Wi-Fi Alliance CEO Edgar Figueroa said during an interview at CTIA in New Orleans today that the organization would begin offering certifications to networking gear and mobile devices starting in June with the goal of getting Passpoint-certified devices onto market shortly afterward.

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ANALYSIS:

"Adoption of Passpoint will take a shorter amount of time than what you'd expect," he said. "The first release of Passpoint will be in June and we will productions available throughout the following months. ... I would not be surprised if we already started seeing roaming agreements between carriers as well."

The Passpoint initiative essentially creates a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and allows you to access any in your area that take part in the program. What's more, any hotspots that take part in Passpoint will allow you to connect without entering in any login or billing information since the program supports Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)-based authentication that cellular networks currently use to grant users seamless handoffs between cell sites. This also means that carriers can forge Wi-Fi roaming agreements with one another that could, for instance, give AT&T subscribers access to Verizon hotspots without having to enter in any information or manually connect to different networks.