Hotspot 2.0 technology will play a key role in Telstra’s mass Wi-Fi rollout in Australia, the firm has revealed.
Speaking to computerworld.com.au, a Telstra spokesman said: “We are actively looking at Hotspot 2.0 technology for our portfolio of Wi-Fi services. We’ll share more detail on how Telstra Wi-Fi will operate closer to launch next year.”
Hotspot 2.0, which has been developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance, is based on the IEEE 802.11u standard. It’s a brand new public Wi-Fi protocol and is said to be more secure while providing faster authentication.
Telsta plans to set up more than two million Wi-Fi hotspots across the whole of Australia, reports smh.com.au. The rollout will cost $100 million and the hotspots will cover business centres, community areas and shopping strips.
So far, no other telco has widely implemented the new protocol in Australia. However, the technology is growing fast across the US, Asia and Europe. Dave Wright, technical engineer at Ruckus Wireless, believes the growth will be so dramatic that eventually small businesses will begin to use the tech, because customers will start to expect it.
Furthermore, Gartner analyst Dionisio Zumerle said some time ago that public Wi-Fi networks could become less risky to connect to if Hotspot 2.0 is implemented. Plus, the transition will be easy for users, as they won’t have to do anything different. Essentially, Hotspot 2.0 will be similar to how a mobile phone connects to a 3G or 4G network – it will be fast and automatic.
