Networking

Internet2's Eduroam Support Organizations Program Expands in Two States

• By Matt Jones
• 06/06/22

Internet2 recently announced that two additional state research and education (R&E) networks have joined its eduroam Support Organizations program. Connecticut Education Network (CEN) and Link Oregon have joined the program that provides anchor institutions like K–12 schools, libraries and museums access to the eduroam global WiFi roaming service. The service is now available in five states across the U.S., according to a news release.

Eduroam was developed as a worldwide roaming wireless service for the international R&E community and is currently available in more than 100 countries. The U.S. branch is operated by Internet2 and has more than 1,000 subscribing organizations that support millions of student, faculty, researchers and staff.

"The eduroam Support Organizations program is cultivating a cohort of leading organizations in the research and education network community that have the capabilities, capacity and collaborative spirit needed to contribute to the expansion of eduroam access throughout the U.S.," said Kevin Morooney, vice president of trust and identity & NET+ cloud services at Internet2. "The unique promise of eduroam lies in its ever-increasing ubiquity. We're over the moon about the momentum the Support Organizations are creating to bring access to all students in their states. The power of a community coming together to solve shared problems is on full display with these efforts."

CEN and Link Oregon are the fourth and fifth Support Organizations in the U.S. to join. The other three are the Utah Education and Telehealth Network (UETN), the Sun Corridor Network in Arizona, and ConnectEd Nebraska. The news release explained that Support Organization participants share open information with each other, collaborate to solve joint challenges, and leverage existing networks with schools, museums and libraries to address scaling challenges and provide better wireless access. CEN and Link Oregon submitted their proposals to join in April 2022 and will participate in an on-ramp process during the next year.

"CEN is excited to become an eduroam Support Organization and continue to promote secure and seamless WiFi across Connecticut's community anchor institutions," said Ryan Kocsondy, director of CEN. "CEN will be building on the success of the governor's EveryBody Learns initiative, which launched a public WiFi service during the pandemic and utilized eduroam as one of the SSIDs. CEN will partner with members of the CT Commission of Educational Technology on continued eduroam expansion, building on the pilot success at numerous public school districts and libraries."

"Our entire team at Link Oregon is very excited to be recognized by Internet2 as the eduroam Support Organization for Oregon and to have this opportunity to extend the multiple benefits of seamless WiFi roaming to our partners in the K-12, public library and museum sectors," said Steve Corbató, executive director of Link Oregon. "This work will leverage a successful demonstration project led by our founding member Oregon State University, together with the Linn-Benton-Lincoln Education Service District and the Albany and Corvallis School Districts."

For more information on the eduroam Support Organizations program, visit the Internet2 wiki.