One Step Closer to the Wireless Holy Grail

Hewlett-Packard joined forces with wireless networking
specialist Transat Technologies Monday in an effort to push a joint
solution that would enable seamless and transparent roaming between 2.5G/3G
wireless networks and 802.11 hotspots.

The partnership brings together HP’s OpenCall SS7 telecommunications
middleware and Transat’s WeRoam technology to give mobile operators the
ability to create inter-networking agreements with wireless Internet
service providers (WISPs) and public wireless local area network (pwLAN)
aggregators while still owning (and billing) their customers end-to-end.

WeRoam is based on standard Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs) — postage
stamp-sized chip cards found in most GSM phones these days. SIMs typically
have between 16 and 64kb of memory and are removable. By basing its
solution on SIM cards, Transat gives mobile operators the security of GSM
phones and the ability to provision and manage pwLAN users in the same way
as mobile phone users. This supports users through PIN and password/credit
card billing and authentication systems.

SS7 , short for Signaling System 7, is a telecommunications
protocol defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as a
way to offload PSTN data traffic congestion onto a wireless
or wireline digital broadband network. It is the core inter-operator
signaling infrastructure in use today, and enables, among other things,
mobile subscriber authentication and advanced services like Caller ID and
Call Forwarding.

Together with OpenCall SS7, WeRoam will form the cornerstone of a wireless
infrastructure solution, running on Linux platforms, which will allow users
to access voice and data services from a single provider, whether they are
on the move or in a hotspot, using a cell phone, a notebook PC or a Pocket
PC. Whatever network users happen to be on, their notebooks and PDAs will
authenticate with their “home” networks and create a billing record in the
home network. HP will round out the offering with solutions consulting,
customization and support services.

“Hotspots are proliferating, and mobile operators have a huge opportunity
to serve high-value mobile customers — in hotspots, where customers really
need the bandwidth,” said Sebastino Tevarotto, vice president and general
manager, HP Network and Service Provider Business Unit. “With Transat and
HP, operators can tap the opportunity in the only way that makes sense —
by leveraging their existing network investment.”

To support the offering HP also said Monday that it has extended its
OpenCall HLR (home location register) — which manages mobility services
for more than 70 million subscribers on CDMA networks — to support
GPRS/GSM networks, creating a multi-mode HLR that provisions both standards
through a single interface.