Global Wi-Fi initiative Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) has announced it has completed a successful proof of concept trial for its OpenRoaming high-performance public WiFi in Dublin.
Initially deployed at Barnardo Square on Dame Street and Dublin City Council's amphitheatre on Wood Quay, OpenRoaming allows residents and visitors to log in once and maintain connectivity as they move around and switch between different hotspots.
WBA, whose board includes representatives from AT&T, BT, Comcast, Deutsche Telekom, Google and Intel, said the success of the trial would pave the way for a larger city-wide deployment, with OpenRoaming set to be rolled out on over 150 access points across the city.
"WiFi is the foundation for smart cities," said Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of the WBA. "This successful proof-of-concept trial shows that that the City of Dublin and its residents, businesses and visitors all can depend on the WBA OpenRoaming standard to ensure that they always have convenient access to seamless, secure, carrier-grade WiFi connectivity.”
OpenRoaming is already available at over 1m hotspots worldwide, and the WBA OpenRoaming standard also allows enterprises, device manufacturers and service providers to guaranteed a carrier-grade experience to users with high efficiency WiFi 6 and 6E.
In Association with
The Dublin trial was initiated as part of Dublin City Council's Smart Dublin programme and supported by the WBA and Virgin Media, with participation from fibre optic cable maker CommScope.
SmartDublin has a number of goals, including to provide communities, residents and businesses with seamless access to services online and high-quality connectivity; giving tourists and other visitors free, secure, high-performance Wi-Fi access, and broadband connectivity enough for interactive immersive learning, research, hybrid study and more.
Jamie Cudden, Smart City Lead for the City of Dublin, said: “Dublin is at the forefront of a digital transformation that is serving as a model for other municipalities across Ireland and the world.
"Collaborations like this are key to the delivery of convenient, reliable and ubiquitous connectivity which is critical for achieving our smart city goals such as closing the digital divide and ensuring that government is responsive to the needs of citizens and businesses. This successful trial of WBA OpenRoaming is a milestone toward achieving all those goals.”
Bart Giordano, senior vice president of Ruckus Networks at CommScope, added: "As a founding partner in the OpenRoaming framework, we are pleased to announce with the WBA the successful launch of the OpenRoaming initiative and network for the City of Dublin.
"The core elements of OpenRoaming are in line with those of the Ruckus Network portfolio: cloud federation, cybersecurity, policy and automation. We look forward to expanding the City of Dublin’s network and capabilities and supporting OpenRoaming deployments worldwide. "
Aidan Darcy, vice president of business and wholesale at Virgin Media Ireland, said it was "fantastic" to be working with Dublin City Council on the initiative, which was able to offer "cutting-edge broadband speeds and an exceptional WiFi experience for residents and tourists availing of the new Dublin City WiFi Zones.
"We’re passionate about connecting communities and, with this new initiative, we really feel we’ll be creating connections for good.”
(Pic: Getty Images)
