, a global Wi-Fi federation that offers an automatic and secure connection of billions of devices to millions of Wi-Fi networks. WBA OpenRoaming provides a standards-led approach that removes the need to search for Wi-Fi networks, to repeatedly enter or create login credentials, or to constantly reconnect or re-register to public Wi-Fi.

Raj Gajwani, director of Orion Wifi, recently joined the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) board of directors. Because Orion Wifi is based on and supports open standards, Google is working with the WBA on OpenRoaming to make Wi-Fi roaming work even better for carriers and consumers.

About Orion Wifi

Orion Wifi makes it easy, quick, and free for public venues with high-quality commercial Wi-Fi networks to collaborate with cellular carriers. Subscribers who visit these venues automatically get connected rather than being forced to choose among a list of public Wi-Fi networks. Security and quality are managed automatically.

Orion Wifi is working with the Wireless Broadband Alliance as well as industry leaders including Google Fi, Republic Wireless, Cisco Systems, CommScope (Ruckus) and Juniper Mist to ensure that Orion Wi-Fi is compatible and easy to deploy. Other partners include Boingo Wireless, which is using Orion Wi-Fi to expand its connectivity offering to travellers and visitors across its footprint.

About WBA OpenRoaming

Companies that join WBA OpenRoaming get access to a federation of identity and network providers. Equipment vendors, identity providers, venues and operators – as well as private and public Wi-Fi networks – can join WBA OpenRoaming and immediately become part of the global ecosystem and help to shape the future of the federation.

WBA OpenRoaming supports all different business and commercial models, from settled/paid to settlement free. WBA OpenRoaming defines industry policies and standards for new roaming capabilities such as:

  • Cloud federation, consisting of a global database of networks and identities, dynamic discovery and the Wireless Roaming Intermediary Exchange (WRIX). WRIX provides a framework for interoperable settlement and billing.
  • Cyber security, consisting of Public Key Infrastructure and RadSec providing the certificate policy, management and brokerage services.
  • Network automation, facilitated by an automated roaming consortium framework and policy and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Passpoint.

Currently, there are more than 20 early stage OpenRoaming deployments under development. Canary Wharf Group (CWG), owner of one the largest business centres in Europe, together with Cisco and Virgin Media, are developing the first European commercial deployment of OpenRoaming for residents on the Canary Wharf estate.

The joint initiative will provide up to four times faster wireless speeds by deploying Cisco Meraki Wi-Fi 6 access points, along with sophisticated location-based analytics to allow its clients to build unique services for their customers. Moreover, OpenRoaming will enable seamless and highly secured onboarding to Wi-Fi and dramatically improve efficiencies for the more than 20,000 businesses, entrepreneurs, independent retailers, bars, cafes, workspaces and even the school that will be based in Wood Wharf.

OpenRoaming aims to provide the benefits of Wi-Fi 6 connectivity to residents of CWG’s first build to rent building from Vertus at 10 George Street, and homeowners at 10 Park Drive, CWG’s first for sale residential property, both at Wood Wharf. Wood Wharf, Canary Wharf’s new district, is a five million sq. ft mixed-use development of over 3,000 new homes, including two million sq. ft of world-class commercial space.

With OpenRoaming, residents can take their secure and trusted Wi-Fi connection with them when they walk out of their front door, through the apartment buildings, across the Canary Wharf estate and even into the Tube station. This seamless connectivity will become more prevalent in the future and will help provide highly secured Wi-Fi connectivity on the move.

To hear more about Orion Wi-Fi and how Google, Cisco and WBA are working together to transform Public Wi-Fi and the monetization opportunities, listen to this podcast now. For more information on WBA OpenRoaming click here