Yesterday (Monday, May 18), the WBA Members Working Sessions kicked off the 2015 Wi-Fi Global Congress. This year, the biannual event has returned to London, England, and is already shaping up to be a very educational and informative experience for everyone in attendance.
As always, the first two days of the WGC serve as an opportunity for WBA members to participate in working group discussions while sharing ideas and insights. The CEO of the WBA, Shrikant Shenwai, kicked things off this year with a very warm welcoming speech.
CEO of the WBA, Shrikant Shenwai, delivering his welcome speech.
Following Shrikant’s introduction, the WBA Recognition Awards were announced and distributed to various WBA members being recognized for their leadership and contributions to the WBA. This year’s honourees were:
Leadership Award (WG Chairs/Co-Chairs)
- Betty Cockrell (BSG Wireless)
Project Leadership Award (Project Leads/Co-Leads)
- Carolyn Heide (Ruckus Wireless)
- Erinn Hall (AT&T)
- Luther Smith (CableLabs)
- Marco Spini (Huawei)
- Michael Sym (BSG Wireless)
- Necati Canpolat (Intel)
- Nigel Bird (Orange)
- Vikas Sarawat (CableLabs)
Contribution Award (Key Contributors)
- Bernie McGibben (CableLabs)
- Dave Wright (Ruckus Wireless)
- David Valerdi (FON)
- Gaetan Feije (Cisco)
- Finbarr Coghlan (Accuris)
- Josh Redmore (CableLabs)
- Kishore Raja (Boingo Wireless)
- Malcolm Smith (Cisco)
- Simon Ringland (BT)
After the awards were handed out, the working sessions quickly got underway. A number of topics were explored throughout the day. A few highlights:
– There were some great discussions about Wi-Fi Calling over the course of the day. Currently, this is one of the WBA’s most active projects, and our members have been strategizing different scenarios for the implementation of Wi-Fi Calling roaming services. This is sure to remain a hot topic over the next few months!
– Another active project that was discussed in detail is phase three of our Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) trial. We are approaching the stage where our members will start running tests over Certified Passpoint Release 2 equipment (infrastructure and end-use devices). The planning for these tests has been finalized, so stay tuned.
– Finally, the latest tier of the Interoperability Compliance Program – Premier Plus (Carrier Wi-Fi) – was touted. This top-line category is now available for all operator members of the WBA to validate and expose their network readiness for advanced Carrier Wi-Fi services.
