Wandering between public Wi-Fi networks and never having your service interrupted, the same way you can walk in and out of the range of local cellular towers and never have your signal drop. That’s the dream for Wi-Fi, and with iOS 7, Apple’s going to help make it happen.
The eagle-eyed folks over at Ars Technica noticed a slot in Apple’s keynote on Monday that iOS 7 will support Hotspot 2.0.
What’s Hotspot 2.0?
Hotspot 2.0 is the technology specification behind the Wi-Fi Alliance’s Passpoint certification program. As we wrote last year, the goal of Passpoint is to create a Wi-Fi extension of cellular networks, making it easier for service providers to offload traffic and give users faster Internet connections. Instead of typing in a password, a user could authenticate to the network automatically by virtue of owning a device with a SIM card. Passpoint-enabled devices within range of a Passpoint-supporting hotspot would automatically join it and get the benefit of WPA2 security.
The problem is adoption, not just by manufacturers like Apple, but by carriers and providers like AT&T, Verizon, Boingo, Comcast, Time Warner and more. Let’s hope they feel a bit more encouraged to do so now that every iPhone, iPad and iPod touch will ship with the ability.
Source: Ars Technica
Via: MacTrast
Image: MacTrast
