News

Santa Clara, Calif. – July 6, 2012 — Mobile broadband developer Stoke Inc. has welcomed the Wi-Fi Alliance's June 26 announcement of its Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Passpoint™ specification as heralding a breakthrough in enabling seamless, high quality Wi-Fi roaming and automatic login. The specification includes the EAP SIM authentication protocol as an integral part of Passpoint-certified offerings, validating Stoke's technology approach to its Wi-Fi interworking platform for 3G or 4G networks, the Stoke Wi-FI eXchange gateway

"This specification accurately reflects operators' most important requirements for Wi-Fi and demonstrates not only that the Wi-Fi Alliance® has its finger on the pulse of the operator community, but also that it is capable of moving quickly to create standards covering key aspects of their Wi-Fi requirements," said John Carvalho, Vice President of Wi-Fi Architecture at Stoke and previously a board member of the Wi-Fi Alliance and a participant in the group responsible for Passpoint.

Carvalho also noted that standards bodies must continue to fast-track their specifications to match evolving operator concerns and innovative industry solutions that are already being deployed.

The Road To Seamless Wi-Fi Interworking
The Passpoint specification marks the industry's passage from the first to the second of three generations of service provider Wi-Fi, as detailed in the white paper Internet Offload for Mobile Operators by Heavy Reading analyst, Gabriel Brown, as illustrated below¹

The Passpoint specifications announced on June 26 address auto-login and user identity, plus additional features like network selection and roaming.

"Standards development organizations by definition must take their lead from market changes and innovations, and while the Passpoint effort initiated almost 2 years ago has been very effectively fast-tracked, during that time operator requirements have evolved," said Carvalho. "We know from current engagements that interworking and intelligent traffic steering have now become a top priority," he added. "Operators' ultimate vision for Wi-Fi is as another radio access mechanism that delivers the same service as 3G. Stoke has already brought solutions to the market that offer immediate answers to these evolved operator concerns, while leveraging the strengths of the Passport specifications."

Stoke sees the Wi-Fi Alliance's Passpoint specification as taking an important step towards this objective, with some ground still to be covered to deliver on operators' most immediate requirements. For mobile operators, the top priority today is intelligent traffic steering, while for fixed operators the focus is on ensuring they can provide a seamless, quality experience over Wi-Fi for users as they look to access their preferred network while roaming. Stoke is able to deliver on these requirements for both fixed and mobile carriers today, without requiring wholesale changeout of devices and infrastructure, leveraging its advanced, future-focused platform designed to keep pace with innovation in the mobile broadband market.

About Stoke
Stoke delivers transformative gateway solutions for navigating mobile broadband's new frontiers. Stoke mobile network gateway solutions address today's challenges using creative approaches, enabling mobile operators to manage traffic growth and increase the efficiency, reliability, and scope of mobile data services. Stoke is backed by prominent venture capital firms and carriers including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital, Focus Ventures, and NTT Docomo. For more information, visit www.stoke.com.

¹ See Stoke/Heavy Reading white paper Internet Offload for Mobile Operators