operational efficiency.

The WBA, the global industry body dedicated to driving the seamless and interoperable service experience of Wi-Fi across the global wireless ecosystem, aims to enhance Wi-Fi connectivity in moving scenarios—buses, trains, planes, and ships—ensuring reliability for daily commutes and travel.

“The challenges of delivering reliable and secure Wi-Fi on moving networks, are greater than fixed networks,” said Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance in a statement released with the report. “This paper demonstrates how existing Wi-Fi standards can enhance these networks, engage more users and revolutionize the experience.”

Moving Networks

The traditional focus of Wi-Fi operations has been on fixed locations with reliable and guaranteed connections, such as homes or offices, according to the report. While this has meant that connected lives in these locations have been enhanced, there are Wi-Fi networks sitting outside the “fixed location bubble” being largely an afterthought if present at all—specifically networks in places like on-the-go or moving scenarios.

Moving networks are comprised of every day environments: commuting to work, traveling to see friends or family, going on holiday, or getting between meetings or appointments. Expectations dictate that Wi-Fi should be offered here too, and moving network operators have duly obliged, although due to the lack of focus from the wider industry, the experience is not as optimized as it could and should be.

“Our vision is to create a seamless and interoperable service experience of Wi-Fi across the wireless ecosystem, that spans both fixed and moving networks,” said Rodrigues.

Passpoint Emphasis

The paper emphasizes the importance of focusing on specific use cases to address challenges in different moving environments, from connecting passengers to dealing with time zone changes or maintaining engagement without backhaul.

WBA examined a multiplicity of user journey flows that contemplate multiples scenarios, from accessing local content (or not) with the venue owner profile installed, facing network disruption, and more. The association believes these scenarios are critical for ensuring passengers can be connected to the Wi-Fi, can remain connected even without backhaul connectivity and monetization, upgrade and user engagement capabilities are allowed.

The utilization of Passpoint is key to achieving all of these, according to officials. It enables a frictionless association and connection which encourages engagement and use. This is how users want to access and use Wi-Fi, cellular or any connectivity in general, and it is no different on moving networks.