Google has launched a high-quality Wi-Fi platform called Orion designed to bring private, secure and fast Wi-Fi roaming for consumers at public places. Orion Wifi is a new platform from Area 120, Google's in-house incubator for experimental projects.
According to the company, Orion Wifi uses existing networks to connect more visitors, and to provide a new revenue stream to the venue owner. Orion Wifi works with most commercial and enterprise Wi-Fi systems, usually with no new hardware or software.
"We've designed an easy way for public venues — like that grocery store, a medical office or a mall — to sell Wi-Fi capacity to cellular carriers," Raj Gajwani, Director, Area 120 said in a blog post on Tuesday.
Orion Wifi is currently available in the US. "With Orion Wifi, when you walk into a grocery store, your carrier can automatically and securely connect you to the Wi-Fi," Gajwani said.
"When you are connected, Internet traffic flows over the Wi-Fi network just as if you had connected directly to the Wi-Fi; Orion cannot access users' Internet traffic".
Google Fi and Republic Wireless are among the first cellular carriers to use this new technology.
"We're partnering with leading Wi-Fi manufacturers like Cisco Systems, CommScope (RUCKUS) and Juniper Mist to ensure that Orion Wifi is compatible and easy to deploy with their networking equipment," the company said.
Google is also working with the Wireless Broadband Alliance on the emerging OpenRoaming standard to make Wi-Fi roaming more powerful.
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