France’s leading telecom operator this week reaffirmed that WiFi offload is the most practical strategy for managing growing mobile data traffic.
At the Broadband World Forum on Wednesday, Alain Maloberti, Senior Vice President of Networks at France Telecom, stressed the value of using existing WiFi infrastructure to relieve pressure on the mobile network. He argued that leveraging current access points is far more cost-effective than building a separate, extensive WiFi network comparable in expense to deploying additional mobile infrastructure.
Maloberti highlighted Orange’s existing assets: around 7 million DSL routers with built-in WiFi and roughly 40,000 public WiFi hotspots across France. These resources give the operator a significant opportunity to move traffic off the mobile network, provided user access is simplified.
Today, many smartphone users face friction when connecting to hotspots because they must manually enter passwords or follow cumbersome login steps. Maloberti advocated for seamless authentication processes that allow subscribers to connect automatically and securely. He emphasised that robust authentication and security are essential—especially as richer mobile services such as live TV and streaming become more common.
To strengthen security without creating complexity for users, Orange intends to integrate IPsec or an equivalent secure tunneling method into devices where feasible. Maloberti indicated that the company will pursue IPsec if it can be implemented without undue difficulty, otherwise it will explore alternative approaches that achieve the same security objectives.
Despite the promise of WiFi offload, technical and ecosystem challenges persist. A notable example involves spectrum bands: while many devices support WiFi in the popular 2.4 GHz band, Orange has capacity in the 5 GHz band that could meet up to 75% of its WiFi requirements. Yet only a small fraction of smartphones currently support 5 GHz access—limiting how much of Orange’s load can be shifted to that band today.
Given these constraints, Maloberti urged operators to reconsider how traffic is carried and routed. He recommended improving backhaul capacity and implementing local breakout strategies so that traffic that does not need to traverse the mobile core can be handled locally. Such measures reduce strain on the core network and improve performance for end users.
Maloberti concluded that some offload is already underway, but operators must accelerate efforts and do more. By combining seamless and secure authentication, device-level security solutions, smarter use of existing WiFi assets, and targeted network architecture changes like local breakout, operators can better manage surging mobile data demand while controlling costs and maintaining user experience.