Finding Wi-Fi Hot Spots is Going to Get Easier
Posted by aonenetworks On April 18, 2012
Connecting to the internet with your smartphone and tablet may become easier in upcoming years thanks to the GSM Association and the Wireless Broadband Alliance.
The two companies, which represent the majority of global mobile carriers, have partnered up in recent days. They claim to be bringing a simplified way in which wi-fi enabled devices connect to the internet. Because of the massive amount of smartphones and tablets that have started to come into use across the globe and the massive amount of data that is consumed by people on a daily basis, there has been a push to make the internet more convenient and accessible in an every day fashion.
“Through combining the proven capabilities of Mobile Broadband and Wi-Fi technologies, users will have the freedom to move between networks with ease,” says Dan Warren, senior director of technology at GSMA.
Currently, the system in place to connect to Wi-Fi spots is clumsy and time consuming. From verifying new settings to having to find the right hot spot on a massive list of local routers, it can be downright frustrating trying to log onto the Web to get necessary information. The option propose by the GSMA and WBA – which will be based on the organizations’ Passpoint certification and Next Generation HotSpot technologies, respectively – will “enable mobile operators to uniquely and securely identify users whether there are on a mobile or a Wi-Fi network,” by using the unique SIM card every piece of Wi-Fi enabled piece of technology has.
“This will make using Wi-Fi as easy as when you arrive in another country and turn on your phone, and your phone automatically discovers a new network for you to use,” Neils Jonker, chief technology officer of Boingo, a company that sells consumer Wi-Fi service said about the new idea for easier connection to WiFi. “Subscribers don’t really need to know nor do they care what network they’re on. They just want it to work.”
Mobile networks are buckling under the incredible amount of data use that goes on every day, and have begun to boost prices and put caps on even unlimited data plans. This new initiative will help by taking out the barriers to Wi-Fi spots, allowing the wireless phone industry a little breathing room to keep up with the demand for data.
Hopefully with the relief to the mobile phone companies and the widening of available Wi-Fi, the expected 12 million mobile connections expected by 2022 will not require data capping and time restrictions.
