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Transat Technologies Inc. and Intel are working together to develop new features for mobile computing platforms to allow advanced authentication and mobility in computing devices that access the Internet through Wireless LANs and cellular networks.
The rapid deployment of 802.11 in "Hotspots" such as airports and hotels has made mobile data access more widely available, and more widely accepted. There is just one, fundamental problem: there are dozens of WLAN operators who cannot interconnect their networks, making roaming a hassle for the customer, and leaving him or her with many bills to pay.

"The challenge is to present the customer with just one bill," says Transat CEO, John Baker. "On their own, the service providers will find this difficult because there is no common capability in networks or devices. They need equipment that can apply a single mechanism for secure authentication and billing, transparently across different types of networks."

Essential to success is having a clear and straightforward approach. "Fundamentally, the network devices need a single, unique, secure identity that can be tunneled back to a single, unique, secure point of authentication and billing, regardless of the type and ownership of the networks in between," said Shane Wall, director, Emerging Platforms, Intel Labs. "By working with Transat, we are creating a way to do this that we believe will become a global standard in a form that can be incorporated into device chipsets and made widely available."

With Intel's processors and software in the PDA or laptop, and Transat's software embedded in the networks, customers will have a standardized means to roam across different WLAN networks and receive a single bill. The authentication and roaming mechanisms are based on those that are well established for GSM and 3G mobile phones. The customer's identity is defined in a smart card that is either built-in or separately attached to his or her laptop/PDA, obviating the need for a password and log-in. That identity is verified from a single database - normally the "home location register" (HLR) in the network of a mobile operator. Billing records are also routed back to the same "home" network so the home network can generate the single bill, which may well include the cellular voice account. The other networks onto which the end customer roams are paid by inter-operator bulk settlement in the same say as is done now with the cellular voice networks.