Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi Bridges Digital Divide in Mongolia, Delivering Affordable, High-Speed Wireless Broadband

SUNNYVALE, Calif. and ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia, Feb. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Ruckus Wireless, Inc. (NYSE: RKUS) today announced that Nomsys LLC, an Internet service provider based in Mongolia, has selected Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi products and technology to create the largest Wi-Fi access network in Mongolia's capital city of Ulaanbaatar.

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The large-scale Wi-Fi network, known as the Community Involved Nomad Wi-Fi project, is currently being deployed by Nomsys throughout Ulaanbaatar, bringing Wi-Fi service to consumers and businesses via hundreds of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the rural countryside where 70% of the city's one million residents live.  

The goal of the Nomad Wi-Fi project is to make Wi-Fi access easy and ubiquitous within underdeveloped rural areas of the city's capital, for people who barely have essentials others take for granted, such as electricity, within their tents and houses. To build out its network footprint with wireless points of presence, Nomsys is deploying Ruckus indoor and outdoor access points (APs) in the city's suburbs as well as providing free Wi-Fi access points to select families that will, in turn, use that device to provide paid wireless access to others within a given area.

Delivering Broadband Wireless Access in Mongolia

Limited fixed line cabling coupled with erratic cellular coverage and performance has made it nearly impossible to provide reliable electronic communication in places such as Mongolia. Because Mongolia is sparsely populated and a significant portion of the population still lives a nomadic lifestyle, it has been extremely difficult for many traditional information technologies to make headway into Mongolian society. Wireless technologies have had greater success and are becoming increasingly common, even in rural areas. 

According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), penetration of fixed line broadband reached 2.6 inhabitants per capita within Mongolia. Wi-Fi is a key technology that is helping Mongolia increase accessibility to telecommunications and bypass fixed line infrastructure. 

Given its economical appeal and the growth of wireless-enabled handheld devices, Wi-Fi represents a major opportunity within Mongolia and other third world countries to quickly bring broadband access to millions of people of all societal status.

Over 250 indoor and outdoor Ruckus ZoneFlex access points are being installed by Nomsys to deliver high capacity, reliable Wi-Fi access to hundreds of thousands of people, a number that will continue to grow in the coming months, according to Nomsys Founder and CEO, Bat-Erdene Gankhuyag (G.Bat-Erdene), who was recently recognized in 2012 by the World Economic Forum for his efforts to close the digital divide between those who can afford access and those who cannot.

In the outer areas of Ulaanbaatar, Wi-Fi connectivity has become a necessity as 3G and WIMAX networks have proven to be cost-prohibitive – both for carriers needing to install the required infrastructure, and for users who must purchase special receivers to get connectivity.

"The rural areas of Ulaanbaatar are very densely populated, and people who live there have very low income," said G.Bat-Erdene. "For a majority of households there is no running water, central heating, and no sewage system. To require them to purchase costly equipment in order to gain cellular connectivity is just not plausible, which is why Wi-Fi is the ideal solution. Also, the involvement of the community itself is the key to success."

G.Bat-Erdene explained that while more than 30 ISPs operate in Ulaanbaatar's urban center, few serve the rural district. This prompted the Nomsys Nomad Wi-Fi project to give residents connectivity to the digital world.

"Internet access is becoming an essential element to how people now live, wherever they are," said G.Bat-Erdene. "Reliable Wi-Fi access increases economic opportunities and facilitates faster communications that can improve everyone's life. Broadband access is no longer a luxury that should only be available to a certain people, but rather a necessity to improve the quality of life for everyone."

G.Bat-Erdene noted that Wi-Fi technology was originally conceived and developed as a simple technology of convenience, but now has advanced to enable utility-like reliability and resilience. "Carrier-class Wi-Fi products and technologies, such as those innovated by Ruckus Wireless, are opening the door to projects like this everywhere in the world."

Bringing the World to the Mongolian Countryside - Wirelessly

The Nomsys Wi-Fi network is a collection of indoor and outdoor hotspots with APs configured with Ruckus SmartMesh Networking technology, to deliver coverage to the outer reaches of the capital city where fiber is not available. Additionally, Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital in the world, where temperatures in the winter can reach -45 degrees Celsius. Ruckus ZoneFlex outdoor APs have internal heaters and a hard exterior coating to keep them and the network protected from these kinds of extreme, harsh weather conditions.

"No matter how severe the conditions, the Ruckus equipment was designed for carriers and stringent carrier conditions.  It has proven to perform flawlessly to date," said G.Bat-Erdene.

Nomsys deployed hundreds of Ruckus ZoneFlex 7762 and ZoneFlex 7762-AC outdoor APs throughout the countryside, as well as ZoneFlex 7962 indoor APs in various hotels and other city center locations in Ulaanbaatar. Point-to-multipoint wireless bridges enable broadband capacity to be injected in areas far away from city centers. ZoneDirector 3000 wireless LAN (WLAN) controllers are used to control individual hotspots, and Nomsys manages the entire network through the Ruckus FlexMaster platform, which G.Bat-Erdene says makes overseeing the network extremely easy.

The root APs are connected to a fiber optic network, developed in the city by Nomsys, and then meshed to five or six APs, all within a single hop. "So far we're seeing really solid performance. We're supporting upwards of 50,000 devices connected, and at peak usage times as many as 600 concurrent users have accessed the network," he said.

G.Bat-Erdene says that as Nomsys expands the network, they're testing the performance and reliability of Ruckus ZoneFlex outdoor APs in downtown areas, and also plan to install more Ruckus APs at additional commercial businesses and implement at G-PON technology this year.

ABOUT NOMSYS LLC
Based in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Nomsys LLC is a national wireless Internet service provider, offering hotspot, access, integration and network management services. Founded in 2009, the company currently operates over 250 hotspots and one of the largest fiber optic networks in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, delivering full motion video, banner advertising and localized content, and offering authentication and hotspot management services.

ABOUT RUCKUS WIRELESS
Headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, Ruckus Wireless (NYSE: RKUS) is a global supplier of advanced wireless systems for the rapidly expanding mobile Internet infrastructure market. With 2012 revenues of $214.7 million, the company offers a wide range of indoor and outdoor "Smart Wi-Fi" products to mobile carriers, broadband service providers, and corporate enterprises, and has more than 21,700 end-customers worldwide. Ruckus technology addresses Wi-Fi capacity and coverage challenges caused by the ever-increasing amount of traffic on wireless networks due to accelerated adoption of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Ruckus invented and has patented state-of-the-art wireless voice, video, and data technology innovations, such as adaptive antenna arrays that extend signal range, increase client data rates, and avoid interference, ensuring consistent and reliable distribution of delay-sensitive multimedia content and services over standard 802.11 Wi-Fi. For more information, visit http://www.ruckuswireless.com.

Media Contacts
Arnaud Le hung
Ruckus Wireless
[email protected]
+33 (6) 16 17 02 62

Mark Priscaro
Ruckus Wireless
[email protected]
+1 925-367-5505

SOURCE Ruckus Wireless