Most of these public WLANs are targeted at white-collar business travelers. In addition, the service providers that go forward with the WISPr roaming will have to ensure they're offering a simple connection process and a single bill to make such roaming a desirable service for target users. And then there are security concerns. Data about the user and the service request will be passed to an independent clearinghouse, which would coordinate transactions among different parties-in this case, the WISPs. The clearinghouse would pass the user data to that user's WISP, which then completes the authentication, bills the user and makes the appropriate payment to the WISP serving as the user's access connection.
Users can then access their home WISP services and, through the provider, their corporate net.
WISPr members say the technology for sharing data between the ISPs is relatively straightforward and most of the complexity involves setting up standards for handling transactions between service providers. We'll also have information about where the user is, through a location code, so we can return site-specific services to that user. A WISP subscriber from the U.S., gaining access via a wireless LAN service in a Swedish airport, would receive information in English, for example. Keeping it simple will be the key to user acceptance, says Jeff Manning, business development manager at Agere. Everyone has a vested interest in making this work.