News for and about the Internet2 community

[Todd Sedmak <>]

Over 220 Universities and Research Labs Gain Easy and Secure Wi-Fi Access to 
the Internet

Internet2 NET+ eduroam service to offer wireless Internet access for 
professors, students, and staff

Philadelphia—-Oct. 2, 2012-—Internet2, a consortium of the nation’s leading 
research and education institutions, plans to offer the eduroam wireless 
Internet service to more than 220 of Internet2’s universities and research 
labs, and to all other universities and colleges throughout the United 
States. The announcement was made today at the 2012 Internet2 Fall Member 
Meeting in Philadelphia.

Professors, students and staff at the nation’s largest research universities 
and labs will have easy and secure access to network connectivity across 
their own campus, and when visiting other participating institutions, by 
simply opening a laptop, or activating a smartphone or other portable device.

Internet2, in a partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and 
the University of Tennessee – Knoxville has assumed support for the 
deployment of eduroam in the United States. Through this partnership, 
Internet2 is working with the NSF to broadly increase the deployment of the 
eduroam service. Eduroam, which started as an international project in 
Europe, involves many National Research and Education Network organizations.

“Professors, students and staff at Internet2 member universities will be able 
to roam their fellow campuses without the hassle of gaining Internet access,” 
said Internet2 CEO and President H. David Lambert. “This is a great example 
of the University of Tennessee’s visionary support of eduroam being deployed 
in the United States and NSF’s leadership for providing seed funding to 
enable Internet2 to expand this service to Internet2’s universities and labs.”

The service is provided as an Internet2 member benefit as part of the annual 
membership fee. Higher educational institutions that are not Internet2 
members are invited to join the service for an annual fee. Universities 
interested in subscribing and deploying the Internet2 NET+ eduroam wireless 
service should email 

 for assistance.

Eduroam allows travelers from academic institutions to gain network access 
with minimal configuration and no need for the visited institution to 
explicitly grant access. This benefits faculty visiting labs, people 
traveling for conferences and collaborative work, students studying abroad, 
visitors attending sporting activities, and others roaming Internet2 
campuses. There are thousands of eduroam hotspots to join, without hassle or 
data roaming charges.

“I am thrilled with this announcement,” said Jack Suess, vice president and 
chief information officer of University of Maryland, Baltimore County and 
former chair of Internet2’s Applications, Middleware, and Services Advisory 
Council (AMSAC).  “This is a major milestone because AMSAC passed a 
resolution asking Internet2 to take the lead in seeing eduroam broadly 
deployed in the United States’ R&E community.”

This service works without the need to gain guest credentials on arrival to 
an eduroam-enabled campus. The connectivity is instantaneous, and the user 
authenticates the infrastructure. A user’s credentials are not revealed to 
the institution visited, but instead are only revealed to the person’s home 
institution, which provides an extra measure of comfort for visiting users. 
The technology provides a simple and automatic guest provisioning system, a 
secure wireless connection, encryption and authentication through 
WPA2-Enterprise standards.

Internet2 NET+ Services create a platform tailored to the needs of the 
Internet2 community, are cost and administratively effective, and leverage 
the Internet2 100G Network and InCommon identity management services. There 
are now 29 providers and 150 universities in the program. Internet2 NET+ 
Services and the Internet2 Network enable transformational solutions for 
education delivery and provide better-yielding solutions for university 
business functions – helping higher education institutions remain competitive 
nationally and globally.

Before an Internet2 NET+ Service is offered to the Internet2 community, it is 
put through a series of increasingly rigorous tests. Each phase brings the 
service closer to production, until it is made available to all eligible 
institutions. A complete listing of the 29 Internet2 NET+ Services and the 
development phase of each service can be found at www.internet2.edu/netplus. 
For more information about Internet2 NET+ eduroam, visit 
www.internet2.edu/netplus/eduroam.

About Internet2

Internet2® is a member-owned advanced technology community founded by the 
nation's leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 provides a 
collaborative environment for U.S. research and education organizations to 
solve common technology challenges, and to develop innovative solutions in 
support of their educational, research, and community service missions. For 
more information, visit www.internet2.edu.

For media assistance, contact Todd Sedmak at 804-497-0282 or 
.

Todd Sedmak
Internet2
PR and Media Relations Manager
202-331-5373 (w) or 


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