Wi-Fi’s Critical Role in Emergency Communications Strengthens Global Safety Framework

As emergency response demands evolve, Wi-Fi is emerging as a strategic pillar in mission-critical communications. New industry reports outline how Wi-Fi and OpenRoaming are set to transform public safety, ensuring seamless, reliable connectivity when it matters most.

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The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) has released three strategic reports defining a unified framework for using Wi-Fi, Passpoint and OpenRoaming to support emergency calling and priority communications. These reports highlight how Wi-Fi has become essential in disaster response, dense public areas and indoor environments, extending the reach of mobile networks and enabling accurate location services, priority access and regulatory compliance for emergency services and public safety agencies.

The framework emphasises Wi-Fi’s evolution into a mission-critical infrastructure, enabling E-911/E-112 access, real-time prioritisation for first responders and standards-based location accuracy. It also encourages device manufacturers to integrate emergency profiles, ensuring accessibility even without cellular credentials. By leveraging OpenRoaming, mobile operators can enhance Voice over Wi-Fi to address weak signal areas and reduce costs, while government and NS/EP agencies gain resilient, QoS-driven communications for disaster recovery and high-load scenarios.

Tiago Rodrigues, President and CEO of the WBA, stated:

“Emergency communications must be seamless, secure and dependable—indoors, in dense public spaces and during crises. These reports show how Wi-Fi and OpenRoaming enhance cellular network emergency communications to deliver seamless resilient, standards-based services for the public, first responders and emergency services teams coordinating emergency responses.”

Matthew MacPherson, CTO, Wireless at Cisco, added:

“Cisco has led the industry effort with WBA members to bring mission critical services such as Emergency Calling and National Security and Emergency Preparedness services to Wi-Fi. These services, long available only on cellular, are now extended to Wi-Fi, making it a platform that supports life-saving and mission critical needs. Citizens, enterprises, and governments can now rely on Wi-Fi alongside cellular when it matters most. Converging Wi-Fi and 5G for emergency services creates a stronger foundation that better serves our communities, our emergency responders, and ultimately all of us.”

Josephine Micallef, Vice President of Cyber and Network Systems at Peraton Labs, emphasized:

“Wi-Fi is a critical technology for supporting national security and emergency preparedness communications. Our efforts in this area [...] provide a clear view of how to exploit the priority features in Wi-Fi technologies to enable the ubiquitous, low-latency and high-throughput communications these authorized users need to exploit emerging applications, including artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, when performing their critical duties.”

 

Download the paper: https://wballiance.com/emergency-calling-over-wi-fi-networks-industry-framework

Download the paper: https://wballiance.com/cellular-emergency-calling-over-openroaming-wi-fi-networks

Download the paper: https://wballiance.com/national-security-emergency-preparedness