GoZone WiFi, a U.S. marketing, analytics, and advertising platform, has released new Smart WiFi outcomes to help restaurants gather information, increase loyalty, and advertise to customers in a time when many businesses are still reeling from COVID.

Given the fact that 84% of restaurant-goers base their decision to patronize a restaurant upon the presence and quality of its WiFi, it’s never been more important to integrate Smart WiFi.

GoZone WiFi solutions provide restaurants with various tools needed to succeed at getting customers to patronize their businesses.

Each option provides different outcomes to bolster a specific part of a restaurant’s plan to offer a unique customer experience that keeps people coming back while increasing revenue pathways.

Marketing4Wifi simplifies the marketing experience, empowering restaurants to:

• Entice customers with free access to WiFi
• Gain valuable information upon customer logins, such as email address, surveys, or SMS
  • Restaurants may then use data to send targeted emails and SMS to engage customers at opportune times, providing reminders or deals for birthdays or simply to get a repeat visit
• Brand a customers’ entire WiFi experience to promote deals, events, and offerings like delivery

With this setup, everyone gets what they want. Customers get WiFi to use while they dine, and the business obtains valuable data that it can use to increase return visits, learn about customer demographics, and attract new patrons.

A hallmark of successful restaurants in the post-COVID world will be the opportunity to regain customer loyalty. The past year has been a trying time for all businesses, and restaurants continue to face difficulties. Fortunately, Smart WiFi can rise to the challenge to help restaurants overcome many of the most significant problems.

For starters, analyzing WiFi login data can help a business determine its busiest times and then use that data to aid with traffic flow and seating in a building. This can promote overcrowding and promote feelings of safety among patrons.

Smart WiFi is also a valuable tool for creating a customer loyalty program. The SMS numbers and emails gathered during WiFi logins can be directly integrated into a business’s CRM software, providing businesses with a direct link to customers’ information.

That data can be used to incentivize customers to return at opportune times by sending direct messages while also providing them with individualized offers that are most likely to get them into the restaurant. Birthdays, anniversaries, or other regular interactions can each be added to the CRM and utilized to promote sales.

Furthermore, a business gains the ability to directly request customer reviews which have greater potential to be positive, thereby increasing the likelihood that more people will come to the restaurant.

Utilizing GoZone’s WiFi for restaurants will promote safety and sales side by side while also generating a significant ROI, minimizing the relative cost of engaging GoZone WiFi’s Smart system.

GoZone’s Smart WiFi framework is already established; restaurants can start setting up their WiFi systems right now to gain customers, actionable data, and an edge in their market.

About GoZone WiFi

GoZone WiFi is a SaaS company providing guest engagement and advertising solutions to businesses large and small. GoZone’s Smart WiFi Suite helps companies innovate as they reach out to their customers and advertising partners. You can contact GoZone WiFi at (877) 554-WiFi or [email protected]

Wi-Fi 6E: Efficiently maneuvers between Wireless Bands, provides Gigabit speeds and extremely low latency. Opening of the 6 GHz, essentially, quadruples the amount of airwaves (14 additional 80MHz channels, and 7 additional 160MHz channels) available for routers and smart devices which translates to greater capacity, improved performance & use for diverse next-generation technology applications. Download our Infographic to know more. This infographic is authored by Anand Kumar, GM, sales, HFCL Ltd.

Enea has won the IoT Innovation Award at this year’s World Communication Awards for its Aptilo IoT Connectivity Control Service™ (Aptilo IoT CCS). The World Communication Awards forum has recognized innovation and excellence in the telecom industry for 23 years, and is one of the most prominent marks of achievement.

“The key in this category was to bring real innovation in the market, and this is what Enea does”, said Matt Hatton of Transforma Insights, who presented the jury’s motivation. One jury member liked the fact that Aptilo IoT CCS addresses a real problem for mobile operators, enabling them to profitably launch IoT services while meeting the needs of enterprise customers, and another member said it had hyperscale potential.

Enea’s Aptilo IoT CCS is a unique innovation delivered as a service on Amazon Web Services. The Aptilo Service Management Platform™ is handling the control plane, while Fortinet’s next-generation firewalls are handling the data plane. The service enables mobile operators to target the mass-market of customers prepared to pay for value-added services, but not for tailor-made development.

“We are proud to win this prestigious IoT innovation award,” said Jonas Björklund, Senior Vice President of the Aptilo Business Unit at Enea. “Innovation is all about teamwork and we want to share the award with Telia, the first Aptilo IoT CCS customer, and our partners Fortinet and Amazon Web Services – it is a great joint achievement.”

With Aptilo IoT CCS in place, mobile operators can leave mobile core and IoT platforms untouched and add a flexible hyperscale layer of programmable IoT connectivity control, automating the IoT service delivery. Operator’s enterprise IoT customers can manage security and policy settings through self-management portals, and VPNs can be created in a matter of minutes rather than weeks. If the operators use localization of eSIMs, customers will still get a unified IoT service across all international partner networks with the same IP-address, security, and policies.

References
• Aptilo IoT Connectivity Control Service™ (IoT CCS)
https://www.aptilo.com/cloud/cellular-iot-connectivity-management-and-policy-control/

The names, brands, and logotypes of third-party products and services mentioned or shown in this press release are the property of their respective owners and may also be trademarks. They are used for identification purposes only and do not imply endorsement.

About Enea
Enea is one of the world’s leading specialists in software for telecommunications and cybersecurity. The company’s cloud-native products are used to enable and protect services for mobile subscribers, enterprise customers, and the Internet of Things. More than 3 billion people rely on Enea technologies in their daily lives.

Enea is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, and is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.

For more information: www.enea.com

Secure, interoperable Wi-Fi expands connectivity for more IoT applications

Austin, TX – November 2, 2021 – Wi-Fi Alliance^® introduces Wi-Fi CERTIFIED HaLow^™ – the certification program for products incorporating IEEE 802.11ah technology – to expand Wi-Fi^® applications for the Internet of Things (IoT). Wi-Fi HaLow^™ operates in the sub-1 GHz band, enabling long range and low power connectivity, while providing a robust connection in challenging Wi-Fi environments. Wi-Fi HaLow will enable a variety of new, power-efficient use cases for IoT and Industrial IoT (IIoT) environments, as well as retail, agriculture, healthcare, smart home, and smart city markets.

Wi-Fi HaLow enables low power connectivity necessary for applications including sensors, personal wearable devices, and utility meters that require multi-year battery operation. Wi-Fi HaLow supports applications such as streaming compressed video from security cameras, even in challenging environments where the ability to penetrate walls or other barriers to provide a robust connection is an important consideration. In agriculture or logistics monitoring applications where long range is a priority, Wi-Fi HaLow delivers data at ranges exceeding one kilometer. Wi-Fi HaLow adopts existing Wi-Fi protocols to deliver many of the benefits that consumers have come to expect from Wi-Fi, including multi-vendor interoperability, strong WPA3™ security, easy setup, and seamless integration into IP networks.

“Wi-Fi CERTIFIED HaLow further extends Wi-Fi’s leading role in IoT to address a new range of secure and interoperable use cases that require longer range and lower power. Wi-Fi HaLow is a compelling addition to the Wi-Fi portfolio, making the full range of Wi-Fi capabilities an unmatched connectivity offering,” said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance. “There are growing opportunities to streamline connectivity in the growing IoT market, and Wi-Fi HaLow builds on a universally trusted Wi-Fi foundation to pave the way for emerging IoT applications to benefit homes, businesses, and industries.” 

Wi-Fi’s expanding IoT portfolio
IoT connected devices in use worldwide are projected to exceed 30 billion units by 2025, more than doubling from 13.8 billion in 2021.¹ The smart home IoT use case is a rapidly growing market, and more than 29 percent of businesses also use IoT technology to streamline processes and increase efficiency.² Wi-Fi Alliance has a strong portfolio of technologies delivering low power, high performance, and secure Wi-Fi for a wide variety of IoT environments. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ is a strong complement to Wi-Fi HaLow for commercial, industrial, and residential IoT applications requiring fast data rates and low latency, such as AR/VR, home security systems with high-resolution video feeds, medical telemetry monitoring, and remote surgery. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Easy Connect^™ reduces the complexity of connecting devices to Wi-Fi networks, including the many IoT devices with little to no user interface, while simultaneously incorporating the highest security standards. All Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ devices support WPA3, providing cutting edge security protocols to protect sensitive data and provide strong protections to users.

“Wi-Fi HaLow devices such as security cameras and tablets are being used in industrial environments today, and we expect devices to soon make their way to smart home environments allowing consumers to take advantage of its longer range and lower power for applications such as battery powered cameras, video baby monitors, and other smart home products,” said Phil Solis, research director at IDC. “Companies have been working on Wi-Fi HaLow chipsets for years and we expect shipments to break 10 million in 2022, with adoption expanding from industrial to include smart home, smart city, and retail markets.”

Member companies providing interoperability test bed devices that are among the first Wi-Fi CERTIFIED HaLow products include Methods2Business, Morse Micro, and Newracom.

Industry support for Wi-Fi CERTIFIED HaLow:

“Wi-Fi CERTIFIED HaLow is the best choice for sensor communication and video feeds in RF challenged environments, such as manufacturing floors, construction sites, and commercial buildings. Operating in the ISM sub-GHz band, Wi-Fi HaLow brings exciting new features and Wi-Fi Alliance certification is of key importance to the IoT marketplace. Wi-Fi HaLow delivers longer range (more than 1 kilometer), higher throughput, large scale station deployments due to grouping and scheduling, lower latency, and long battery lifetime. Additionally, as part of the Wi-Fi family, Wi-Fi HaLow capitalizes on existing Wi-Fi infrastructure and robust end-to-end security, with multicast, and broadcast capabilities that allows for field software upgradability.” – Michael “Mac” McNamara, CEO, Adapt-IP

“Methods2Business is proud to play an active role in the availability of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED HaLow. Our company is excited to be one of the Wi-Fi HaLow certification test bed providers. Wi-Fi Alliance is delivering great value to the industry, enabling us to develop one of the first certified, interoperable, Wi-Fi HaLow products. Our customers believe that Wi-Fi HaLow will play a substantial role in the revolution of Industrial IoT and IoT for the Smart Home. It will serve these rapidly emerging markets with its unique advantages of a longer range (more than a kilometer) Wi-Fi with ultra-low power consumption and high security standards.” – Marleen Boonen, CEO & Founder, Methods2Business

“The ground-breaking potential of extending the already transformative characteristics of Wi-Fi into the sub-1 GHz band is hard to overstate, and we applaud Wi-Fi Alliance’s leadership in unleashing a new era of long range, low power and high-capacity Wi-Fi HaLow experiences for consumers. As a leading Wi-Fi HaLow innovator, we have invested heavily in R&D to ensure the market is ready with SoCs and modules that deliver unmatched benefits unlike any Wi-Fi or LPWAN technology available today. The addition of sub-1 GHz Wi-Fi CERTIFIED HaLow to the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED portfolio will be a game changer for consumers and enterprises, from smart home, building automation, smart city, and industrial markets – and everything in between.”
– Michael De Nil, co-founder and CEO, Morse Micro

“We are incredibly excited to witness Wi-Fi Alliance’s announcement of the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED HaLow program. Today marks a significant milestone for Newracom, Wi-Fi Alliance, and the industry as a whole. With long range, lower power consumption and massive deployment capabilities, Wi-Fi HaLow extends the inherent goodness of Wi-Fi to accelerate the next generation Internet of Things applications.”  – Zac Freeman, Vice President, Newracom

“Palma Ceia SemiDesign salutes Wi-Fi Alliance on the launch of the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED HaLow program. This launch represents years of work by members of Wi-Fi Alliance to achieve a truly testable and compliant standard. Wi-Fi HaLow will provide users with a unique combination of range, throughput, network density, and power efficiency with WPA3 security. Palma Ceia will deliver Wi-Fi HaLow solutions and network support services to consumer and industrial clients. We look forward to the positive impact Wi-Fi HaLow and the collection of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED HaLow products will have on the IoT market and the expanded user applications that will benefit from Wi-Fi HaLow’s outcome-based network deployments.” – Kevin Walsh, Vice President of Strategic Marketing, Palma Ceia SemiDesign

For more information, please visit our website and download our technology overview, program paper, and highlights sheet.

About Wi-Fi Alliance^® |  www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance^® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi^®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 65,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

Wi-Fi QoS Management^™ helps provide consistent service quality across Wi-Fi and 5G

Austin, TX – October 21, 2021 – Wi-Fi CERTIFIED QoS Management™ is a certification program from Wi-Fi Alliance^® that allows more granular Quality of Service (QoS) management in home, public, and enterprise environments to further improve the user experience with latency-sensitive, real-time applications, and to help ensure consistent QoS treatment across Wi-Fi^® and 5G networks. Standardized mechanisms in Wi-Fi QoS Management^™ allow for differentiated traffic prioritization between Wi-Fi and cellular networks to deliver an enhanced user experience with applications requiring low latency and low jitter. Wi-Fi QoS Management enhances voice-over-IP, videoconferencing, interactive gaming, X Reality (XR), Internet of Things (IoT) and healthcare monitoring.

“Wi-Fi has a powerful role today in delivering essential use cases in home and enterprise environments,” said Kevin Robinson, SVP of Marketing, Wi-Fi Alliance. “There is unprecedented growth of real-time, bidirectional communication applications over Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi QoS Management delivers deterministic connectivity that allows enterprises, service providers, and users to enjoy latency-sensitive applications even in dense or challenging environments. Additionally, as more 5G networks are deployed, Wi-Fi QoS Management will help ensure consistent traffic management across Wi-Fi and cellular networks.”

Wi-Fi QoS Management includes four core features including:

• Stream Classification Service (SCS): enables classification and Wi-Fi QoS treatment of specific IP flows, including flows to and from 5G core networks, allowing sensitive traffic such as gaming, voice, and video to be prioritized over bulk data traffic.
• Mirrored Stream Classification Service (MSCS): enables a client device to request that the access point apply specific QoS treatment of downlink IP data flows using QoS mirroring.
• Differentiated Service Code Point (DSCP) mapping: aligns QoS treatment across Wi-Fi and wired networks help enable end-to-end consistency and also allow network managers to configure specific QoS policies.
• Differentiated Service Code Point (DSCP) Policy: enables dynamic configuration of clients with DSCP policies for specific uplink IP traffic flows, allowing them to be marked with different DSCP values and further improving the experience with applications requiring low latency such as XR.

Hybrid workforces are becoming increasingly more common and have given renewed importance to collaboration technologies which rely on high quality Wi-Fi to deliver the best user experience with tools including video conferencing or voice-over-IP. Additionally, XR technologies are poised to bridge gaps between real and virtual worlds by improving education, onboarding, healthcare, and other advanced use cases with richer experiences. Consistent QoS treatment policies are necessary to meet the demands of these advanced use cases – most of which require data traffic to traverse multiple networks – including Wi-Fi, wired, and cellular. Wi-Fi QoS Management provides mechanisms that allow client applications to request QoS treatment, and for network managers to implement QoS policies. These mechanisms allow user devices and access points to perform differentiated prioritization, depending on the type of traffic. The result is robust service delivery and higher quality Wi-Fi, including better experiences with real-time and immersive applications, and reduced latency and jitter when online gaming or accessing interactive cloud and edge services.

For more information, please visit our website and download our technology overview and/or highlights sheet.

About Wi-Fi Alliance^®  |  www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance^® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi^®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 65,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

Austin, Texas and Washington, D.C. – October 19, 2021 – Wi-Fi Alliance^® continues to advance development of the Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) system that maximizes spectrum access in the 6 GHz frequency band. Wi-Fi Alliance is announcing the release of an additional element necessary for AFC system implementation: the AFC System Compliance Test Plan. Wi-Fi Alliance development efforts on this innovative AFC system aim to ensure worldwide adoption, interoperability, security, and reliability expected of Wi-Fi^®.

Wi-Fi 6E leverages the 6 GHz band to unleash capacity, speed, and reduced latency benefits. The AFC system, already adopted into 6 GHz regulatory framework in Canada and U.S., is also being considered by regulators in other countries. Development of this AFC system framework demonstrates the commitment by Wi-Fi Alliance to maximizing 6 GHz spectrum opportunity and accelerating delivery of Wi-Fi 6E benefits.

AFC documents now available from Wi-Fi Alliance include:

• AFC System Compliance Test Plan: allows AFC system operators to ensure that AFC systems are receiving information from AFC Devices, checking spectrum and location against NRA database, and communicating back to AFC Devices
• AFC System Reference Model: describes the overall end-to-end AFC system architecture, covering the topology and related elements that make up the entire system
• AFC Device Compliance Test Plan: describes a compliance test program for communication of an AFC device under test (DUT) to the AFC system, including the format of information it must report to the AFC system
• AFC System to AFC Device Interface Specification: provides interface specifications for communication between an AFC system and an AFC device

For more information on countries enabling Wi-Fi 6E, please visit: https://www.wi-fi.org/countries-enabling-wi-fi-6e. To download the full package of Wi-Fi Alliance AFC documents, please visit: https://www.wi-fi.org/file/afc-specification-and-test-plans.

About Wi-Fi Alliance^®  |  www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance^® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 65,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

As the Baby Boomer generation ages, senior living facilities must improve their technology systems to accommodate changing resident needs. The most technologically savvy group of seniors, Baby Boomers are likely to adopt technology that advances their lifestyle and improves their level of care. Accessibility, connectivity, and communication are all modern-day conveniences seniors expect today.

Comfortable Accessibility
One of the greatest innovations is the IoT, the connected home. With customizable technology solutions such as smart lighting, window treatments, and lock/access controls, seniors can relax and change their environment with ease. Empower seniors with remote door locks, eliminating any unnecessary movement but giving them privacy and comfortability in their own space. World Cinema’s ImpruviX NetworX brings peace of mind to seniors and their families through simple solutions that keep their loved ones’ (and their data) safe and secure. Residents can also connect to their space through Amazon Alexa using their voice to request changes to their room. Systems like voice-controlled searching enhance senior technology experiences.

Community Involvement
Recent studies indicate the importance of community involvement on senior living happiness and mental health. With WorldVue, you can alert guests when an event is approaching, and let them know the details through their screen. Digitize resident information through your own in-house channel and inform residents when they have appointments or upcoming visits. Keep residents in the loop by displaying your location amenities through text, photos, and looping videos played on each in-room television screen. WorldVue also provides a live stream option to keep your residents connected from inside their rooms. This feature enables mobility-impaired guests to interact and engage with their environment, boosting levels of happiness and comfortability. Communication is increasingly important and staying connected with your residents ensures they are comfortable, safe, and empowered to age gracefully in your facility.

Enhanced Communication
Finally, the World Cinema Wi-Fi platform ensures senior living residents are constantly connected with friends and family. Reduce feelings of isolation by simplifying their internet and cellular service, empowering residents to use their devices for video conferencing, social media networking, and long-distance phone calls. With OpticalHome, seniors can move in and plug in, without hassling with local internet providers. Additionally, erase the stigma associated with Wi-Fi connectivity by creating a seamless InstaOn™ experience. This system allows residents to move in, plug in, and start streaming their favorite shows, connecting devices with ease.