Wi-Fi Offloading, Why? – Chapter 6
The Captive Portal Is Dead – Long Live the Captive Portal
The Wi-Fi industry has worked hard for years to avoid captive portal-based unencrypted Wi-Fi hotspots.
At the same time as the industry has promoted secure Wi-Fi Offloading and Passpoint-based Wi-Fi such as OpenRoaming, many venues do not want users to seamlessly access a secure Wi-Fi network without the possibility for user interaction. They want to engage with users to promote offers and give information.
However, contrary to common belief, engaging with users and providing them with location-based offers is also possible when they are seamlessly onboarded to the Wi-Fi Network. The Enea Aptilo SMP supports everything from SIM-based Authentication to Wi-Fi marketing with user consent management.
White Paper: Wi-Fi Offloading, Why?
This is an excerpt from our white paper, Wi-Fi Offloading, Why?, outlining the business benefits for mobile operators. If you like what you read, download the full white paper. As a bonus, you’ll also gain access to Wi-Fi Offloading, How?, a technical deep dive into deploying Wi-Fi offloading solutions.
Engage Users Through Venue Portal
The Wi-Fi hotspot Captive Portal is still a popular vehicle for engaging with users online. It can present banners and video adverts or capture user profiles through short surveys.
The automatic and secure onboarding of Wi-Fi users in Wi-Fi Offloading eliminates the need for Captive Portals. The users are already authenticated and authorized, so there is no need to stop them from accessing the Internet. This can be a showstopper for Wi-Fi Offloading or indoor cellular solutions at some venues. They may instead build their own captive portal-based Wi-Fi network.
Standardization bodies have recognized that the need for brand or location-adapted portals has not vanished. Passpoint Release 3 specifies using a Venue Portal URL to engage with end-users. Until the Passpoint R3 specification has reached a critical mass in device support, the Captive Portal API (RFC 8908, 8910) can be used as it also features a Venue portal URL.
After a successful automatic login, a message appears either on the mobile device lock screen, as a system message, or on the network details page (devicedependent). The Venue Portal URL is displayed with the message, and clicking the link will send the user to the brand or location-specific portal.
Engage Users Through Email / SMS
Users can also be engaged by sending them an SMS or email:
- To a user automatically onboarded to the Wi-Fi network while entering the venue.
- To a user dwelling for a specific time at a particular Wi-Fi hotspot.
- To a user who has visited a hotspot on a particular day and time.
Getting Users’ Consent for Marketing
It is good practice, and in many countries a legal requirement, to ensure proper user consent and personal data management, such as the one offered with Enea Aptilo SMP. Look for a consent and personal data management solution compliant with the European GDPR, as Europe has implemented one of the most robust privacy regulations in the world.
Recorded session from July 23, 2024
Solutions for mobile / Wi-Fi convergence
As the mobile industry enters a new and much less profitable era, Wi-Fi is growing in importance as an effective, cost-efficient, and necessary complementary solution.
View this Wi-Fi Now special event recording from July 23 with Cisco, American Bandwidth, and Enea, where we explore all the current convergence offerings and their status.
When: Available on-demand.
Duration: Approximately 2 hours including presentations, panel Q&A, and audience Q&A.
