Lincoln, Nebraska and Ruckus Wireless Team to Deliver First Cloud-Based Outdoor Municipal Smart Wi-Fi Access Service

LINCOLN, Neb. and SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Ruckus Wireless, Inc. (NYSE) and the City of Lincoln, Nebraska announced today that they have collaborated to deliver the first cloud-based municipal outdoor public Wi-Fi access service using the new Ruckus Smart Access Management service (SAMs).

Launched last week and available now, Lincoln's new, free, outdoor public Wi-Fi service, 'Lincoln_Free_WiFi_' (the SSID or network name for the new service) is the first step in the city's plans to offer free and pervasive public Wi-Fi in and around the Haymarket and Railyard areas.

The project is part of a multi-phased initiative under which the City of Lincoln and Ruckus are cooperating to deliver residents and visitors the city's first high-speed Wi-Fi access service. The first phase of the project brings free wireless connectivity to the historic Iron Horse Park, at the center of the new Railyard district and home to Lincoln's Haymarket Farmers Market.  Powering the service, Ruckus Smart Access Management gives users hassle-free Wi-Fi access while allowing the city of Lincoln to easily manage and scale the service through the Cloud.

"Our long-term goal is to make Lincoln one of the most connected cities in the nation," Chris Beutler, the mayor of Lincoln, NE said.  "Access to wireless technology in our public spaces for use by residents, visitors and even businesses is becoming an expectation.  This public-private partnership gives residents and visitors a reliable Wi-Fi connection in one of the most exciting areas of our community.  It's the first step in our initiative to expand the service to more of the Railyard, Haymarket and West Haymarket area.  It also lays the foundation for future wireless connectivity projects."

Introducing Simply Better Wireless in Lincoln

To enable SAMs for 'Lincoln_Free_WiFi_', the City of Lincoln has selected and deployed Ruckus Wireless Smart Wi-Fi outdoor products that use patented Wi-Fi technology specifically developed to deliver stronger signals at longer ranges to provide users the fastest and most reliable wireless experience possible.

Mounted at key locations on strategic city assets throughout the historic Haymarket area, Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi access points (APs) are connected by gigabit fiber connections, and leverage Ruckus technology that improves range, reliability and performance. Unlike conventional Wi-Fi technology, Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi is able to adapt Wi-Fi signals to constantly changing environmental conditions to ensure more stable and higher speed wireless connections to Wi-Fi enabled devices.

According to city officials, after extensive testing, Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi was selected by the city of Lincoln because it overcomes the physical and technical challenges of bringing high-speed wireless connectivity to large-numbers of concurrent users accessing Wi-Fi services in outdoor environments.

"Our goal was to identify and install the world's best Wi-Fi technology that could deliver an exceptional experience to the most discerning users," said David Young, Fiber Infrastructure and Right of Way manager for Lincoln, NE. "Having done that, we now have in place the ideal the foundation for what we believe will be one of the country's premiere public Wi-Fi services."

Young added that Wi-Fi has effectively become the new bandwidth for users who now have an insatiable appetite for connectivity. "With a reliable and ubiquitous infrastructure in place, the door is wide open for a myriad of invaluable services well beyond public access. Given the growth and use of smart mobile devices, there are really no boundaries constraining the kind of applications that we can enable or the value that a reliable Wi-Fi infrastructure can bring to our city and its citizens."

The City of Lincoln's new 'Lincoln_Free_WiFi_' free, outdoor public Wi-Fi service adds to a growing list of these types of Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi network deployments around the world, including: the City and County of San Francisco '_San_Francisco_Free_WiFi' network; the City of San Jose, CA Wickedly Fast Wi-Fi Network, and; the City of York public Wi-Fi network in the UK.

Young concluded, "The public/private partnership we have forged with Ruckus Wireless is a strategic component to our city's economic development and our goal to transform Lincoln into one of most connected cities in the United States. Delivering a reliable and robust wireless service that gives residents and visitors greater flexibility, freedom and control over their lives is no longer a negotiable option for us and many other cities across the country."

ABOUT RUCKUS WIRELESS
Headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, Ruckus Wireless, Inc. (NYSE: RKUS) is a global supplier of advanced wireless systems for the rapidly expanding mobile Internet infrastructure market. 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 approximately 36,000 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, providing 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.

Ruckus, and Ruckus Wireless are trademarks of Ruckus Wireless, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other product or company names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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

Diane Gonzolas
Manager, Citizen Information Center
Office of the Mayor
City of Lincoln
[email protected] 
+1 402-441-7831

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SOURCE Ruckus Wireless, Inc.