The Wi-Fi Alliance and the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) joined forces to tackle Wi-Fi hotspot roaming and authentication.
The WBA's inter-operator Wi-Fi roaming efforts and the Wi-Fi Alliance's planned certification program for Wi-Fi equipment will now be combined and developed by the two groups. The Wi-Fi Alliance has been working on a Wi-Fi Certified hotspot program to ensure that Wi-Fi devices can easily connect to hotspots in a security-protected, interoperable way by defining technologies and certification requirements for both Wi-Fi infrastructure devices as well as endpoints such handsets, tablets and notebooks. The alliance plans to introduce the certification program in the middle of 2012.
Meanwhile, the WBA has been developing a next-generation hotspot program that defines interoperability requirements for hotspot and 3G and 4G operators.
The two groups said they will coordinate their testing methods and models and share information about the specifications and technologies to ensure the programs are aligned. Members of both groups also will collaborate on the brand identity for hotspots that feature their certified solutions.
For more:
- see this cellular-news article
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