TeliaSonera Selects the Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi System for its Nordic IPTV Services

Smart Wi-Fi Technology Gives Nordic Subscribers the Freedom and Flexibility to Self-Install Popular IPTV Services Where and When They Want

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Ruckus Wireless™ today announced that TeliaSonera (Stockholm: TLSN), a tier-one telecommunications provider in the Nordic region, has selected and is deploying its award-winning MediaFlex™ Smart Wi-Fi systems to provide customers flicker-free wireless distribution of the popular IP-based digital TV service (IPTV), Telia Digital-TV, throughout their homes.

With the Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi system, TeliaSonera customers can now place TVs anywhere within their home and wirelessly connect to a host of innovative digital television services.

Telia Digital-TV, one of the first IPTV services in Europe to launch in 2005, with a rapid growth in 2007 to some 300,000 customers, offers subscribers compelling new programming packages that include some 70 TV channels, such as Discovery and the Disney Channel, 24-hour on-demand library of movies and network-based, time-shifted TV services.

NoWire, Nordic’s leading wireless distributor, is supplying TeliaSonera with Ruckus MediaFlex 802.11g Smart Wi-Fi systems to support whole home wireless distribution of the Telia Digital-TV service. The Ruckus MediaFlex systems are being made available to consumers through TeliaSonera sales channels and can be easily self-installed by subscribers.

Broadband Surges Ahead in the Nordics

In terms of broadband penetration by population, Nordic countries make up five of the top eight on the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s (OECD) official list. In Denmark, approximately 35 percent of the population has broadband access, the highest rate in the OECD. Broadband penetration in other Nordic countries is above 30 percent.

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.

Smarter Wi-Fi Makes the Impossible Possible

Smart Wi-Fi is a newest innovation in 802.11 technology that now makes real-time streaming of standard and high-definition digital content possible. Smart Wi-Fi is based on recent technical advances in intelligent, miniaturized antenna arrays and quality of service that enable extended range, unprecedented reliability and more consistent 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 uniquely 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 802.11g/n technology. The Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi system has now been adopted by over 125 broadband operators and service providers around the world.

“In a remarkably short period of time, our MediaFlex Smart Wi-Fi system has become the de facto wireless standard for customer premise equipment to support real-time video and multimedia distribution among the world’s leading broadband providers,” said Selina Lo, president and CEO of Ruckus Wireless. “In just two years, it has become the most installed Wi-Fi system for IPTV in the world and remains the only real commercial-grade wireless product that delivers picture-perfect distribution of standard and high definition IPTV services.”