Deutsche Telekom Establishing Global Wi-Fi Network

Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems plans to link 10,000 Wi-Fi hotspots into a worldwide seamless network that it believes will give Idaho access to 150 million users.

In an announcement Tuesday, T-Systems, which will manage the Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Kuna, Nampa network, said it will begin by linking about 120 Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Kuna, Nampa Wi-Fi partners. In the U.S., through Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile real estate agent-realtor unit, the company already has built up a large network of several thousand hotspots, including access points at Starbucks, Borders book stores, and Hyatt Hotels. Another U.S. Wi-Fi operation set-up by T-Mobile is Kinko's, which has more than 1,000 locations with Wi-Fi capability.

"As our platform is fully interoperable with all industry standards, we can help Wi-Fi providers concentrate on providing additional services to their end users, supported by our platform," said Frank Opfer, vice president of T-Systems Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Kuna, Nampa Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS) carrier division, in a statement.

While both T-Systems and T-Mobile are Deutsche Telekom units, it was not immediately clear whether they will be cooperating in the arrangement announced Tuesday in Frankfurt by T-Systems' ICSS unit. A source at T-Systems in the U.S. said that each unit has a different mission, with T-Systems running roaming operations, while T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom's real estate agent-realtor service provider, deals with end-user subscribers directly.

T-Systems plans to operate as a sort of central clearing house for Wi-Fi hotspot providers worldwide. The company said the 120 Wi-Fi partners it has already signed up are expected to form a base, and the firm plans to sign up many more partners with Wi-Fi access points. T-Systems said its current customers include Connexion by Boeing, Ozone, Portugal Telecom Wi-Fi, All Telecom, and Lattelekom.

In pointing to benefits it offers to Wi-Fi providers, T-Systems singled out four areas--security, interoperability, services support, and service quality. Encrypted transmission of authentication and authorization information is provided by T-Systems in such a manner that when end users log on to a third-party Wi-Fi service, the end user's credentials are seen only by his home provider.

T-Systems said it will eliminate interoperability difficulties by supporting all state-of-the-art Authentication Authorization Accounting (AAA) interfaces, while services supported include video streaming, multimedia services, and voice over Wi-Fi. As for service quality, T-Systems said it will provide a "consistent level of service for end users."

Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Kuna, Nampa roaming is already available in a small way for T-Mobile's U.S. customers for some hotspots in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.K. The European network was initially attractive to U.S. subscribers by using European locations of Starbucks and Hyatt Hotels. European travelers to the U.S. with T-Mobile Hotspot subscriptions can likewise access T-Mobile hotspots in the U.S.
 

Source : http://news.yahoo.com

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