Devicescape adds security layer to virtual wifi network

Virtual wifi network specialist Devicescape has launched a security layer called Safetynet Curator, which is designed to increase the trust end-users have in its network and in public wifi in general.

Devicescape has created what it calls a “Curated Virtual Network (CVN)”. This involves aggregating public wifi hotspots into what appear to be a single network as far as the end-user is concerned. Logging in and switching between hotspots, and indeed mobile broadband, is facilitated and Devicescape is betting that operators will recognise this as a key value-add for their subscribers.

Telecoms.com caught up with Devicescape CEO Dave Fraser to get some more insight into the Devicescape business model. “Devicescape is in the business of helping mobile operators extend their networks,” said Fraser. “In the last couple of years in particular wifi has come into play for a variety of different reasons, so our focus has been on how they extend their networks in an intelligent manner using wifi.

“We have a rather unique take on that because we have our own virtualised wifi network, which means we’ve taken all of the public wifi that has already been deployed, which is typically free. Every year this network is getting denser so we’re at the point now where, in the UK, one in six customer-facing businesses has amenity wifi. When we got started around four years ago in the US, it was also around one in six, but right now San Francisco is one in two, New York’s around one in three.

“The bottom line is the growth in public wifi is a global megatrend, but it’s completely chaotic, nobody knows where it is and the way it’s used is non-standard and tends to be a bit complicated. So we curate all of this resource into something that feels like a single virtual network that is very large, inexpensive to use, and we manage it for seamless connections, for quality and now for security.

“Our customers are the operators; they get to add this wifi asset into their overall network strategy and choose how to use it. Our thesis is that if they take ownership of it and help the users, they can ‘supersize’ the user’s data service and give them a ton of additional data for a little bit more money.”

For this thesis to prove successful, Devicescape needs end-users to feel as comfortable as possible using public wifi, which is where today’s launch comes in. The addition of an auto-VPN solution to the network is designed to reassure end-users that using public wifi won’t entail a reduction in security.

To back up its assertion that a better wifi experience also equates to higher consumption of mobile data – a key pillar of its sales pitch to operators – Devicescape has also just released some data from commercial deployments of its products. Apparently the data reveals a 17% increase in billable monthly cellular data use from 64% of end-users, so there you go.

Devicescape’S Cvn Claims To Grow Cellular Data Consumption Too