Enabling Dublin’s smart city vision with seamless and secure WiFi

It has recently been confirmed that the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) and City of Dublin have partnered on a successful proof-of-concept trial of OpenRoaming in Dublin, Ireland.

Initially deployed at Bernardo Square, Dame Street and the City Council’s Amphitheatre, WBA OpenRoaming enables residents and visitors to log in only once and then maintain seamless connectivity as their smartphones, tablets and other WiFi devices automatically switch between different public WiFi hotspots.

The success of the trial will pave the way for a larger city-wide deployment.

Dublin is a high growth city. It currently has a population in the Greater Dublin Area of around 2.02 million and is anticipated to grow to 2.2 million by 2031. It houses 30% of the country’s working population and attracts over 6.6 million overseas visitors a year. It is anticipated that OpenRoaming will be initially rolled out on over 150 AP’s across Dublin city.

Now available at over one million hotspots worldwide, WBA OpenRoaming frees users from the need to constantly re-register or re-enter log-in credentials — all while maintaining enterprise-grade security and privacy.

The WBA OpenRoaming standard also enables enterprises, device OEMs, service providers and others to provide performance guarantees and — with WiFi 6 and 6E— a carrier-grade experience as users roam between different public WiFi venues.

“At the forefront of a digital transformation”

The trial, initiated by Dublin City Council’s Smart Dublin programme and supported by the WBA and Virgin Media, also involved participation from CommScope and represents a key milestone towards achieving Dublin’s smart city goals.

Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance, said: “WiFi is the foundation for smart cities. This successful proof-of-concept trial shows that that the City of Dublin and its residents, businesses and visitors all can depend on the WBA OpenRoaming standard to ensure that they always have convenient access to seamless, secure, carrier-grade WiFi connectivity.”

Jamie Cudden, Smart City Lead for the City of Dublin, added: “Dublin is at the forefront of a digital transformation that is serving as a model for other municipalities across Ireland and the world.

“Collaborations like this are key to the delivery of convenient, reliable and ubiquitous connectivity which is critical for achieving our smart city goals such as closing the digital divide and ensuring that government is responsive to the needs of citizens and businesses.

“This successful trial of WBA OpenRoaming is a milestone toward achieving all those goals.”