This blog was written by the co-chairs of the WBA OpenRoaming™ Task Group.
It’s now 12 months since WBA officially launched their OpenRoaming federation for global, seamless and secure Wi-Fi roaming. This first release of the OpenRoaming standard provided the framework for redefining Wi-Fi interoperability and roaming; a single federation that can simultaneously be used to address settlement-free and settled-access (paid-for) use cases. In this first year, we have experienced significant support for the OpenRoaming settlement-free based services, with Google and Samsung integrating OpenRoaming natively into their device portfolios and global trials in various venues leveraging multiple service providers. Following Cisco’s lead, other equipment OEMs have enhanced their products with OpenRoaming support. Finally, WBA has successfully demonstrated the use of OpenRoaming to address the WiFi4EU community use.
Now with OpenRoaming Release 2, WBA is targeting the accelerated adoption of OpenRoaming by conventional Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs). The MNOs in the WBA have clearly articulated their aspiration for their users to receive an enhanced Wi-Fi roaming experience, representing a quality tier above the baseline service levels required to be supported by all OpenRoaming Access Network Provider (ANP) networks. In parallel, we have seen Google Orion innovating with a pre-standard offer that delivers a simple to adopt, paid-for Wi-Fi service that can be easily consumed by both MNOs and MVNOs alike, helping to scope future enhancements.
We are very excited to announce that OpenRoaming Release 2 delivers standardized functionality to address these industry directions. Release 2 defines “OpenRoaming-Silver”, a quality of service tier that guarantees that users are able to a receive a high definition streaming experience when on OpenRoaming networks. MNOs, MVNOs and other OpenRoaming Identity Providers (IDPs) can configure the silver Roaming Consortium Organizational Identifier (RCOI) in their users’ Passpoint profile to ensure that they always receive the best experience when roaming onto OpenRoaming ANP networks. In parallel, we are making it easier for those OpenRoaming ANPs to receive financial payment for providing OpenRoaming service with the end-to-end specification for the OpenRoaming-Settled service. In Release 2 of the OpenRoaming standard, ANPs can signal their offered quality of service tier and associated charging tariff over the secured signalling links used to authenticate users with their OpenRoaming IDP. As OpenRoaming IDPs, MNOs and MVNOs alike can use the offered quality of service tier and associated charging tariff in their authorization decisions, giving them confidence that their users will always receive the required service level delivered at an acceptable price when roaming across the federation.
The OpenRoaming federation continues to revolutionize the adoption of roaming, bringing well established Passpoint™ based roaming to new sets of use cases, lowering the barriers to adoption of roaming by Wi-Fi hotspot networks and Identity Providers. Now, OpenRoaming can deliver roaming capabilities previously only available to MNOs who negotiated bi-lateral agreements with a select number of partner Wi-Fi networks. Instead of defining service level requirements with individual Wi-Fi hotspot providers, all OpenRoaming IDPs can leverage the OpenRoaming service-level definitions that are standardized across the federation. Similarly, Wi-Fi hotspot networks can use the OpenRoaming-settled service to implement innovative approaches to tariffing in order to maximize their return on investment.
As the co-chairs leading WBA’s OpenRoaming Task Group, we encourage all venues, vendors, service providers and identity providers to join WBA OpenRoaming and revolutionize Wi-Fi usage around the world.
