The WiFi industry has been awash with excitement and anticipation around what Hotspot2.0/Passpoint from Wi-Fi Alliance and Next generation Hotspot from the Wireless Broadband Alliance. That has taken a massive leap forward with the (unannounced) inclusion in iOS 7.
From a user of WiFi Hotspots the difference will be stark and very welcome. The current process of searching for SSID’s, selecting them and often not knowing what’s on the other side along with having to open your browser to get to the splash page is cumbersome and many end users don’t know how to do this. With Hotspot 2.0 if you have a subscription whether with your mobile, broadband or other provider and they have a roaming agreement with a Hotspot operator then your device will automatically connect and authenticate without any user intervention.
If you don’t have a subscription or roaming agreement with a reachable Hotspot then you will be able to see what the Hotspot offers, such as pay to play, social login or registration and will also know whether it is oversubscribed, internet connection not present etc so you or your phone can make intelligent decisions before making a connection.
The Purple WiFi system has been built to support these emerging standards and I very much look forward to seeing this become a widespread technology.