Since its launch in Europe in 2003, eduroam has gained popularity throughout the research and education community and is now available in 76 countries worldwide, the latest additions to the eduroam community being Mexico and Lebanon. Furthermore, eduroam is expanding beyond campuses to public, commercial and city Wi-Fi initiatives, providing an ever-increasing mobile platform for its multi-million users.

Eduroam allows students, researchers and staff from participating institutions to obtain internet connectivity across campuses and when visiting other participating institutions quickly and easily, without the need to find local login details. Invented in the Netherlands eduroam has grown dramatically over the past 12 years and is on the verge of becoming a truly global connectivity tool.

Beyond campuses

But the success of eduroam can’t only be measured in its conquering new territories. eduroam is also expanding beyond campuses and into public places, such as airports and city Wi-Fi initiatives.

As an example, if you’re a Swedish eudroam user, you’ll experience trouble-free internet access not only in the 10 major local airports and hotel chains like Best Western, Clarion and Radisson, but also eating your meal at Burger King or taking a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Sweden is surely on the leading edge in regard to eduroam penetration in public places. But also Switzerland is up there, offering connectivity in a number of libraries, at the university hospital of Bern and at Geneva Airport. Particularly, eduroam at the airport is a valuable service for many researchers and students traveling to and from CERN.

Furthermore, Norway is offering eduroam at its nineteen biggest airports, in a number of hospitals and in public spaces in the towns of Trondheim and Kristiansand. And RESTENA, the Luxembourg NREN, has established a partnership with a private vendor owning Wi-Fi infrastructure in downtown areas of the major cities, offering eduroam to a big percentage of the Luxembourg populace in densely populated areas.

On the other side of the globe, users in Australia are able to access eduroam in a number of hospitals and on buses in some cities.

The future of eduroam

Looking into the future, what is in the pipeline for eduroam?

Undoubtedly, eduroam will be extending its reach to even more countries. AARNet, the Australian NREN, is leading a project funded by TEIN that will see eduroam rolled out soon in seven more Asia Pacific countries: Bhutan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines and Sri Lanka. eduroam will also continue to spread beyond the higher education community. As an example, both Norway and Sweden are hoping to reach agreements to provide eduroam to all the countries’ elementary schools.

This is an excerpt from a story published on the In The Field blog – Read the entire story

More information

Read more about extending eduroam in the Asia Pacific

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