Virginia-based Kajeet, which provides device management and connectivity services to commercial, education and government markets, announced in a news release last week that K-12 customers now have access to the global roaming network eduroam, which provides Internet access authentication services for Kajeet’s SmartBus, Connect Suite and Smart Transit customers. InCommon, based in Michigan, is the U.S. hub for eduroam service.
Kajeet’s K-12 customers who want to become eduroam subscribers or hot spot providers will get zero-touch (automatically configured) access to the larger network for no additional cost. This integration allows Kajeet users to access Wi-Fi networks on their school-issued or authorized personal devices outside of the classrooms or their homes using their school’s login, according to the news release. Authentication of each user is processed by eduroam.
Kajeet spokeswoman Linda Jennings explained in an email to Government Technology that there are two sides to every eduroam connection — subscriber and hot spot. Any educational institution can become an eduroam member and allow their users to be eduroam subscribers, regardless of Kajeet’s offerings.
“Kajeet is now allowing any customer providing Wi-Fi access via our solutions to broadcast the eduroam SSID (service set identifier) and allow eduroam subscribers to authenticate onto that network,” Jennings wrote. “This can provide access for visitors from other institutions/schools/districts/colleges/etc. and can also provide a secure authentication method for their own users as local eduroam subscribers.”
In the news release, Kajeet Public Sector Senior Vice President Michael Flood called the integration a "significant advancement" in Wi-Fi access for the education market.
"With this integration, our customers can provide safe and easy Wi-Fi access for their students, faculty and staff, without having to worry about unauthorized use and with a significant reduction in security threats,” Flood said in a public statement.
The integration also allows visiting students, staff, faculty and researchers from qualifying institutions to access the network without additional login steps or setup processes. According to the news release, participating institutions have access to eduroam’s secure reporting tools to monitor participation for their own users and that of visitors.
This is the latest of several partnerships Kajeet has announced in the past year, having deployed its 5G platform on the Google Distributed Cloud Edge in June 2022 and launched a private 5G partner channel in October.
While eduroam is well-established on college campuses across the globe, it is new to the K-12 space, Jennings wrote, adding that the ever-expanding network has especially benefited college students studying abroad. According to the company website, Kajeet’s customer base of about 3,000 includes businesses, school districts, and state and local governments.
According to InCommon’s website, eduroam serves 2,500 U.S. locations and 33,000 locations worldwide.
