The level of demand for reliability and performance of Territorial Wi-Fi is also growing. It remains complementary to the mobile network; as the Banque des Territoires (formerly Caisse des Dépôts) emphasizes in its guide to Territorial Wi-Fi, roaming cannot replace a Wi-Fi network to provide real connectivity to users abroad or those far from any quality mobile coverage. It also helps relieve mobile network congestion in high-traffic areas.
What is Territorial Wi-Fi?
Territorial Wi-Fi consists of unified Wi-Fi within a territory: the user connects via a captive portal, and all the terminals deployed ensure coverage without the need to reconnect each time (seamless connection).
What are the benefits of territorial Wi-Fi?
Territorial Wi-Fi is an important factor in a territory's attractiveness, enabling:
- To ensure broadband coverage, particularly for:
- Tourists from outside the European Union;
- Areas far from good mobile coverage;
- High-traffic areas with mobile network saturation (events, tourist attractions, train stations, etc.)
- Provide continuity of service thanks to the captive portal, which enables a seamless connection;
- For the community, to have a hyper-local, tailored, and personalized information channel;
- Have a better understanding of urban flows (particularly to understand commuter migrations within a given area, etc.).
- Transfer legal constraints (2015 Intelligence Act) to private tourist locations thanks to a surbox that unifies the territorial Wi-Fi network on the territory;
- Promote diversified uses, particularly the collection of data from connected objects.
Beyond the services offered to users, territorial Wi-Fi provides the community with an additional tool for analyzing the territory:
- Tourism: flows, tourist routes, user typology;
- Comparison of flow data and user typology with additional data;
- Better understanding of user interests to direct them to personalized offers to enhance the attractiveness of the territory.
What are the characteristics of a territorial Wi-Fi network?
Territorial Wi-Fi corresponds to the deployment of network access points throughout the territory, primarily in transit areas, but it is not limited to these aspects.
In order to become an easy-to-use and attractive commodity, such a network could:
- Provide a common connection portal, adapted to tourism (captive portal). This portal requires only a single authentication and allows automatic reconnection to the network once nearby. After logging in, the user would be redirected to a "community" web page. This would promote local activities and would primarily facilitate the user's stay.
- Be deployed in private tourist locations (restaurants, hotels, campsites, etc.) by integrating existing networks using an overbox. This would allow for decentralized network management; once integrated, the network would appear under the same name (SSID) and with the same captive portal as the rest of the territorial Wi-Fi network.
- Provide a physical and digital communication device to promote the service and signal access points.
- Operate in a unified manner across all sites and access points. The super administrator (the local authority/its partner) would manage connection and authentication settings across the entire network in real time.
- Easily integrate devices using partner networks (roaming agreements with mobile operators).
- Enable database management to leverage and exploit the collected data.
How are the costs of such a network structured?
One of the first steps is to target priority sites for the installation of access points, which will then allow for the modeling of a deployment scenario. Access points can be deployed in public spaces or in partner private locations (integration of existing Wi-Fi using a surbox). These access points can be indoors, outdoors, or integrated into street furniture.
Overall, the implementation of a territorial Wi-Fi network follows a three-phase cost structure:
- Study and design costs;
- Installation and integration costs: the deployment of several connected access points in each area will allow the deployment of the infrastructure on a shared network; in particular, the centralization of connection management, the firewall, and software (captive portal, advertising, etc.) in a data center (central switch, Wireless LAN Controller, VLAN, etc.);
- Operating and maintenance costs
Jean-François
Contact Jean-François
Do you have a question about territorial Wi-Fi? Need some clarification regarding a future project? Send an email to Jean-François Celhabe, Director of the AMO division.
