DFN, RENATER, ASNET share experience on eduroam deployment 

NREN CEOs and their top-level colleagues across the WACREN region gathered for a special webinar on eduroam.

The objective of the webinar was to introduce the NREN community to the rudiments and requirements of the global WiFi authenticator and get started in the process of deploying the system. 

For his session, Paul Dekkers shared the background, governance and coverage of eduroam across the world. He walked participants through the history of the global WiFi authenticator mentioning the initial dynamics that birthed the famous service. He mentioned that eduroam was fashioned to be easy to use and mobile. 

Jan-Frederik Rieckers of DFN (German NREN) schooled participants on the key technicalities behind the provision and accessing of eduroam service to participants across the World.

Hrachya Astsatryan shared the experience of the Armenian NREN. He mentioned how the NREN initially encountered challenges while making a case for eduroam within its community and how those challenges were scaled. 

He advised African RENs to consider going beyond the traditional boundary of eduroam coverage to sites like public parks, restaurants, airports, malls and the likes.

Closing the webinar, Omo Oaiya, the Chief Strategy Officer of WACREN the RREN has been supporting and intends to do more to support national RENs to deploy eduroam in their respective jurisdictions. 

He expressed the hope that by the close of 2022, three more NRENs would have joined the national roaming operators of eduroam in the WACREN region.

The webinar was organised in collaboration with RENATER (French NREN), DFN (German NREN), SURF (Dutch NREN) and ASNET-AM (Armenian NREN).