Telstra, Alcatel-Lucent, Mobily, Gemalto, Telus & Broadcom amongst others sign up to the global network body to drive Carrier Wi-Fi

Singapore – August 27, 2014 – The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), the industry association focused on driving the next generation Wi-Fi experience, today announced that 14 new members have joined its efforts to unite the ecosystem and progress the development of Carrier Wi-Fi throughout the world. Since January 2014, new members include Airi Ventures, Alcatel-Lucent, BAI, Broadcom, Charter Communications, DigiCert, Elitecore, Gemalto, Global Reach, Liberty Global, Linktel, Mobily, Telstra and Telus. They join at a pivotal time when Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) networks are now a commercial reality and operators are reaping the benefits of an improved carrier-grade of Wi-Fi.

Almost every continent in the world is represented by these new members from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America, spanning a diversity of sectors from large mobile operators, to device manufacturers to chipset vendors. Together the membership will engage in various WBA-led initiatives including the promotion of Global Wi-Fi Roaming, the Interoperability Compliance Program (ICP) and trials of the Next Generation Hotspot, all laying the groundwork to make Wi-Fi truly seamless, interoperable and secure.

Shrikant Shenwai, CEO of the WBA said: “The WBA brings together all parties from across the ecosystem, giving them the opportunity to work together to make Wi-Fi the best it can be. These new additions join at a critical time when the benefits of Wi-Fi have been fully recognised and solutions such as NGH, Carrier Wi-Fi and Community Wi-Fi have finally broken in to the commercial world. Our new members play a crucial role in ensuring that consumers connecting to a Wi-Fi network will be exposed to the best user experience possible, regardless of time or location. I look forward to meeting them along with other industry leaders from all parts of the ecosystem at our Wi-Fi Global Congress in San Francisco in the fall.”

New members are in good company, with existing members representing some of the biggest names in the telecoms industry such as AT&T, Boingo Wireless, BT, Cisco Systems, Comcast, Intel Corporation, iPass, KT Corporation, NTT DOCOMO, Orange and Time Warner Cable. WBA operator members collectively serve more than 1 billion subscribers and operate more than 10 million hotspots globally.

Both current and new members will be attending the WBA’s fifth Wi-Fi Global Congress and 25th WBA Roundtable Conference at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco from 6th-10th October. There will be a number of presentations from WBA members and partners including AT&T, City of San Jose, Ruckus Wireless, Cisco, Devicescape, KT, Google, Broadcom, Comcast, Microsoft, BT, Boingo, Global Reach (and many more to be confirmed soon) as well as the presentation of the Wi-Fi Industry Awards on the 9th October. For more details on the event, please visit: http://www.wifiglobalcongress.com

Press Contact:
Stephanie Ross
Temono for Wireless Broadband Alliance
+44 207 089 8896
wba@temono.com

About the Wireless Broadband Alliance
Founded in 2003, the aim of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) is to secure an outstanding user experience through the global deployment of next generation Wi-Fi. In order to make this a reality, the WBA is currently championing various initiatives in the Wi-Fi ecosystem including Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) trials, Wi-Fi Roaming and its Interoperability Compliance Program (ICP). 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, Google and Intel. WBA member operators collectively serve more than 1 billion subscribers and operate more than 10 million hotspots globally. The WBA Board includes Arqiva, AT&T, Boingo Wireless, BT, Cisco Systems, Comcast, iPass, KT Corporation, NTT DOCOMO, Orange and Ruckus Wireless.

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