Telenor Selects Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi for National IPTV Service in Sweden

Smart Wi-Fi Technology Used to Let Swedish Consumers Self-Install Popular IPTV Services Where and When They Want

IPTV WORLD FORUM, London, England — Ruckus Wireless today announced that it has been selected by Telenor, the world’s seventh largest mobile operator, to supply Smart Wi-Fi 802.11g systems for the wireless distribution of its popular Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service, offered to subscriber homes throughout Sweden through the wholly owned subsidiary Bredbandsbolaget.

Under the agreement, Ruckus Wireless is supplying Telenor with its award-winning MediaFlex 802.11g Smart Wi-Fi systems. The Ruckus MediaFlex systems are being made available to consumers in Sweden through Telenor retail outlets, and can be easily self-installed by subscribers.

Ruckus-patented Smart Wi-Fi technology was selected by Telenor to reduce installation costs, speed subscriber acquisition and give customers greater freedom and flexibility over the installation and distribution of its IPTV service within the home.

“The Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi system lets us return control of the digital television experience back into the hands of the customer, where it should be,” said Marcus Nylén, CEO of Bredbandsbolaget, Sweden’s second largest fixed ISP. “With Smart Wi-Fi from Ruckus Wireless we are in a position to better service our subscribers by effectively eliminating cumbersome and costly wiring while giving them the freedom to put TVs anywhere in the home, and move them around as they see fit.”

Bredbandsbolaget is a leading provider of broadband services in Sweden with over 450,000 broadband customers. The company operates an all-IP network providing customers with LAN access of up to 100 Mbit/s and DSL access up to 24 Mbit/s. It provides a wide range of digital media services such as video on demand, IPTV, music downloads, virtual storage, security services, gaming services and much more. Bredbandsbolaget’s fast growing IPTV service delivers consumers a rich menu of scheduled programming and Pay TV services using standard MPEG-2 technology.

Telenor currently offers a wide-range of standard definition IPTV channels, each with a data rate of approximately 3.5 Mbit/s. A single Ruckus MediaFlex system can support five or more MPEG-4 standard definition multicast IPTV streams simultaneously being transmitted to different TVs within the home. The Ruckus MediaFlex 802.11g system will also support two HD (MPEG-4) IPTV streams concurrently.

Sweden’s high broadband penetration rate has been achieved on the back of extensive investment in fast DSL and fiber upgrades which provide the infrastructure for triple play services. The country is at the forefront of digital terrestrial TV, which can be accessed by more than 98% of the population, and began the first stage of its digital switchover in September 2005, ahead of the rest of Europe.

“Having been selected by national carriers in Germany, Belgium, Singapore, Hong Kong, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic and now Sweden, Ruckus Wireless has clearly proven that Smart Wi-Fi is the right technology at the right time,” said Selina Lo, president and CEO of Ruckus Wireless. “Over the last year, our Wi-Fi business has exploded and Europe has led the way. With Smart Wi-Fi, service providers now have the confidence to make Wi-Fi a strategic part of their service strategy.”

Smart Wi-Fi is a newest innovation in 802.11 technology that uses advances in intelligent antenna arrays and quality of service to double the range, reliability and performance of wireless communications. Smart Wi-Fi works by continuously routing Wi-Fi signals over the best and highest performing paths while steering these Wi-Fi signals around interference as it is experienced. This enables Smart Wi-Fi systems to automatically adapt to the changing Wi-Fi environment and support real-time, delay-sensitive applications such as streaming digital video.

The Ruckus Wireless system is the world’s first and only Wi-Fi system specifically developed to reliably transmit IP-based streaming digital video over standard 802.11 technology. The Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi system has now been adopted by over 122 broadband operators and service providers around the world.