Wi-Fi Alliance Launches Wi-Fi Zone Finder Portal Program: Free Program for Qualifying Web Sites Leverages Value of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Products
Mountain View, CA (ots)
The Wi-Fi Alliance announced today that it is launching a new Web portal program on March 29th to promote public awareness and use of Wi-Fi ZONE hot spots around the globe. Partners that join this free program will be able to offer online visitors access to the official Wi-Fi ZONE Finder directory of public hotspot locations that use Wi-Fi CERTIFIED equipment. This program's goals are to improve the user experience and provide program partners with an easy way to offer Wi-Fi ZONE location information to their sites' visitors. The Wi-Fi ZONE program is a rapidly-growing program with over 9,000 Wi-Fi ZONE locations in more than 66 countries.
The ZONE Finder Web portal will allow visitors on participating Web sites to search for Wi-Fi ZONE public access locations. The popularity of Wi-Fi® can help the participating Web sites generate additional Internet traffic and revenue. A wide range of organizations are expected to benefit from participating in the portal program including companies in the travel, hospitality and restaurant industries, as well as online magazines, to name a few.
All locations in this search engine are based on Wi-Fi CERTIFIED equipment to help customers identify locations committed to a quality connectivity experience. For more information regarding the Wi-Fi ZONE portal partner program or to sign up, visit www.wi-fizone.org/ZONE_partners.
"Interoperability between different vendors' Wi-Fi products is particularly important in the public access environment where users do not know which vendors' wireless LAN products are being used," said Wi-Fi Alliance Managing Director, Frank Hanzlik. "The Wi-Fi ZONE Finder portal program helps customers easily find locations that are using Wi-Fi CERTIFIED equipment. This improves the connectivity experience by assuring that the wireless connection will work. This is an exciting opportunity for program participants to benefit from an official affiliation with the Wi-Fi Alliance, capitalize on Wi-Fi's popularity and show support for a quality connectivity experience," Hanzlik added.
See Wi-Fi at CeBIT
Wi-Fi-based wireless LANs will be on display at CeBIT (Hall 13, Wireless Area Network Exchange Pavilion, Stand #D37, Booth #C5), March 18-24, 2004, at the Hannover Fairgrounds in Hannover, Germany.
About the Wi-Fi Alliance
The Wi-Fi Alliance (formerly WECA) is the global Wi-Fi organization that created the Wi-Fi brand. A nonprofit organization, the Alliance was formed in 1999 to certify interoperability of IEEE 802.11 products and to promote them as the global, wireless LAN standard across all market segments.
The Wi-Fi Alliance has instituted a test suite that defines how member products are tested to certify that they are interoperable with other Wi-Fi CERTIFIED products. These tests are conducted at an independent laboratory.
Membership in the Wi-Fi Alliance is open to all companies that support the IEEE 802.11 family of standards. The Wi-Fi Alliance now comprises over 200 members from the world's leading companies. These companies offer over 1,000 Wi-Fi CERTIFIED products. For more information, please visit www.wi-fi.org, and for information on Wi-Fi ZONE public access locations go to www.wi-fizone.org.
ots Original Text Service: Wi-Fi Alliance Internet: http://www.presseportal.ch
Press and analyst contact: C. Brian Grimm Wave Communications for Wi-Fi Alliance 910.686.0870 briang@wavecoms.com