By Claus Hetting, WiFi NOW CEO & Chairman
Mambo WiFi & Helium team up for Wi-Fi offload in Brazil
Brazil will soon be awash in offload-enabled Wi-Fi hotspots following the announcement that Helium and Mambo WiFi – both WiFi NOW Award winners – are teaming up to deliver more and better connectivity to consumers and businesses in Brazil. Helium’s technology involves enabling Wi-Fi hotspots (or entire enterprise networks) for Passpoint authentication, which in turn allows subscribers (with the correct service profiles on their phones) to securely auto-connect to third-party Wi-Fi services.
Mambo WiFi’s 40,000 access points will serve as the foundation for “expanding the Helium network to millions of users in Brazil as local carriers adopt this people-powered model,” says Helium in a press release here. The company also points out that half of Brazil’s population lacks reliable Internet access. The partnership marks the first major international expansion of Helium’s services beyond its native US and first international deployments in Mexico.
Plume joins Connectivity Standards Alliance
Broadband services & Wi-Fi optimisation platform provider Plume last week announced that it has joined Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), the organisation creating and driving the Matter standard for wireless IoT. Plume becomes a ‘participant’ member of CSA, which means that Plume “will actively engage in Alliance Working Groups that touch service provider offerings in the home, from the routers and gateways to security, to easy set-up and commissioning and reliable, managed connectivity,” the company said in a press release here. Matter is the unified standard for ensuring consistent, secure, and seamless interoperability between wireless IoT devices within the home and enterprise, while Plume’s large service provider footprint represents significant opportunities for introducing ISP-centric Matter-based services and not least service innovation.
Puwell partners with Morse Micro for long-range agricultural IoT
China-based Puwell Technologies has partnered with Morse Micro to deliver long-range Wi-Fi connectivity for agricultural applications, the company said in a press release here. Puwell will be using Morse Micro’s MM6108 Wi-Fi HaLow SoC to deliver video connectivity across 2 miles of wireless range, the company says. “The MileFlask Kit, set to launch at CES 2026, addresses a critical gap in agricultural and industrial security: the inability of standard Wi-Fi to cover vast properties and the high recurring costs of cellular data,” Puwell says.
Test of new scheme for end-to-end VoWiFi QoE
The World Broadband Association (WBBA) has released a white paper citing the results of a recent test that demonstrates the gains of the VoWiFi “end-to-end QoS strategy” described in the GSMA white paper “Enriched service over converged Wi-Fi and cellular network.”
The GSMA and WBBA believe that VoWiFi “is now positioned to play a significant role in the evolution of mobile networks and serves as a vital component in service providers’ voice service strategies” and therefore deserves a scheme for management of the quality. The white paper is called “TEST ANALYSIS OF WBBA & GSMA VOICE OVER Wi-Fi” and can be found here. It is not clear how any such scheme might impact other Wi-Fi services within the home.
/Claus.
