Dublin trials Wi-Fi foundation for smart city

The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) has announced the successful completion of proof-of-concept trialling of its OpenRoaming technology in Ireland’s capital, Dublin.

The technology enables residents and visitors to log in once only and maintain a seamless connection across multiple public Wi-Fi hotspots as they move across the city. It was initially deployed at three points and is now scheduled for city-wide rollout at 150 points.

WBA OpenRoaming is designed to free users from constant re-registering and multiple logins, while maintaining enterprise-grade security and privacy.

The trial was initiated by Dublin City Council’s Smart Dublin program with participation from CommScope. The successful trial is a key milestone in achieving Dublin’s smart city goals, which are as follows:

• Providing communities, residents and businesses with seamless access to services online, as well as high-quality connectivity.
• Giving tourists and other visitors free, secure, high-performance Wi-Fi access. Once they arrive and log on to an OpenRoaming-enabled hotspot, their device is automatically authenticated for use every time it switches to another OpenRoaming-enabled hotspot. This convenience makes it easier for them to find what they need, such as restaurant recommendations, transit schedules, directions and more.
   

This seamless, secure experience ensures residents and visitors have the broadband connectivity they need for interactive immersive learning, research, hybrid study and more.

Tiago Rodreigues, CEO of WBA, says Wi-Fi is the basis from which to build a smart city.

“Wi-Fi is the foundation for smart cities. 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 Wi-Fi connectivity,” he said.

According to Jamie Cudden, Smart City Lead for the City of Dublin, the trial takes the city a step closer to realising its digital transformation aspirations.

“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,” he said.

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