
Passpoint WiFi tech promises cellphone-like handoff between hotspots - iProject
http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/05/passpoint-wifi-tech-promises-cellphone-like-handoff-between-hotspots.ars
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yxhuvud
TeliaSonera already offload automatically to their own wifi whereever it is
possible and the mobile client supports it (mostly meaning it will offload
iPhones as the support from Android phones isn't very good yet).

Nice to see things happening but the main problem to solve is not the end user
equipment this article talks about, but rather operator systems (systems that
could handle this and scale for the increased traffic is not something many
operators have).

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kaze
>Nice to see things happening but the main problem to solve is >not the end
user equipment this article talks about, but >rather operator systems (systems
that could handle this and >scale for the increased traffic is not something
many >operators have).

Overall, Passpoint can help decrease cellular traffic and redirect it over
fixed lines via Wi-Fi. So IMHO it might be attractive to operators.

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yxhuvud
You are missing the point. The point is that there is a need for
infrastructure on the operator side to handle the incoming requests from
Passpoint. There are already other solutions that allow operators to do mobile
offloading over wifi over regular wifi access points.

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conradfr
EAP-SIM is deployed on the Free network in France.

Pros: \- It bypasses your monthly fair-use quota \- Offers a higher bandwidth.

Cons: \- You need to leave your WiFi on, which drains battery. \- Support on
Android is very poor.

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foxhill
not a real expert on the situation with wifi, but isn't this what an ESS
network is supposed to achieve with wifi?

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kaze
Without going too deep into the technical details:

An ESS network is most often under a single organization (say, the IT
department of a large Hotel). The Wi-Fi credential combination required by a
user to roam across the different Access Points in the ESS is the same.

But what about when you leave hotel premises and go to the airport? Manual
intervention is often required by you, especially if you are going to that
airport for the first time and have not yet purchased a plan there. With
Passpoint, the hotels in the city, the airport etc could all be participating
in a common program. Sign up once, use anywhere. With passpoint software, your
device has a _standardized_ way to avail of such facilities.

The ESS architecture does not handle such possibilities - it operates at a
much lower level. Higher level handshaking is required to enable this, and in
a standards defined manner so that it works everywhere.

