LONDON, Nov. 8, 2017 – The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) today announced a significant milestone for Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) technology. The NGH Wi-Fi, which is based on Passpoint technology and WBA Roaming, was successfully deployed at the GSMA’s inaugural Mobile World Congress (MWC) Americas event in San Francisco, which welcomed more than 21,000 people from 110 countries over three days. More than 60 percent of attendees’ Wi-Fi connections were automatically authenticated through NGH, alleviating operator networks without sacrificing the users’ connected experience.

NGH encompasses Passpoint technology that offloads cellular customers to carrier-grade Wi-Fi networks without user intervention. The NGH/Passpoint network – which was engineered by WBA member companies Cisco and Boingo – enabled AT&T, Boingo, Charter Communications, Shaw, Sprint, Telus and T-Mobile US customers to roam onto the event’s NGH network seamlessly and securely resulting in the highest % of Passpoint authenticated devices for any show event. Attendees used an average of 3.6 TB of data per day (and over 7.6TB in total) when using the guest Wi-Fi and experienced average Wi-Fi speeds of over 50 Mbps.

“This large-scale NGH launch represents a landmark achievement for the wireless industry, demonstrating a strong business case for efficiently migrating a significant percentage of mobile data traffic via Wi-Fi hotspots seamlessly and securely,” said Tiago Rodrigues, Senior Director at the Wireless Broadband Alliance. “We applaud our members for delivering an outstanding mobile experience and further validating the carrier and consumer benefits of next generation Wi-Fi networks.”

Hub providers included Boingo, BSG Wireless and Accuris. Each of the carriers participating at MWC Americas deployed NGH in their networks to enable a seamless Wi-Fi experience for their customers.

The WBA has championed NGH since 2011 and contributes to its continued advancement through ongoing research, trials and deployments. Most recently, the organization announced the commercial launch of its Carrier Wireless Services Certification (CWSC) program, which allows carriers and vendors to test and certify devices for Wi-Fi roaming and Wi-Fi offload. The CWSC aims to foster worldwide NGH commercial deployments, to grow the wireless ecosystem and introduce new Wi-Fi services that will contribute to 5G.

“We strive for attendees to have a world-class experience at our events and leading-edge connectivity solutions are a crucial component of that,” said Reed Peterson, Head of Mobile World Congress Americas, GSMA. “We are proud to make history alongside the WBA and North American service providers for launching the NGH network at Mobile World Congress Americas and look forward to continuing the use of this technology at future events.”

Comments from WBA Members:

AT&T

“Next Generation Hotspot technology enables Wi-Fi to behave more like cellular – seamless, highly secure and interoperable. I’m pleased AT&T customers were able to take advantage of the capabilities of NGH technology during the MWC Americas event,” said JR Wilson, AT&T VP of Alliances and Partnership and Board Chairman of the WBA. “As the demand for data continues to increase, NGH will play an integral part in continuing to provide an exceptional connectivity experience for our customers.”

Boingo

“We saw Wi-Fi speeds averaging 50 Mbps and guests connecting for hours at a time, underscoring the network’s ability to deliver a premium converged wireless experience,” said Derek Peterson, WBA board member and CTO at Boingo Wireless. “NGH/Passpoint made connectivity so seamless that many attendees didn’t realize their phones had switched over to Wi-Fi because the technology doesn’t require users to manually find a network. That’s the real selling point of Passpoint—it invisibly moves devices from licensed to unlicensed without disruption to the user. As a Passpoint pioneer, Boingo is incredibly pleased with the success of this monumental NGH deployment.”

Cisco

“Making networks intuitive is mainstream to Cisco’s mission,” said Matt MacPherson, WBA Board member and Sr. Director Wireless Strategy at Cisco Systems.  “NGH really makes the Wi-Fi onboarding experience transparent to users while still offering a secure wireless connection.  Further, automatic and secure connectivity is just the first step toward improved policy, path selection and even aggregated Wi-Fi/Cellular connectivity that will continue to improve the user experience and expand wireless use-cases.  As a wireless innovator, Cisco is excited to work with the GSMA, WBA and our partners to deploy best-in-class Wi-Fi guest access networks at these major events.” Watch our video from MWCA.

About the Wireless Broadband Alliance

Founded in 2003, the mission of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) is to resolve business issues and enable collaborative opportunities for service providers, enterprises and cities, enabling them to enhance the customer experience on Wi-Fi and significant adjacent technologies. Building on our heritage of NGH and carrier Wi-Fi, WBA will continue to drive and support the adoption of Next Generation Wi-Fi services across the entire public Wi-Fi ecosystem, including IoT, Big Data, Converged Services, Smart Cities, 5G, etc. Today, membership includes major fixed operators such as BT, Comcast and Time Warner Cable; seven of the top 10 mobile operator groups (by revenue) and leading technology companies such as Cisco, Microsoft, Huawei Technologies, Google and Intel. WBA member operators collectively serve more than 2 billion subscribers and operate more than 30 million hotspots globally.

The WBA Board includes AT&T, Boingo Wireless, BT, Cisco Systems, Comcast, Intel, KT Corporation, Liberty Global, NTT DOCOMO, Orange and Ruckus Wireless. For a complete list of current WBA members, please click here.