Industry | Telecommunications |
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Founded | 2003 |
Website | www |
Founded in 2003, the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) undertakes programs and activities to address business and technical issues, as well as opportunities, for member companies. WBA work areas include standards development, industry guidelines, trials, certification and advocacy. Its key programs include Next Gen Wi-Fi, OpenRoaming, 5G, IoT, Testing & Interoperability, and Policy & Regulatory Affairs, with member-led Work Groups dedicated to resolving standards and technical issues. [1]
WBA’s membership [2] includes major operators, service providers & industry players and other major companies from around the world.
WBA Board has 13 representatives from operators and non-operators groups, and is elected bi- annually. JR Wilson, Vice President, Tower Strategy and Roaming, AT&T Services, Inc, was re-elected WBA Chairman in January 2020 to a two-year term.
WBA’s members are major operators, identity providers and leading technology companies across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision.
The WBA works with the Wi-Fi Alliance [3] to promote ease of use on and roaming between wireless hotspots. [4]
The WBA also has ongoing partnerships with the following organizations:
Wireless community networks or wireless community projects or simply community networks, are non-centralized, self-managed and collaborative networks organized in a grassroots fashion by communities, non-governmental organizations and cooperatives in order to provide a viable alternative to municipal wireless networks for consumers.
A wireless Internet service provider (WISP) is an Internet service provider with a network based on wireless networking. Technology may include commonplace Wi-Fi wireless mesh networking, or proprietary equipment designed to operate over open 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 4.9, 5, 24, and 60 GHz bands or licensed frequencies in the UHF band, LMDS, and other bands from 6 GHz to 80 GHz.
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a family of wireless broadband communication standards based on the IEEE 802.16 set of standards, which provide physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) options.
The Wi-Fi Alliance is a non-profit organization that owns the Wi-Fi trademark. Manufacturers may use the trademark to brand products certified for Wi-Fi interoperability. It is based in Austin, Texas.
A hotspot is a physical location where people can obtain Internet access, typically using Wi-Fi technology, via a wireless local-area network (WLAN) using a router connected to an Internet service provider.
WiBro is a wireless broadband Internet technology developed by the South Korean telecoms industry. WiBro is the South Korean service name for IEEE 802.16e international standard. By the end of 2012, the Korean Communications Commission intends to increase WiBro broadband connection speeds to 10Mbit/s, around ten times the 2009 speed, which will complement their 1Gbit/s fibre-optic network. The WiBro networks were shut down at the end of 2018.
Fon Wireless Ltd. is a for-profit company incorporated and registered in the United Kingdom that provides wireless services. Fon was founded in Madrid, Spain, in 2006, by Martín Varsavsky where it headquarters most of its operations.
IEEE 802.11u-2011 is an amendment to the IEEE 802.11-2007 standard to add features that improve interworking with external networks.
WISPr or Wireless Internet Service Provider roaming is a draft protocol submitted to the Wi-Fi Alliance that allows users to roam between wireless internet service providers in a fashion similar to that which allows cellphone users to roam between carriers. A RADIUS server is used to authenticate the subscriber's credentials.
Alvarion Technologies is a global provider of autonomous Wi-Fi networks designed with self-organizing capabilities for carrier-grade Wi-Fi, enterprise connectivity, smart city planning, smart hospitality, connected campuses, and connected events.
Boingo Wireless is an American company that designs, builds and manages wireless networks. Its public and private networks include distributed antenna systems (DAS), small cells, macro towers and more than one million Wi-Fi hotspots around the world. The company operates networks for airports, transit stations, stadiums, military bases, hospitals and commercial properties. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with additional offices in London, New York City, and Oak Brook, Illinois. The company was listed on the Nasdaq until it was acquired by investment firm Digital Colony Management LLC in 2021.
Wireless@SG is a wireless broadband programme developed by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore as part of its Next Generation National Infocomm Infrastructure initiative, being part of the nation's 10-year masterplan called Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015).
MiFi is a brand name to describe a wireless router that acts as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot.
Towerstream Corporation is a Fixed Wireless Fiber Alternative company delivering high-speed Internet access to businesses. The company offers broadband services in 12 urban markets including New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay area, Miami, Seattle, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Las Vegas-Reno, and the greater Providence area, where the company is headquartered. In 2014, Towerstream launched its On-Net fixed-wireless service offering On-Net building tenants access to dedicated, symmetrical high-speed Internet connectivity, with a premier SLA, at market-setting prices. Founded in 1999 by Philip Urso and Jeffrey Thompson (eFortress), Towerstream held its first public offering in January 2007 and traded on the NASDAQ Capital Markets under symbol TWER. In November 2016 the stock had declined in price, was delisted from NASDAQ, and moved to the over-the-counter market.
Aptilo Networks is a company headquartered in Stockholm Sweden, which produces and markets software to manage mobile data and Wi-Fi services for 3G, LTE, WiMAX, Wi-Fi and fixed broadband networks, including for mobile data offloading using Wi-Fi. Aptilo's service management platform controls billing, user services and access within the network. The company offers service management and policy control for both telephony network operators and Internet service providers.
The Cloud is a provider of public access Wi-Fi hotspots in the United Kingdom and is a member of the Wireless Broadband Alliance. It has over 22,000 Wi-Fi hotspots network access points in the UK.
BharatNet, also known as Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), is a central public sector undertaking, set up by the Department of Telecommunications, a department under Ministry of Communications of the Government of India for the establishment, management, and operation of the National Optical Fibre Network to provide a minimum of 100 Mbit/s broadband connectivity to all 250,000-gram panchayats in the country, covering nearly 625,000 villages, by improving the middle layer of nation-wide broadband internet in India to achieve the goal of Digital India.
Tep Wireless, branded as Tep, is a telecommunications company which provides mobile broadband for international travelers. The aim of the service is to prevent roaming fees for individuals going abroad, while keeping them connected to the Internet anywhere they go. The service is rendered via pre-paid MiFi devices, which are delivered to users before their trip or picked up at various airports. At the end of the user's trip, the MiFi device is returned by post or dropped off at airports. Tep delivers its mobile broadband service through partnerships with global network operators, including Vodafone. The WiFi device can be ordered on the company's website, or those of Expedia or VisitBritain.DHI Telecom acquired Tep Wireless in October 2018 and continues to operate as a subsidiary.
LTE in unlicensed spectrum is an extension of the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) wireless standard that allows cellular network operators to offload some of their data traffic by accessing the unlicensed 5 GHz frequency band. LTE-Unlicensed is a proposal, originally developed by Qualcomm, for the use of the 4G LTE radio communications technology in unlicensed spectrum, such as the 5 GHz band used by 802.11a and 802.11ac compliant Wi-Fi equipment. It would serve as an alternative to carrier-owned Wi-Fi hotspots. Currently, there are a number of variants of LTE operation in the unlicensed band, namely LTE-U, License Assisted Access (LAA), and MulteFire.
Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) is a 150 MHz wide broadcast band of the 3.5 GHz band in the United States. In 2017, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) completed a process which began in 2012 to establish rules for commercial use of this band, while reserving parts of the band for the US Federal Government to limit interference with US Navy radar systems and aircraft communications.