Mobile broadband company, Stoke, has unveiled a new Wi-Fi Exchange gateway solution that allows operators to use Wi-Fi to resolve capacity challenges as part of an integrated service offering without losing touch with their subscribers. As a result, operators can rapidly roll out trusted commercial offload programs in areas where congestion is affecting user satisfaction and contributing to subscriber churn.
Stoke Wi-Fi Exchange gives operators the ability to safely and automatically authenticate Wi-Fi subscribers and securely link them to their services network, but requires no software installation or hardware changes on mobile devices. Stoke's Wi-Fi Exchange gateway enables operators to provide trusted connections to mobile services, offering high-density secure session termination of Wi-Fi connections outside the operator core.
The new Clientless Interworking solution helps to overcome existing challenges to service provider offload by delivering unique Wi-Fi offload capabilities, not available in alternative offerings.These include: eliminating the need for software installation on or hardware modifications to the mobile device; enabling a fully-featured and secure experience over Wi-Fi; providing operators with visibility into Wi-Fi subscriber traffic in order to optimise the user experience; and allowing operators to remain connected with their subscribers throughout their mobile broadband experience.
Major US operators have publicly embraced Wi-Fi, but they have yet to implement the integration that would make Wi-Fi an extension of their networks. Unlike consumer or ad hoc Wi-Fi offload that offers only congestion relief, commercial offload gives subscribers access to all the services, security and standards they receive over cellular networks, effectively extending the operator's services delivery and revenue generating capabilities to Wi-Fi. Stoke's Clientless Interworking solution is purpose-designed to support operators' commercial offload strategies.
'With the expanding availability of Wi-Fi, mobile users are increasingly choosing Wi-Fi over cellular, distancing them from the mobile operator. Operators' current strategies leveraging unmanaged Wi-Fi offload are reinforcing this effect, which represents a major threat to the business model,' said Dave Williams, CTO at Stoke. 'Operators are aware they have to do something about this, but until now the technology hurdles have been too high. Our offering helps to solve these challenges. It is already attracting strong interest from the operator community, and we are working closely with technology partners to build out an ecosystem supporting our approach.'
