VANCOUVER-A global consortium of wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) and mobile operators have formed to implement a new authentication and payment platform that gives mobile-phone users access to high-speed hot spots.
Users need only a mobile phone to use the system, according to Canadian WISP FatPort. A customer who is in one of the participating hot spots enters a mobile-phone number into the WISP login screen, the system calls the user back in the user’s native language with pricing information in the user’s home currency and the allows the user to connect.
The network uses Excilan’s payment platform, and participating carriers sign roaming agreements with Excilan. FatPort said the system will begin service in February and March, with several Canadian and U.S. operators expected to join the system in coming months.
In the launch phase, four mobile operators, Bouygues Telecom in France, Orange Switzerland, Siminn Iceland and another pan-European operator have joined the consortium, along with five WISPs, including FatPort, wit hot spots in eight countries in North America and Europe.
