This blog was written by Jonah Ross, Program Manager, WBA & Alice Lai, Senior Marketing Manager, WBA.
The OpenRoaming LIVE experience was fully operational during the Wireless Global Congress (WGC) APAC 2026 in Tokyo, spanning the Tokyo Innovation Base (TiB), Tokyo city, and the WBA members-only Working Sessions venue – courtesy of Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo Innovation Base, Cityroam, Wi2, and Extreme Networks.
Attendees enjoyed seamless, secure access to the OpenRoaming Wi-Fi network across the city, demonstrating the power of frictionless connectivity in a real-world environment.
Example of Hotspot for Tokyo Wi-Fi with OpenRoaming
Live Experience with OpenRoaming in Japan
Tokyo and WBA MOU Ceremony
OpenRoaming Footprint in Japan
Tokyo and WBA Formalize OpenRoaming Partnership
On January 27, 2026, WBA President & CEO Tiago Rodrigues joined Yuriko Koike, Governor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG), to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two organizations. This partnership aims to:
- Accelerate OpenRoaming adoption by encouraging private-sector deployments, supporting residents and students, enhancing the visitor experience, and strengthening connectivity during emergencies.
- Amplify Tokyo’s global leadership by showcasing its OpenRoaming achievements as a model for cities worldwide.
- Advance innovation through joint demonstrations of new Wi-Fi standards and emerging technologies, leveraging WBA’s expertise with Tokyo’s dynamic urban environment.
As OpenRoaming expands globally across cities, transport hubs, retail, venues, and healthcare institutions, Tokyo’s leadership places it at the forefront of this digital transformation.
OpenRoaming LIVE in WGC
The OpenRoaming LIVE experience provided seamless Wi-Fi across WGC APAC venues, including the Tokyo Innovation Base and our members-only Working Sessions venue as well as OpneRoaming access across much of the city This built on the success of OpenRoaming LIVE deployments at WGC Americas (Westin Hotel) and WGC EMEA (Mercure Hotel) in 2026.
In partnership with TMG, Tokyo Innovation Base, Extreme Networks, Cityroam, and Wi2, WBA took another step toward its vision of connecting billions of users to millions of networks.
Example of Hotspot for Tokyo Wi-Fi with OpenRoaming
OpenRoaming Map Snapshot in Tokyo
Live OpenRoaming Showcase at TKP Garden City PREMIUM Shinagawa
From January 28–29, Extreme Networks and WBA delivered a live OpenRoaming deployment at the APAC Members Working Sessions in Tokyo. The sessions, hosted at TKP Garden City PREMIUM Shinagawa, became a real-world demonstration of seamless, secure Wi-Fi onboarding powered by Extreme’s Wi-Fi 7 infrastructure and ExtremeCloud™ IQ cloud management platform.
Venue & Environment:
TKP Garden City PREMIUM Shinagawa is a modern event facility in one of Tokyo’s major business districts, offering state-of-the-art meeting rooms, banquet halls, and seminar spaces — ideal for showcasing high-performance, cloud-managed Wi-Fi.
Infrastructure & Equipment:
- Access Points: 4 × AP4020 (Wi-Fi 7), 2 per room
- Management Platform: ExtremeCloud™ IQ for centralized, cloud-native network management
The Wi-Fi 7-enabled AP4020s ensured high throughput, spectrum efficiency, and low latency, supporting a dense, multi-device environment without compromising performance.
TKP Garden City PREMIUM Shinagawa
Extreme Network AP4020 (Wi-Fi 7)
Optimized Wi-Fi Configuration
The network was purpose-built to optimize OpenRoaming performance:
- SSID: WGC_OpenRoaming (primary OpenRoaming SSID)
- Backup SSID: WBAPSK (for attendees who preferred a simple path to download an OpenRoaming profile)
- 2.4 GHz: Disabled (to reduce interference and improve efficiency)
- 5 GHz: 20 MHz bandwidth
- 6 GHz: 80 MHz bandwidth
By prioritizing 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands, Extreme ensured cleaner spectrum usage, better capacity, and enhanced user experience, especially important in high-density event scenarios. supports more stable airtime behavior in 5 GHz, and leverages 6 GHz for higher-throughput client sessions.
OpenRoaming Deployment at TKP Garden City PREMIUM Shinagawa for WBA Working Session
OpenRoaming in Action
Members from diverse organizations and countries experienced instant, secure connectivity, exactly as OpenRoaming is designed to deliver. Using a federation model connecting access providers and identity providers through WBA’s framework, OpenRoaming eliminates captive portals and manual logins.
Over the two-day working sessions:
- 156 unique OpenRoaming clients connected
- 56% on 5 GHz, 44% on 6 GHz Band usage
- Data was captured through ExtremeCloud IQ client analytics
This deployment proved that OpenRoaming works seamlessly in a live enterprise environment, automatically authenticating users without captive portals or manual credential entry.
OpenRoaming sets the Blueprint for Future Events
This deployment wasn’t just about event Wi-Fi. It demonstrated what modern connectivity can look like when identity replaces passwords and portals:
- Federated, identity-based access
- Strong, certificate-based security
- Frictionless onboarding without passwords
By eliminating legacy captive portals, OpenRoaming showcased how organizations can simplify the user experience while strengthening their security posture.
By replacing legacy captive portals, WBA, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo Innovation Base, Cityroam,, Wi2, and Extreme Networks demonstrated how organizations can simplify user experiences while strengthening security.
On behalf of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), we extend sincere thanks to all attendees, sponsors, and partners who made WGC APAC in the beautiful city of Tokyo such a success. As the first major Wi-Fi industry event of 2026, WGC APAC would not have been possible without the incredible support of our sponsors: Airties, Boingo Wireless, Cisco, Intel Corporation, American Bandwidth, AsiaRF, Browan Communications, Extreme Networks, H1 Radio, HPE, IronWiFi, and Morse Micro.
Join the OpenRoaming Federation or Engage with WBA Events
Discover how your organization can benefit from OpenRoaming at events, join the federation today: https://wballiance.com/openroaming/join/
Or, contact WBA today to explore participation, sponsorship, and speaking opportunities at our upcoming events: https://www.wirelessglobalcongress.com/contact-us/
