OpenRoaming: Seamless, Secure Public Wi-Fi Onboarding At-a-Glance
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● Simplify Wi-Fi guest access for your customers on site
● Significantly increase your Wi-Fi attach rate on site
● Increase security for Wi-Fi guest access
● Provide a better user experience in your venue by providing seamless connectivity to Wi-Fi and seamless roaming between Wi-Fi and LTE/5G
● Take back ownership of your customers’ data through Wi-Fi, and get more valuable analytics
● Better engage with your customers through Wi-Fi, Cisco Spaces, and your loyalty app
● Offload traffic from cellular to Wi-Fi, reducing operational expenses
Get connected anywhere, seamlessly and securely
Everywhere we go, we expect to be online. Whether we are in an airport, a coffee shop, a retail store, or a hotel, we need to get online fast and stay connected. However, this process is often tiresome. We get bombarded with multiple SSIDs, are presented with poorly designed captive portals, or are required to enter an insecure shared username and password. These annoyances often force us to stay on cellular and use up our precious data or to have no coverage at all. This is where OpenRoaming comes in.
OpenRoaming provides mobile users with frictionless Wi-Fi onboarding by linking together access providers (such as public venues, retailers, airports, and large enterprises) and identity providers (such as service provider carriers, devices, and cloud providers). Users need to sign on only once with a trusted identity provider. Afterward they will be automatically connected to OpenRoaming networks whenever and wherever one is available.
Find connected access networks on a global scale
Leveraging the technology behind Hotspot 2.0 and the global, unprecedented reach of Cisco’s network, OpenRoaming will allow any customer to roam seamlessly and securely, across cellular and Wi-Fi networks. The OpenRoaming Federation is made up of identity providers including device manufacturers, cloud providers, and Wi-Fi access providers such as retailers, hotels, and large venues to enable customers to connect automatically. This Wi-Fi connection will be secured using industry-standard Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) protocols and encrypted authentication. Every network that users connect to will be vetted by Cisco to help ensure that they are receiving the best, and most trusted, connection possible.
You want to offer your customers the added value of fast, secure, and reliable connectivity. OpenRoaming helps ensure seamless onboarding from cellular LTE and 5G to Wi-Fi and enables users to share their experiences, be better informed, and remain connected, improving their experience while increasing your Wi-Fi attachment rates. When combined with Cisco Spaces, OpenRoaming provides actionable insights into user behavior and location to create a more meaningful experience for your guests.
Our identities are tied to hardware, services, and other areas of our lives, such as loyalty programs. For identity providers, OpenRoaming leverages a user’s unique identity to automatically onboard and connect them from cellular LTE/5G to a participating OpenRoaming network. This can create value for your customers and end users, increase stickiness on your platform, and drive innovation by enabling you to choose the user path and handoff while extending your overall footprint.
The service is completely secure and fast, and users never have to guess which Wi-Fi network to use or suffer through a pop-up captive portal again. They can stay connected wherever they go and download, stream, video chat, and game to their heart’s desire.
In today’s environment, consumers expect to stay connected to the services they’ve become accustomed to. Cellular LTE and 5G services cannot cover every location, especially when those locations are indoors, far from cell towers, or have other obstacles that make them less than optimal for cellular connections. OpenRoaming was developed to offset these challenges and keep users connected. It leverages proven Hotspot 2.0 standards, so it works across all devices, no matter the vendor. Additionally, because roaming to Wi-Fi is significantly more cost-effective than cellular roaming, OpenRoaming provides value through reduced operating expenses.
How to enable OpenRoaming in your network
OpenRoaming leverages the connector and authentication engine in Cisco Spaces. If you’re a Cisco Spaces customer, you already have OpenRoaming available. All you need to do is set up your parameters via the wizard. Once signed up, your network will automatically configure and attach to the OpenRoaming Federation.
Minimum requirements: Cisco Spaces and a Cisco or Meraki wireless network.