Canary Wharf Group, owner of one the largest business centres in Europe, and Cisco have announced the world’s first commercial trial deployment of OpenRoaming.
Combining the convenience of mobile roaming with Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, OpenRoaming allows devices to connect automatically to Wi-Fi and seamlessly roam from one hotspot to another without the need for the user to log in. The joint initiative will also provide up to four times faster wireless speeds by deploying Cisco Wi-Fi 6 access points, along with sophisticated location-based analytics to allow its clients to build unique services for their customers.
The City of London contributes more than 22% of the UK’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Having overseen the largest urban regeneration project ever undertaken in Europe, in London Docklands, Canary Wharf Group is at the heart of the capital’s economy with 17 million square feet of high-quality commercial office and retail space. The estate has a working population of 120,000 people with an additional 40,000 visitors daily on weekdays and 130,000 visitors over the weekend. There are up to 4,250 homes in development, in a state-of-the-art ‘smart’ environment across the estate.
Over the last six years, Canary Wharf Group has provided first-class infrastructure to over 200 startups based in its renowned technology hub, Level39. Wood Wharf, a 5 million square foot regeneration project on the estate, will provide the benefits of Wi-Fi 6 connectivity to its fast-growth businesses and residents when it opens its doors to tenants in 2020. The latest wireless standard delivers dramatically faster speeds, improved capacity, along with lower latency and longer battery life.
OpenRoaming is anticipated to dramatically improve efficiencies and flexibility of onboarding Wi-Fi seamlessly and securely for the more than 20,000 entrepreneurs, as well as independent retailers, bars, cafes, hotels and workspaces, such as The Office Group, Hoxton Hotel’s new affordable branch NoCo, Grind and Pedlar, to be based at Wood Wharf.
“For the real estate industry, next-generation connectivity is a critical utility. Extending the value of our services well beyond office space, our customers are demanding access to world-class digital infrastructure and connectivity,” said Sir George Iacobesco, Executive Chairman, Canary Wharf Group. “Canary Wharf Group is committed to creating an estate-wide environment in which businesses can thrive. As well as refreshing our provision for commercial customers, we are continuously evolving our offering to residents and visitors, and initiatives such as this ensure that we are able to do so. We’re delighted to be working with Cisco on this groundbreaking initial deployment.”
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