Ruckus Wireless announced that it has been selected by
KDDI Corporation, Japan’s telecommunications provider, to supply advanced Wi-Fi
products for the world’s first and largest “instant on” Wi-Fi access
and mobile data offload service.
With over 32 million mobile subscribers, KDDI is
leveraging advanced carrier Wi-Fi technology, pioneered by Ruckus Wireless, to
offload mobile data traffic from its cellular network while providing subscribers with seamless,
high-speed wireless access throughout Japan.
Subscribers of KDDI’s packet flat rate plans can now use
the new KDDI “au Wi-Fi SPOT” service free of charge with their au
Android smartphones in over 10,000 locations initially, scaling to 100,000
locations by March 2012.
With no tedious, manual configuration of the phone, KDDI
subscribers can automatically access and be authenticated to KDDI au Wi-Fi
hotspots using credentials embedded within each phone over highly secured and
encrypted connections.
“Wi-Fi is clearly at the top of the list for service
providers around the world looking for new ways to increase cellular capacity.
KDDI has taken a truly innovative approach to building a heterogeneous network
that combines macro cellular technology, femtocells, WiMAX and Wi-Fi to address
the exponential growth of wireless data traffic,” said Selina Lo,
president and CEO of Ruckus Wireless.
Innovative service providers face a number of issues as
they look to support the aggressive smartphone rollouts. Legacy macro-cell
architectures cannot provide density of coverage for today’s demanded
applications such as access to rich media and social media networks.
With Wi-Fi embedded in virtually every mobile Internet
device, common hotspot services have become an important component of effective
coverage for today’s service providers worldwide that offer smartphones.
Wi-Fi hotspots are a quick and cost-effective way for
mobile operators to inject wireless capacity in areas of high usage, thereby
alleviating the pressures on 3G/4G infrastructures caused by the explosion of
mobile Internet data traffic.
However, the lack of integration between Wi-Fi hotspots
and cellular networks has hampered operators from delivering a seamless and
consistent subscriber experience to the exploding population of smartphone and
tablet users. KDDI has solved this problem, through introducing innovative
bundled plans that include both 3G and Wi-Fi traffic in a variety of options.
The charging is unified, and access to both 3G and Ruckus-driven Wi-Fi networks
is a single seamless experience for KDDI’s customers.
By telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
