Nokia & IBM join forces to expedite public Wi-Fi
roll outs
[April 22nd 2002]
Nokia and IBM today announced that the two companies
have signed an
agreement to join forces in the public wireless LAN
business.Effective today IBM Global Services will act as a
system integrator of Nokia's wireless LAN infrastructure products in
order to provide public wireless LAN solutions worldwide. At
the same time, Nokia
will continue sales of its Operator Wireless LAN
solution through its
existing sales channels.
The cooperation between Nokia and IBM opens new
opportunities to
bring Nokia's wireless LAN solutions to corporate users
and will assist mobility operators and wireless Internet service
providers (WISPs) in expediting hotspot roll out.Under the agreement, IBM
Global Services will offer its service portfolio
including installation, maintenance, financing and consulting
services to facilitate faster and easier entry into the growing
public wireless
LAN market.
"We see this cooperation with IBM as an excellent
business
opportunity to widen the accessible market for the
Nokia Operator Wireless LAN solution and better serve a growing
customer demand," says Paavo Aro, General Manager, Wireless LAN Systems,
Nokia
Networks."The
public wireless LAN service is on the verge of major
growth in demand, especially from business users.Forecasts have
predicted that more than 100,000 hotspots will be in
operation
globally within the next four years."
"Rapid implementation of added value data services
such as Public Wireless LAN is of crucial importance as operators
target a growing corporate user marketplace," said Lars Alm,
general manager, wireless e-business services, IBM EMEA."By combining IBM's wireless e-business services expertise with Nokia's leadership
in wireless technology, operators can now benefit from a fast, high
performance Public Wireless LAN solution.This new IBM/Nokia collaboration enables them to bring revenue generating Public
Wireless LAN services
to market quickly, with the assurance that they will
integrate
seamlessly with existing network topologies and deliver
entirely new
levels of user experience to business users on the
move."
Public wireless LAN offers wireless connectivity
services to the visitors of so-called hotspots in public buildings such
as airports, hotels, conference centers, as well as corporate
premises. Business travellers using any Wi-Fi-certified wireless LAN card
can access the Internet and their corporate intranet wirelessly at
high-speed.Wi-Fi certification ensures the interoperability of
wireless devices using the IEEE 802.11b standard.
It is crucial for mobility operators and wireless
Internet service
providers to stake their claim early in order to ensure
their market presence.This
is ever more important since the number of hotspot locations will become limited as competition increases
for the most
attractive places.
The Nokia Operator Wireless LAN solution supports a
variety of
business models and existing wireless LAN cards as well
as new
multimode terminals.This solution also supports various types of
authentication, such as SIM based authentication used
by mobile operators and the RADIUS type of authentication
typically used by
WISPs, making the solution an attractive future-proof
choice.SIM-based authentication enables service providers to
offer their
customers the convenience of buying a single data
subscription that
provides access to GSM data, GPRS and public wireless
LAN services
with laptops and multimode terminals.It also means that service
providers can take advantage of the 25,000 roaming
agreements between
the members of GSM Association, giving their customers
immediate access to hotspots around the globe.
