Boingo launches Hotspot 2.0 at 21 US airports, while Ruckus launches with Orange Poland
Boingo Wireless has announced at Mobile World Congress that it has launched Hotspot 2.0 networks at 21 airports in the US, providing seamless access to a secure Wi-Fi network for monthly subscribers and roaming partners.
The 21 airports, which serve more than 415 million passengers annually, include seven of the top 20 busiest airports in the US and key airports in all regions of the country. The launch includes the addition of a new Passpoint-enabled network, called 'Passpoint Secure', in each of the airports that provides instant access to users on iOS 7 devices with a Passpoint profile installed.
'We're really excited about the dramatic improvement in the customer experience for users equipped with a Passpoint profile,' said Derek Peterson, chief technology officer at Boingo Wireless. 'Subscribers with unlimited Wi-Fi accounts will benefit from automatic logins to secure networks as soon as they walk in the terminal or step off a plane.'
Peter Jarich, vice president for consumer and infrastructure research at Current Analysis, added: 'Making Wi-Fi connectivity and roaming as seamless and secure as cellular has been the Hotspot 2.0 promise since its inception. By rolling out 'Passpoint Secure' to 21 airports serving nearly a half-billion passengers a year, Boingo is helping to advance the ecosystem for standards-based roaming and carrier data offload while maximizing the use of available spectrum.'
Additionally, Ruckus Wireless today announced that it has been working with Orange Poland to enable Hotspot 2.0 Wi-Fi services in Warsaw, Poland.
Residents and visitors in Warsaw can now access high speed wireless internet by accessing the new Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi network deployed throughout the Warsaw Royal Gardens, the largest park in Poland, covering 760,000 square meters. The service is offered by Orange Poland but is also available to customers of other operators. Orange Labs Poland's Aleksander Jakubczak, who is responsible for the development of wireless access, stated: 'Hotspot 2.0 not only helps to reduce traffic pressure by offloading data from the mobile network, it also gives our customers faster, more reliable and secure internet access through a smarter Wi-Fi infrastructure that simply delivers a better user experience.'
Hotspot 2.0 is a new technology specification developed by members of the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) that simplifies and automates how users connect to and roam between Wi-Fi networks. Using Hotspot 2.0 and Passpoint-certified devices, mobiles automatically select a Wi-Fi hotspot based on information from advertised Wi-Fi access points that tell the device which networks are available for service and which hotspots support roaming to the user's home service providers.
Passpoint-certified mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, can automatically identify and authenticate to Passpoint-enabled hotspots associated with their Wi-Fi provider without the need for login pages. Once the user downloads a Passpoint profile, their device will establish a secure, WPA2 encrypted connection when in range of a supported hotspot.
