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[Q&A Series] Making Hotspot 2.0 Work in Carrier WiFi Deployment

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PCC Mobile Broadband's Exclusive Interview with Torbjorn Ward, CEO of Aptilo Networks on 'Making Hotspot 2.0 work in Carrier WiFi Deployment'

 

PCCMB: The Hotspot 2.0 is a strong impetus for the deployment of WiFi by the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) along with their 3G and 4GLTE networks. How will the standard influence the MNOs' overall network strategy, in particular, their network optimization and network expansion initiatives?

Torbjorn: First off, there are a number of things impacting the different strategies the mobile network operators are taking in terms of this. There are a number of different variables as well. One of them is the Access Points themselves. The first ones are already coming out on the market as we speak. They are what is called Passpoint Certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance which means that all new Access Points being deployed should be Passpoint Certified. I think most all new networks being deployed are using this. It will of course take some time to actually change out the existing Access Points, but some of the vendors may be able to do that with software.

Another aspect is the devices themselves, and that’s coming a little bit later than the Access Points, but we’re now seeing that, for instance, Apple is releasing iOS 7 support for this, and there are also devices such as those from Samsung and LG coming out onto the market. An important aspect to remember though is that the key necessity of seamless login, seamlessness and strong encryption and security features, actually are not requiring Hotspot 2.0. You can do that with SIM Authentication already before you have Hotspot 2.0 capabilities

Another key aspect is the fact that the Wi-Fi –only devices such as laptops and tablets are becoming more and more prevalent on the market and therefore more important. And, thanks to Hotspot 2.0, there are also ways to employ the same level of seamlessness and the same level of security using these devices.

Finally, we think that a critical strategy for the mobile network operators is the actual roaming and settlement. Hotspot 2.0 will facilitate roaming, and we believe that there will be a number of specialized companies doing roaming settlement and different partnerships but not only between operators, you can also imagine this will be between many different larger venue owners that can do brokerage toward the mobile network operators so that they can get access to a lot of the different networks.

PCCMB: The Hotspot 2.0 has been anticipated by players within the mobile broadband segment, especially with the advent of newer technologies in the last few years that enabled seamless integration of the cellular network with WiFi networks. With the Hotspot 2.0 already in place now, what have been some of the early responses from MNOs?

TorbjornYes, the Hotspot 2.0 is in place as a standard, though in terms of real commercial deployments using all the assets of the standard, it has not really been deployed in that many locations yet. But what we are seeing is that one of the cornerstones of Hotspot 2.0 is the seamless login, the fact that users do not have to interact to be automatically logged in to Wi-Fi, and specifically so in terms of smartphones and tablets that have a SIM card it’s also using the credentials of the SIM card. This has been in real commercial deployments for a number of years. We have seen this in about 15-20 different deployments, and the response has been fantastic in many of these different networks. We see that the take rate from the number of devices that can do SIM authentication is extremely high. We have seen mobile operators with as high as 90-95 percent of all their devices that can do SIM authentication actually do authenticate automatically into the Wi-Fi networks. This has also, of course, meant that the actual usage and the amount of data transported in the Wi-Fi network has been very, very high and it’s a very steep increase curve.

PCCMB: The Carrier WiFi segment has been on a cyclical trend, with factors such as quality, seamless integration and user experience playing a major role in the MNOs’ WiFi deployment decisions. We expect a huge boost for WiFi Offloading this year, precipitated not only by the new standard but also by a host of other changes in the market and technologies. What could be the other major push factors that are expected to contribute to MNOs’ renewed enthusiasm in Carrier WiFi deployments?

TorbjornWe see a number of different factors pushing their enthusiasm. I think one of the most important ones is a broader device support in general. There are more and more devices that are going to support this, specifically the SIM authentication that I mentioned previously.

Another aspect is the fact that there is a big installed base either of smartphones that do not support SIM authentication, or this great increasing trend of tablets and smartphones that may or may not support SIM authentication. If they don’t, and some of these are devices such as the tablets and laptops that don’t even have a SIM card, there are different ways now thanks to Hotspot 2.0 and thanks to a couple of different authentication methods, to actually secure and make that as seamless as SIM authentication. This means that mobile operators can actually take advantage of all these devices and connect those with their subscribers that are using the smartphones with the SIM authentication and the SIM cards in them.

Monetization is also a very important thing. We think that if you have installed a sufficient number of Access Points and been able to get a good Wi-Fi coverage out there then suddenly you are able to actually monetize this in a good way. This means that you’re able to bring up the ARPUs for a certain kind of subscriber or are able to bundle this with different kinds of services to actually bring some more money to it.

We can also see some mobile operators that have a very large amount of spectrum for LTE. They see a lack of LTE-capable devices, and what you can do with this is actually do a Wi-Fi onloading. You can create Wi-Fi hotspots using LTE as a backhaul for instance in public transportation, in buses, in trains and many other areas, and thereby you can create a lot of different Wi-Fi hotspots and make use of all these different devices that can use the new secure authentication methods and therefore get a larger base to monetize on.

PCCMB: With the standard in place and the growing interest in the market towards more WiFi deployments, MNOs will have to ensure their network readiness, addressing issues of compatibility and capabilities across their system components and also end-user devices. Could you share some details on how 3GPP Wi-Fi Access works in real installations and some of the key technical pre-requisites? What about devices without SIM Authentication capabilities? 

TorbjornWe can see from our pipeline that 2014 will be a very important year for 3GPP Wi-Fi access. This is the year where it really will take off. In terms of real deployments, again, the amount that has the full-fledged of the 3GPP Wi-Fi access is rather few, but one of the interesting aspects of the 3GPP Wi-Fi access is that not only does it make use of the seamless and automatic ways to actually login, but there are also very good and standardized ways to actually bring all of the users playing the data traffic back into the mobile core. A lot of mobile operators are interested in this because it means that they can streamline services completely for how the users see your service when they use a smartphone in the 3G network or in Wi-Fi. It also means the traffic is being concentrated so that they can sell sponsored content and other things like that since the data is hitting the internet from one and the same entry point.

Since there are a lot of devices (as the question is posed here) that do not support SIM authentication, there are some intelligent and very innovative ways that we have developed to make it work for mobile network operators. This entails a way to take the tablets and laptops and actually connect and bind them to the subscription tied to the smartphone and make the secure authentication in the Wi-Fi network, but then through some smarts that we have, go back into the mobile network operator’s backend system, find out the right parameters, and then actually make it look to the mobile network as if these devices have a SIM card. It means that the traffic and tunnels can then be set up and go into the packet core as if this device actually had a SIM card. It then means that a user can have 2-3 different devices and all the different data traffic will go into the mobile core in one coherent way.

PCCMB: With downward price pressures across the mobile industry, we see MNOs exploring new revenue strategies. As part of these strategies, MNOs are making inroads to the digital services segment, in particular the delivery of rich content such as Over-the-Top (OTT) video and social media applications. How will the technical enablement brought forward by Hotspot 2.0 impact the MNOs’ effort in these newer business segments?

TorbjornWe think that the OTT and a number of different applications are key for the operator to actually be able to get some more revenue streams, and the fact that Wi-Fi and Hotspot 2.0 are making the actual transition from 3G into Wi-Fi completely automatic is an important underlying factor for why you can do this in a good way. And with the addition of 3GPP Wi-Fi access, if you now also can bring all of the data traffic back into the mobile core, and you can actually process these over-the-top applications in one and exactly the same way, it does not matter if it’s voice, video or if it’s any other kind of media streaming, bringing the data traffic back is crucial because you can process all of these things paying for it, billing for it, charging for it exactly in the same way.

As an extension we see coming and probably not too far out in the future, we also see that Quality of Service control will be just as important into the Wi-Fi networks in itself. There are standards coming out now and thanks to solutions such as what Aptilo has we can actually bridge the Quality of Service requirements and the service profiles between the mobile network operator and the Wi-Fi network. This would mean that cable operators and mobile operators that want to make use of the OTT video solutions can actually ensure good quality also in Wi-Fi.

 PCCMB:  Looking at the recent wave of WiFi deployments across the global market, what will be the role of WiFi Offloading Solution Vendors in driving a truly heterogeneous network of the future?

Torbjorn:To begin with, we will continue to evolve in the direction and the trajectory that we have right now, to provide essentially a critical glue between the Wi-Fi networks and, either in terms of mobile operators their mobile core, and in terms of fixed-end cable operators their cable and fixed core.

We think that the seamless integration going forward in heterogeneous networks is going to be an even more important aspect. Once you have Wi-Fi networks in abundance it also means there will be a lot of different Wi-Fi network owners, and that means that roaming is going to be very crucial, so the offloading solution vantage will continue to make a lot of dynamically, policy-based roaming decisions and facilitate that, partly thanks to Hotspot 2.0.  

There are also a lot of people that may think that everything will be completely seamless in terms of the user never seeing a difference when they go into a Wi-Fi network. But even though the login is seamless, when it comes to deploying Wi-Fi networks, many of these operators have to have an interesting menu, an interesting, palatable offering and value proposition to the venue owners. And in terms of many venue owners, they want to present to the users that they now are in a Wi-Fi network provided by this hotel or this stadium, or this coffee shop or this retail location, or this enterprise. This means that if you, for instance, are at the stadium, and there is additional video content available for you, you have to convey that to the users. So the different B2B services and the different portal interactions with the users are going to be just as important in the future, if not even more important, once you have overcome the hurdle of actually logging people in automatically.

Last modified on Thursday, 27 February 2020 05:36
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Ray is a news editor at The Fast Mode, bringing with him more than 10 years of experience in the wireless industry.

For tips and feedback, email Ray at ray.sharma(at)thefastmode.com, or reach him on LinkedIn @raysharma10, Facebook @1RaySharma

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