Alcatel-Lucent, Ziggo Turn Private Wi-Fi Connections into Public Hotspots

To provide wireless broadband access to Ziggo’s customers in the city of Groningen, in the northeastern part of the Netherlands, Dutch cable operator Ziggo and Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) are conducting a trial of an innovative technique that turns private homes into public Wi-Fi hotspots.

For that, householders in the city of Groningen are participating in the largest European community trial of cable-based Wi-Fi hotspots.

The trial is using Alcatel-Lucent’s lightRadio Wi-Fi technology to give multiple Ziggo (News - Alert) subscribers simultaneous access to high-quality wireless Internet, without impairing either the existing home broadband service quality or affecting the security of existing home Wi-Fi networks.

According to the partners, the first phase of the trial in four districts of the city of Groningen was successful. As a result, the service is being opened up to 18,000 homes in November, making it the largest and most dense hotspot network in the Netherlands, said Alcatel-Lucent.

The partners said it will deliver Ziggo’s customers a secure wireless broadband connection, allowing them to access Internet services on the move, whenever they want them and using the device most suited to them.

Alcatel-Lucent’s groundbreaking lightRadio Wi-Fi technology is enabling Ziggo to give its customers access to a wide variety of Wi-Fi hotspots without the need to remember complicated authentication passwords.

Ziggo customers taking part in the trial must give permission for their home modem router to be used as a hotspot, before they can access other subscribers’ hotspots.

“We are confident that the community Wi-Fi service we have built with Alcatel-Lucent is the first great step toward extending our services to customers outside their homes in a simple, reliable and secure way,” said Ziggo’s network and systems development director, Heleen Elferink. “The trial has already demonstrated that even with multiple subscribers accessing the Wi-Fi connection at the same time, speeds and quality are not compromised.”

Paul Wijngaard, account director at Alcatel-Lucent, thinks this trial is a great way to show people the benefits of sharing secure Wi-Fi hotspots. The company hopes to have set the standard for community Wi-Fi projects.