One way of looking at this move, apart from its new acronyms, is that it’s another competitive alignment between BT and Virgin Media (the UK’s cable operator). For big network operators, the future must be about ‘multi-play’ if they’re to stay in the game. WiFi service beyond the home has become one of the necessary ‘plays’ in the UK market, as evidenced by BT’s WiFi offer which enables its broadband users to share each others’ WiFi access and use BT’s hotspots when out and about.

So Virgin needs a WiFi play to at least match BT’s offer and that’s where the CVN comes in. Devicescape has announced that Virgin Media has taken its Wi-Fi service platform and will offer its Curated Virtual Network to customers to use when they’re on the go. Devicescape is expecting 1.1 million locations to be on its platform in the UK by 2017. (See - Devicescape to sign UK mobile network before MWC).

The idea behind the CVN is that Devicescape curates all the amenity and other free WiFif out there - sorting the wheat from the chaff and automating users’ log-in. The system then connects users to “quality-controlled” hotspots only ensuring “best available connection” as the emerging jargon has it.

Devicescape also simplifies the connection of the user to his or her own Wifi in the home.

Devicescape will supply Virgin Media with both the Public and Personal Curator services from the Devicescape Service Platform. Personal Curator simplifies the connection to Wi-Fi in the customer’s home and the Public Curator service will enable automatic connectivity to quality-controlled Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the UK, ensuring customers have the best possible reliable data connection. The service comes to the customers via an app download or is embedded on the phone.