PR releases

High-speed wireless broadband to any handheld device

WBA and FMCA come together to drive an enhanced roaming experience for customers.

London/Rio de Janeiro – 12 March 2008 -- The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) and the Fixed Mobile Convergence Alliance (FMCA) have signed a formal liaison agreement that aims to deliver a richer roaming experience for customers by enabling their choice of dual-mode handhelds and electronic gadgets to be automatically authenticated onto wireless broadband networks around the world. This will pave the way for driving innovation and co-operation in wireless broadband roaming amongst some of the world’s leading Service Providers.

With a combined membership base of 39 leading Service Providers, representing over 800 million customers around the world, the WBA and FMCA members represent many of the leading telecoms operators around the world. The agreement between the WBA and FMCA builds on the wide-spread availability of wireless broadband enabled, dual-mode handhelds and electronic gadgets and end-users’ growing demand for greater service interoperability, convenience and performance. The WBA brings expertise in developing and implementing common frameworks and consistent customer experience across operators and a proven track-record in commercial implementation of wireless broadband roaming globally which complements the FMCA’s strengths in convergence development focusing on interoperability and ease of use requirements to drive industry roadmaps and ensure products and services meet end users’ convergence needs.

"WBA is delighted to have signed this liaison agreement with the FMCA. By working together we will be able to provide our customers with a better experience not just in their home networks, but also in a roaming environment," said Prateek Pashine, Chairman of the WBA. "One of our initial focus areas will be seamless authentication and roaming across multiple devices and networks for global Wi-Fi roaming."

Wi-Fi has now moved beyond just the lap-top and with the rapid take-up of dual-mode devices, authentication methods requiring less user effort must be developed in order to offer the user a simpler connection experience.

Experts from the two organizations have already started working together on a WBA collaboration project to support Dual-Mode/EAP-SIM roaming. This project addresses user experience with dual mode devices and also includes plans to undertake inter-operator assessments of vendor products as well as joint trials second half of 2008. The trials will be conducted over the WBA’s WRIX (Wireless Roaming Intermediary Exchange), a modularized standard service specification that won the Wireless Broadband Innovation 2007 award in the Best Wi-Fi Product / Service segment.

"This is an important milestone for the whole wireless industry and demonstrates that Service Providers are working together towards a common goal for our customers - greater interworking between products and ease of use. The implementation of seamless authentication and roaming models that will support innovative new services and applications will be a major step towards this goal. Working with the WBA, we will drive a common message which will further enhance industry alignment and speed up adoption of exciting new convergent products and services" said Steve Andrews, Chairman of the FMCA.

About the Wireless Broadband Alliance
Formed in March 2003, the Wireless Broadband Alliance was created to drive the adoption of wireless broadband technologies and services around the world by developing a common commercial, technical and marketing framework for wireless network interoperability.

Its goal is to develop a global alliance of wireless providers that can truly deliver services that users can trust. It aims to provide a consistent customer experience and reliability for wireless broadband users worldwide. To facilitate commercial roaming implementations between its member operators, the alliance has developed WRIX (Wireless Roaming Intermediary Exchange), a modularized standard service specification that won the Wireless Broadband Innovation 2007 award in the Best Wi-Fi Product / Service segment.

The Wireless Broadband Alliance is formed by pioneers in the wireless broadband field, encompassing major players in the telecommunications field. Collectively, the Wireless Broadband Alliance operates over 60,000 wireless hotspots across 26 service providers around the world.

For more information, please visit www.wirelessbroadbandalliance.com.