THE WIRELESS BROADBAND ALLIANCE BOOSTS ROAMING UNIFORMITY WITH NEW INTEROPERABILITY COMPLIANCE CATEGORY
New ICP Tier – Premier-Plus Carrier Wi-Fi Category is Next Step Towards Wireless Unification
London, UK: 14 May 2015: The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), the industry association focused on driving the next generation Wi-Fi experience, today announced the launch of Premier-Plus Carrier Wi-Fi category, a new tier in its Interoperability Compliance Program (ICP) designed to accelerate the deployment and simplify the management of Wi-Fi roaming agreements. The new category applies to operators who support the requirements for Carrier Wi-Fi which delivers robust security, exceptional quality of service and excellent customer support for a carrier- grade user experience.
The ICP program promotes and advocates the adoption of a common set of requirements and procedures needed for the effective management of Wi-Fi roaming agreements. Following these requirements makes it easier for operators to understand how to integrate their networks to support roaming and manage their roaming agreements.
The Premier Tier is for Wi-Fi operators that support the latest in session security and encryption to support the most sophisticated roaming agreements and technical approaches. The Premier Plus Tier incorporates the best recommendations for CWLAN (Carrier Wi-Fi). It also improves communication when setting up new roaming relationships, expands the use of the TED (Technical Exchange Document), promotes uniformity and enables consistent operator roaming agreements under the ICP framework.
As a result of the success of the ICP, the WBA has created a set of compliance guidelines, which offer different support levels to operators based on their network capabilities. These levels range from simple integration requirements for roaming partners, to delivering support for the latest in session security, to more complex charging models and billing mechanisms required for the implementation of Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) networks.
“The WBA’s Interoperability Compliancy Program (ICP) initiative has always been focused on streamlining the way our members accelerate their Wi-Fi roaming deployments. This new advancement in the program builds on the existing WRIX framework for Wi-Fi roaming to support a more robust set of carrier-grade best practices between potential partners.” said Shrikant Shenwai, CEO of the WBA.
Other benefits to operators participating in the WBA Interoperability Compliance Program include:
· Increased return on Wi-Fi investments
– Identification of more potential Wi-Fi partnerships
· Rapid and more cost effective integrations
· Lower OPEX costs
– Prioritize agreement efforts based on a compatibility match
– Faster exchange of technical data
– Use of industry standards resulting in lower engineering costs
ICP will be a key area discussed at the Wi-Fi Global Congress. For further details and to register your interest, please visit: www.wballiance.com/wi-fi-global-congress-london-2015
About the Wireless Broadband Alliance
Founded in 2003, the aim of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) is to secure an outstanding user experience through the global deployment of next generation Wi-Fi. In order to make this a reality, the WBA is currently championing various initiatives in the Wi-Fi ecosystem including Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) trials, Wi-Fi Roaming and its Interoperability Compliance Program (ICP). Today, membership includes major fixed operators such as BT, Comcast and Time Warner Cable; seven of the top 10 mobile operator groups (by revenue) and leading technology companies such as Cisco, Microsoft, Huawei Technologies, Google and Intel. WBA member operators collectively serve more than 1 billion subscribers and operate more than 10 million hotspots globally. The WBA Board includes Arqiva, AT&T, Boingo Wireless, BT, Cisco Systems, Comcast, iPass, KT Corporation, NTT DOCOMO, Orange and Ruckus Wireless.
For more information, please visit www.wballiance.com or follow the WBA on Twitter: @wballiance
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