600,000 students and researchers in Sweden go mobile with eduroam and The Cloud

The Swedish education and research network SUNET and The Cloud have entered a partnership that gives researchers, students and staff at Sweden´s universities and university colleges access to wireless Internet connection off-campus vith eduroam authentication on The Cloud´s 4,500 or so access points in Sweden.

eduroam is a wireless roaming access service developed for the international academic community that provides students, researchers or staff at participating institutions with automatic and secure authentication on each other´s networks.

Many students registered at Sweden´s higher education institutions study either remotely or at multiple locations, and it is becoming increasingly common for researchers to work at and collaborate with more than one centre. This has greatly increased the demand for good Internet connectivity outside the campuses.

“In order to meet the needs of students, researchers and staff for off-campus connectivity, we opted for the Cloud, which can offer the best solution at railway stations, airports and other key places," says Börje Josefsson, acting director of SUNET. “Through this collaboration, SUNET continues to drive the development of data communication in Sweden forward."

The SUNET — The Cloud partnership represents an innovative approach within the eduroam community and is a big step forward, as it makes connectivity easierfor the users, and provides them with secure mobile access to a global wireless network both at their home institution and in public places.

“Simplicity and security are the keys to a truly functional mobile workplace," says Valter Nordh, head of eduroam in Sweden. “We´re convinced that our initiative in Sweden will influence the further development of eduroam in the rest of the world."
The joint initiative would not have been possible without The Cloud´s infrastructure and the flexible platform, which, amongst other things, make it possible to integrate existing and new infrastructure cost-effectively.

“We´re proud to have been chosen as a partner by SUNET and eduroam in this really exciting project," says Roald Sandén, general manager for The Cloud Nordic. “We can also see the great value this brings to our hotspot partners, as it will enable them to offer their own customers even better service."

One of The Cloud´s key infrastructure partners involved in the project is Swedavia, through
its Airport Telecom division. Fredrik Frimodig, CIO Swedavia: “We can now offer
a service at the airport which means even greater opportunities for this group of people
to surf freely and download electronic tickets or other documents."

The service is expected to be available to students, researchers and staff at Sweden´s higher education institutions this October.

Contact

Börje Josefsson
Acting director of SUNET, +46 (0)705 61 08 37, bj@sunet.se

Magnus Ahlström
Marketing manager, the Cloud, +46 (0)709 46 80 00, magnus.ahlstrom@thecloud.net

Valter Nordh
Head of eduroam in Sweden, +46 (0) 707 88 47 42, valter@sunet.se

SUNET — Research and education networks
SUNET was formed in the early 1980s as a research and development project for Swedish computer scientists, and paved the way for internet in Sweden. Today SUNET is primarily academia´s shared organisation and infrastructure for national and international data communication, offering connected institutions a wide range of data services. The Swedish Research Council has been tasked with ensuring that SUNET is administrated and operated in accordance with government guidelines. SUNET has its own board on which academia, researchers and students are represented, and is financed by the participating organisations and through government appropriation. See www.sunet.se

About The Cloud
The Cloud is Europe´s leading independent operator of wireless hotspots, offering broadband access at over 15,000 places in Britain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany. The Cloud´s infrastructure is operator-neutral, which means that competing suppliers can share the same network and offer wireless internet to their customers. The Cloud enables owners of public places (e.g. airports, railway stations and ports) to maximise the flexibility and ease-of-use of visitor connectivity by supporting most major service providers. The Cloud was launched in 2003 and today partners with a variety of service providers, such as Telenor, Nintendo, iPass. The Cloud is part of BSkyB Group Ltd.

eduroam
eduroam is a global partnership of academic institutions that facilitates the sharing of wireless networks. A student or employee of a participating university can log in using his or her home username to the wireless network at all other participating eduroam institutions. The motto is “Open your laptop and be online". See www.eduroam.se.