Tanaza has joined Facebook Connectivity’s Express Wi-Fi Technology Partner Program, which enables network equipment manufacturers to build network hardware and software that was compatible with Express Wi-Fi.  

The 2019 EIU Inclusive Internet Index, commissioned by Facebook, found that 3.8 billion people don’t have access to fast, reliable internet. Wi-Fi networks had traditionally been hard to set up and expensive to deploy, especially when the intent is to reach an entire unconnected town or village. The Express Wi-Fi Technology Partner Program provided a unique solution by developing new technologies in partnership with equipment manufacturers and operators to build cost-effective Express Wi-Fi compatible hardware and software, enabling more people in more places to get connected.

What was Facebook Connectivity’s Express Wi-Fi?

Express Wi-Fi was part of Facebook Connectivity, a collection of programs, technologies and partnerships designed to increase the availability, affordability and awareness of high-quality internet access.

Connectivity was at the heart of Facebook’s mission

Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. Critical to this mission is high-quality internet access, which gives people a voice and creates opportunities to share knowledge that can strengthen local communities and global economies. Facebook Connectivity worked closely with partners including mobile network operators, equipment manufacturers and more to develop programs and technologies—including Express WiFi, Magma, and Terragraph—that increase the availability, affordability and awareness of high-quality internet access, bringing more people online to a faster internet.

“More than 3.5 billion people still don’t have internet access, fueling the digital divide,” said James Beldock, Facebook Connectivity’s product manager for Express Wi-Fi. “Alongside our partners, Facebook Connectivity breaks down barriers to connectivity with new technologies, business models and programs, such as Express Wi-Fi, which service providers use to deliver fast and affordable Wi-Fi. Critical to the program’s success are our Express Wi-Fi technology partners, who have committed to building Express Wi-Fi compatible software and hardware. We welcome Tanaza to the program and look forward to partnering with them to expand connectivity globally.”

“Tanaza aims to provide high-quality network services to underserved areas that have not had access due to lack of infrastructure and high costs,” said Sebastiano Bertani, CEO, and Founder of Tanaza.  “Joining the Express Wi-Fi Technology Partner Program will allow us to give our users fast, affordable and reliable Wi-Fi easily and aligns with our mission to make Wi-Fi more accessible.” 

“By integrating the Express Wi-Fi platform into its feature set, Tanaza was available to work with mobile network operators in areas of the world that are suffering most from the digital divide and expand its presence in some Asian and African countries,” said Valeria Magoni, Head of Marketing at Tanaza. “Operators had the opportunity to monetize their networks and cloud manage them through an enterprise-grade system at a fraction of the cost due to Express Wi-Fi.”

Members of the Technology Partner Program were currently collaborating to connect underserved communities around the world and to bring more people online to faster internet. Further updates about this feature’s release are expected in the next few months.

Tanaza, in collaboration with Plume® and ConnectUs Technologies, started the Open WiFi System project in 2019, through the Telecom Infra Project (TIP). 

The project was officially announced at TIP Summit ’19 in Amsterdam.

Launched in February 2016, TIP is a collaborative telecom community that is evolving the infrastructure that underpins global connectivity. TIP’s mission is to accelerate the pace of innovation in next generation telecom networks, through the design, build, test and deployment of standards-based, open and disaggregated network solutions. Over the past four years TIP has driven substantial innovation across all elements of the network including Access, Transport, Core & Services, while spanning urban through to rural market use cases.

Tanaza joined TIP’s Wi-Fi Project Group in early 2019, and has contributed with technology and experience in hardware and software disaggregation.

The Open Wi-Fi System project aims at contributing to hardware and software disaggregation.

Tanaza believes that hardware and software disaggregation and, ultimately, White-Box Wi-Fi access points is the way to lower total cost of ownership (TCO) in Wi-Fi deployments and hence involve and connect more and more people.  To this end, Tanaza, Plume, and ConnectUs have demonstrated the compatibility of their respective cloud-based Wi-Fi controller platform with TIP’s open-AP software stack including the open-source framework OpenSync™. Thanks to this project, any TIP Open Access Point, supporting an OpenSync interface, could be associated with the Tanaza or the Plume or the ConnectUs Technologies cloud platform, or any other cloud stacks available.

What is OpenSync?

OpenSync is the world’s fastest-growing cloud-agnostic, open-source software to enable the curation, delivery and support of services and management of devices for the smart home. Today OpenSync carries more than 62 Petabytes of data over its platform every day connecting over half a billion devices, spanning some 1000 device brands and over 7000 unique device types, and these numbers are exponentially growing. Compatible with other initiatives such as RDK and OpenWRT, and broadly deployed by leading global ISPs and device makers, the software is critical to residential and enterprise Wi-Fi and IP delivered services. Chipset suppliers, device makers, system integrators, internet service providers and operators find many benefits with OpenSync’s open, interoperable, multi-vendor interfaces and simple and efficient scaling on a proven platform.

“Nowadays, the technology stacks used by operators to deploy Wi-Fi do not communicate with each other. As a consequence, executing mass configurations, maintaining and troubleshooting the networks, and the deployment of new applications demand an extremely high effort. Disaggregation solves this problem by allowing the cloud software to speak with White-Box Wi-Fi access points, that increases operational efficiency. In addition, disaggregation allows reducing the total cost of ownership for operators by bringing down both the cost of Wi-Fi hardware (CAPEX) and the costs of maintenance (OPEX)”, states Sebastiano Bertani, CEO, and Founder of Tanaza.

Tanaza joined forces with the other members of the TIP Project Group, to validate how hardware and software components work together and to ensure those components are interoperable. The access point firmware will be open-sourced within TIP, in addition to some parts of the controller software. As a result, this will significantly lower the barrier to entry for new vendors participating in the ecosystem.

A first demo test of Open Wi-Fi system is now a reality.

“This new concept of open WiFi system, it’s something huge working together with such players to fully support them in this path, and partner with them to reach more service providers that want to take advantage of the opportunities that open WiFi systems can offer. We’re working hard to make this happen by using our knowledge and technologies. A first demo test case featuring the interoperability of White-Box Wi-Fi hardware with both the Plume and Tanaza cloud stacks is ready. We are thrilled!” says Cristian Piacente, CTO at Tanaza.

Tanaza is dedicated to make hardware and software disaggregation in Wi-Fi a reality.