The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) said the world's first live, public Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) network will debut next month during the Wi-Fi Global Congress in Beijing. The network will be hosted by Cisco and China Mobile.
During the congress, slated for Nov. 18-21, a total of 13 service providers will demonstrate NGH capabilities using the network. Among them will be hosting provider China Mobile, AT&T (NYSE:T), Boingo, Fon, Time Warner Cable and Towerstream.
"After 18 months of successful technical trials encompassing the entire NGH ecosystem, including devices, network infrastructure and operator back-ends, we are now able to demonstrate that this technology is commercially ready," said Shrikant Shenwai, WBA CEO.
During the congress, Passpoint-certified devices from multiple manufacturers will be available for attendees to try out, and end-to-end seamless roaming will be demonstrated by several participating WBA member operators via the host operator China Mobile and its local roaming hub Aicent.
"A Next Generation Hotspot brings the Wi-Fi user experience on par with cellular in terms of seamless authentication and roaming. This demonstration, involving numerous service providers, represents a true industry milestone in the adoption of Hot Spot 2.0," said Bob Friday, CTO of enterprise mobility at Cisco.
The WBA said it expects public NGH deployments to continue throughout 2013 and beyond.
For more:
- see this WBA release
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