Intelligent CIO APAC Issue 53 | Page 48

COUNTRY FOCUS : AUSTRALIA
WBA OpenRoaming pitches seamless free connectivity to hundreds of Indigenous Australians through Easyweb ’ s ground-breaking First Nations Community Wi-Fi Project .

WBA OpenRoaming to power a n across Australia ’ s remote First N

Some of Australia ’ s most remote and marginalized communities will gain access to lifechanging avenues of online healthcare , education and secure communications , with the arrival of a public Wi-Fi network with the seamless , high-speed connectivity of OpenRoaming .

The Wireless Broadband Alliance ( WBA ), the global industry body dedicated to improving Wi-Fi standards and services , has announced the launch of a breakthrough OpenRoaming deployment in five remote Central Australian communities and 11 ‘ town camps ’ in Alice Springs – providing hundreds of residents with free , secure Internet access through Easyweb Digital ’ s solar-powered Community Wi-Fi Hubs .
The deployment will provide the largely Indigenous residents with seamless switching between a growing number of Easyweb networks that support OpenRoaming in towns and community centers across Central Australia .
A combination of OpenRoaming , Wi-Fi and Geostationary and Low Earth Orbit satellite backhaul will provide unprecedented redundancy and reliability in a region long characterised by poor communications and devastating social disadvantage .
Each of the autonomous assets deployed in the project will be powered by a standalone solar headend and ‘ weather-proofed ’ against the extreme desert environment .
The OpenRoaming network will offer seamless ‘ cellularlike ’ access to broadband speeds of up to 300 Mbps , while the system ’ s advanced redundancy will prioritize low-latency Voice over Wi-Fi calls and essential health ,
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