Deployment of Service
In a revolutionary move towards advancing education and fostering connectivity, Bangladesh Research and Education Network (BdREN), in cooperation with the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) and in collaboration with ADN Technology, launched the eduroam service – a global settlement free Wi-Fi roaming for research and education community – at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This has become the first such instance in the Asia-Pacific region.
The activation of eduroam at HSIA signifies a significant step forward for the research and education community. This enables the travelers to continue their academic and research pursuits without interruption, whether participating in remote lectures, accessing online resources, collaborating with colleagues, or online social interaction with their family or friends. The availability of “eduroam” at the airport unfolds many possibilities for research and education activities and promotes international cooperation and knowledge sharing.
HSIA has become one among more than 30 international airports in the world that provide “eduroam” services to the travelers. Forging ahead with this successful enablement of “eduroam” service at HSIA, BdREN is looking forward to enabling “eduroam” service at other international airports in the country such as the Osmani International Airport, Sylhet, and the Shah Amanat International Airport, Chittagong. Then the local airports will be targeted. This is in line with CAAB’s commitment to provide high-speed broadband internet access to the travelers.
It is to be mentioned that “eduroam” is currently available in 28 universities and research institutions in Bangladesh. The “eduroam” SSID is being broadcasted by more than 3000 Wi-Fi access points throughout the country, mainly at research and education premises.
After enabling the eduroam service at HSIA, a notable number of national and international eduroam users have logged-in the network during either their departure or arrival at HSIA. BdREN strictly maintains the security by recording the MAC addresses of the users who successfully log in to the system. Here is a monthly statistics of successful individual user login since its activation month July 2023.
Month-wise Number of unique users logged in eduroam at HSIA
Media Coverage
The activation of eduroam service at HSIA has been given a wide coverage on different global medias. Here goes some press releases on the activation of eduroam service at HSIA.
eduroam.org is the global site for eduroam, where they published the news as above. (https://eduroam.org).
TEIN*CC (Trans-Eurasia Information Network Cooperation Center), a not-for-profit organization based in Seoul, Republic of Korea for managing and operating the regional Research and Education network (https://www.tein.asia/main/?mc=0) Asi@Connect of which BdREN is a member, published the news of this successful venture.
CONNECT ONLINE, from the GÉANT community: a magazine, a website and a weekly newsletter, published the news as well. GÉANT is the collaboration of European National Research and Education Networks (NRENs).
Appeal to the APAN community
Following the footsteps of BdREN, Nepal Research and Education Network (NREN) introduced eduroam services at the Tribhuvan International Airport at Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, on May 2024. It goes without saying that eduroam in Dhaka and Kathmandu has ushered a new revolution and a new hope in the eduroam industry in Asia. But, the full flavor of eduroam services will remain short of savoring till all the airports in Asia come under eduroam coverage. Our appeal lies with APAN in motivating its members in introducing eduroam in the international airports at respective countries to make the researchers life easier and more comfortable. This will help NRENs in promoting one of the best “killer applications” so far invented for the community.
