Time Warner Cable and Boingo are laying claim to being the first companies in the world to launch a reciprocal Passpoint-based roaming network for their customers.
The two companies announced a bilateral Wi-Fi roaming deal back in June and also said then that they would complete a Passpoint-enabled integration later this year to allow users to connect seamlessly and securely with their Passpoint-certified devices and account credentials.
“Passpoint technology provides significant value to our customers. Our Passpoint roaming integration with Boingo will keep our users connected to this advanced technology during their travels, helping us provide maximum wireless security to our TWC Internet consumers when they’re surfing the Internet out of home,” said Rob Cerbone, vice president of wireless product management for Time Warner Cable.
While Hotspot is the technical specification that the WiFi Alliance uses for hardware, Passpoint is the certification process to that is needed to make sure the hardware is Hotspot 2.0 compliant. Hotspot 2.0 brings cellular like capabilities to Wi-Fi users by enabling them to log in one time instead of entering their passwords at every access point when they come in range.
“The biggest part on that Passpoint roaming integration is getting a backend radius authentication integration in place,” said Boingo Wireless’ Christian Gunning, vice president, corporate communications, in a previous interview with CED. “So our radius servers see their radius servers, and when one of their customers puts in their user name and password, we can identify them as Time Warner Cable customer. We pass those credentials off to Time Warner and Time Warner validates them or declines them. Then we take the appropriate action based on what they say.”
With today’s announcement that the integration of was completed, qualified Time Warner Cable data customers and Boingo subscribers can seamlessly connect to secure Wi-Fi networks at thousands of locations across the nation, including 25 of the highest traffic airports in the U.S. that are served by Boingo.
Boingo customers can now log onto Passpoint-enabled Time Warner Cable hotspots in cities such as New York, Austin and Kansas City, with Passpoint roaming to follow in additional Time Warner Cable service areas, including Los Angeles and Charlotte. The earlier roaming agreement gave Boingo’s subscribers access to the more than 60,000 Time Warner Cable access points across the nation.
Via downloads, Time Warner Cable and Boingo customers will have to create new Passpoint-based profiles on their iOS devices.
“The launch of reciprocal Passpoint roaming in the U.S. marks a significant milestone for the wireless industry, but more importantly it makes the best possible WiFi connectivity experience available to even more customers in key locations throughout the U.S.,” said Dr. Derek Peterson, Boingo Wireless Chief Technology Officer. “Our partnership with TWC gives our customers truly widespread access to simple, seamless and secure WiFi in key markets nationwide.”
TWC and Boingo’s Passpoint-enabled hotspots feature WPA2 enterprise-grade encryption technology. Both companies are members of the Wireless Broadband Alliance, and have been active participants in Passpoint standards development and Next Generation Hotspot trials.
