Virgin Media Picks TIP OpenWiFi for Dublin City Trial

Telecom Infra Project (TIP) OpenWiFi is ideal for publicly sponsored urban Wi-Fi deployments. It allows the selection of the most appropriate solution based on use case rather than a single vendor’s products, facilitates the independent replacement and upgrading of components, and is compatible with municipalities’ procurement needs for vendor diversity and state-of-the-art technologies.

Dublin City Council, Ireland, supported by Virgin Media Business, the city’s internet service provider, is installing Wi-Fi 6 Access Points that are compliant with TIP OpenWiFi as a trial of open, disaggregated solutions for potential use in the city’s public Wi-Fi network. TIP OpenWiFi is compliant with the technical requirements of the European Commission’s WiFi4EU initiative, the benchmark for public Wi-Fi deployments in Europe.

WiFi4EU is a ground-breaking initiative that promotes free access to Wi-Fi connectivity for citizens in public spaces including parks, squares, public buildings, libraries, health centers and museums in municipalities throughout Europe. Municipalities receive a voucher that pays for the network including maintenance of the equipment to offer free and high-quality Wi-Fi connectivity for at least three years. Dublin City’s WiFi4EU Wi-Fi network will be a free Wi-Fi network and available throughout its historic city center.

“A smart city is built around collaboration and openness. We are delighted to be trialing Wi-Fi options that are built with an open source architecture that enables multi-vendor interoperability,” said Jamie Cudden. Smart City Program Manager, Dublin City Council.

Dublin City Council’s public Wi-Fi trials are using TIP OpenWiFi-compliant products and software including a cloud-based controller from NetExperience and access points from Edgecore and HFCL.

“Virgin Media is recognized for providing ‘clever tech’ with ultrafast speeds and ultra-reliability. We’re industry leaders offering our customers the latest technology and it just made sense to trial Dublin City Council’s Wi-Fi network using TIP OpenWiFi standards as part of our innovation partnership with the council ,” said Noel O Reilly, Business Products and Solutions Manager, Virgin Media Business.

TIP OpenWiFi is an open source-based Wi-Fi architecture that enables multi-vendor, interoperable Wi-Fi networks. The TIP OpenWiFi-based solution enables the Dublin City Council and Virgin Media to seamlessly mix and match additional access points and controllers from any TIP OpenWiFi compliant manufacturer, enabling it to easily expand the city center network.

A TIP OpenWiFi network can also support OpenRoaming, with no change in hardware or software. This demonstrates the innovation and maturity of TIP OpenWiFi.

OpenRoaming™, based on Wi-Fi CERTIFIED PasspointR and the Wireless Broadband Alliance’s Wireless Roaming Intermediary eXchange (WRIX) standards, allows users to automatically connect to Wi-Fi networks without logging in. It also offloads mobile connectivity and enables wireless convergence.