Ruckus Wireless today it will supply Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi to MWEB, an Internet service provider (ISP) in South Africa.
The company said Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi products will support a new nationwide wireless broadband public access service, as well as managed enterprise wireless LAN (WLAN) services to businesses that exploit its vast fiber broadband service available throughout South Africa.
A subsidiary of media house Naspers, MWEB has installed over 5,000 indoor and outdoor Ruckus ZoneFlex dual-band Smart Wi-Fi access points (APs), including ZoneFlex 7782 outdoor, and ZoneFlex 7982 and ZoneFlex 7055 indoor APs, throughout South Africa.
MWEB has installed Ruckus access points within high-density indoor locations such as malls, hotels, restaurants, hospitals and other public venues, with plans to deploy more than 15,000 more over the next 12 to 18 months.
The ISP will operate 150 Wi-Fi Zones by the end of March 2014 using Ruckus products, offering dual-band Wi-Fi access, with plans to increase to over 500 sites by the end of 2016.
Nathier Kasu, general manager of Wi-Fi at MWEB, said: “We are one of the first service providers to really deploy a real working, carrier-grade wireless infrastructure in South Africa.”
IDC forecasts that the wireless LAN market in South Africa will grow over 120 percent from 2012 to 2017 relative to end user revenue.
From a single Ruckus SCG 200, MWEB is able to support hundreds of venues, with the ability to give venue owners a view into their specific infrastructure, and deliver customer client analytics on the use of MWEB’s installed Wi-Fi infrastructure at each location.
