San Francisco and San José Create the First Large-Scale Municipal Hotspot 2.0 Service with Ruckus Wireless and Global Reach

SUNNYVALE, CA – June 30, 2014 – Ruckus Wireless, Inc. (NYSE: RKUS) today announced a major initiative with the City and County of San Francisco, the City of San José, CA and Global Reach Technology to create the first large-scale municipal Hotspot 2.0 service that allows millions of visitors and residents to automatically and securely connect to and seamlessly roam using San José and San Francisco free Wi-Fi services. The new Hotspot 2.0 service is now live and operational.

An innovative approach to providing public Wi-Fi access, Hotspot 2.0 is a new technology specification developed by members of the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) that radically simplifies and automates how users securely connect to and roam between Wi-Fi networks without requiring users to manually select a network or sign-on.

Leveraging new Hotspot 2.0 technology, users in San Francisco and San José now can enjoy seamless and secure Wi-Fi data connectivity that mirrors today’s cellular experience, with the added benefit of working on Wi-Fi-only devices such as tablets and laptops. The initial Bay Area Wi-Fi Hotspot 2.0 deployment supports Hotspot 2.0 enabled iOS 7 devices (iPhone 5/5s/5c, iPad 3, iPad Mini, iPad Air, iPad Mini Retina, and iPod Touch 5th Gen) as well as Apple laptops running OS X Mavericks.

“With the adoption of Hotspot 2.0, we are literally transforming the user Wi-Fi experience,” said Vijay Sammeta, Chief Information Officer for the City of San José. “Hotspot 2.0 makes our infrastructure smarter by eliminating tedious and cumbersome device configuration. Now people can securely connect to and roam using our networks in a transparent fashion. Things don’t get much easier.”

“People want their devices to automatically connect to trusted Wi-Fi networks whenever they are in range, and to use strong encryption as well,” said Marc Touitou, Chief Information Officer for the City of San Francisco.  “This is precisely what we have achieved.”  

“With unprecedented cooperation, we have developed the world’s largest municipal deployment of Hotspot 2.0 technology that is open to the public and available to anyone with a supported device,” added Flavio Aggio, Chief Technology Officer for the Department of Technology of the City of San Francisco. “With this Hotspot 2.0 network in place, we expect more and more peering with other network and authentication providers which will allow us to realize our collective vision for global Wi-Fi roaming.”

Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi equipment, which has been Passpoint™ Certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, is being used to power the new Hotspot 2.0 service across both the San Jose and San Francisco Wi-Fi networks. Simple device provisioning and unified authentication services are being provided through a cloud-based system operated by Global Reach, a Ruckus technology partner.

The Global Reach software platform includes the AAA servers (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting), Hotspot 2.0 device detection, and landing pages with the Hotspot 2.0 token. The Hotspot 2.0 provisioning feature, developed by Global Reach, configures devices with an ‘anonymous’ credential which is used to automatically connect to any network honoring the credential and is also a component in the process used to generate the encryption keys for the secure connection.

Users simply click to connect securely. Global Reach then provides each user device with a one-time provisioning file that automatically configures the requisite Wi-Fi settings and encryption without any human intervention. Once a guest registers and is provisioned with the Hotspot 2.0 credential, they can automatically and securely connect to either of the cities’ WLAN infrastructures whenever they are in range.

Making Public Wi-Fi Simpler and Safer to Use

Historically, to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot, users have had to perform the arduous task of manually selecting from a number of Wi-Fi networks that may or may not be able to provide them service, and then perform the tedious process of navigating through a ‘portal’ page before having access to their services.

Using Hotspot 2.0, information advertised by Smart Wi-Fi infrastructure tells devices how to automatically connect to the Wi-Fi network if they possess a credential accepted at that hotspot. The credential itself can be a SIM card, a security certificate, or a username and password that Wi-Fi operators agree to accept for authenticating users on their networks.

Hotspot 2.0-capable devices automatically and securely join a Wi-Fi Hotspot 2.0 service whenever the user enters the service area. Using Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Passpoint devices, Hotspot 2.0 also enables seamless roaming between Wi-Fi networks that share roaming agreements.

According to San José and the City of San Francisco, the new Hotspot 2.0 service may also be made open to other organizations looking to establish Wi-Fi roaming agreements with either or both cities.

The new Hotspot 2.0 infrastructure gives users the option to register for the free Hotspot 2.0 service if they choose, or if they decline, the ability to stay on the existing, unencrypted service. 

To ensure complete user privacy, the two cities are using anonymous credentials. Each user who elects to use the Hotspot 2.0 service for either Wi-Fi network is issued a credential without having to provide any information such as an email address or name.