Ruckus Expands Partnership with the City of San Jose Extending the Popular Wickedly Fast Wi-Fi Service into Mineta San Jose International Airport and San Jose McEnery Convention Center

SAN JOSE and SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Ruckus Wireless, Inc. (NYSE: RKUS) today announced the expansion of its partnership with the City of San Jose with the extension of the Ruckus-powered Wickedly Fast Wi-Fi network throughout Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) and the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. 

Now millions of travelers and visitors to San Jose have free and pervasive Wi-Fi access to the popular Wickedly Fast Wi-Fi service offered by the City of San Jose.  These two new extensions of the network are creating a "connected vision" of providing visitors with a single, reliable, free, high-performance public Wi-Fi network throughout these three key, heavily trafficked indoor and outdoor public areas of San Jose. The Convention Center's free Wi-Fi begins July 1, 2014.

The massive Wi-Fi upgrade throughout all terminals within the Mineta San Jose International Airport included the installation of new, high-speed Ruckus ZoneFlex™ Smart Wi-Fi access points (APs) that extend the range and speeds of wireless connections, along with blazingly fast gigabit fiber broadband connections into the facility and the elimination of advertisements over the free Wickedly Fast Wi-Fi service.

The new indoor wireless network at SJC, powered by Ruckus-patented Smart Wi-Fi technology, delivers up to a four-fold increase in speed, and more pervasive Wi-Fi coverage over the airport's legacy Wi-Fi system.

"People in and traveling to Silicon Valley are among the most technically sophisticated in the world, with an expectation for super fast and highly reliable Wi-Fi," said Vijay Sammeta, CIO, City of San Jose, which owns and operates Mineta San Jose International Airport. "With the infrastructure changes we've made at the airport, customers are experiencing dramatically faster speeds. On the new Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi system, we've seen top download speeds of 60Mbps compared with 14Mbps on our previous Wi-Fi system.  For most people, that's better than what they have at home—and we're now able to provide that Wickedly Fast experience at Silicon Valley's Airport."

The new, next-generation public Wi-Fi network that incorporates 58 high-capacity Ruckus ZoneFlex Smart Wi-Fi access points at Mineta San Jose International Airport offers twice the coverage of the old system, and is capable of supporting thousands of concurrent users transmitting hundreds of terabytes of traffic.

At the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, over 225 high capacity Ruckus ZoneFlex indoor access points have been deployed. These APs incorporate the company's patented BeamFlex™ technology to increase the range, reliability, and performance of wireless connections, using advanced radio frequency techniques that deliver unmatched improvements in Wi-Fi performance, signal gain, and reception to ensure consistent performance and high data rates.

The extension of its Wickedly Fast Wi-Fi network service is a key part of the City of San Jose's long-term vision of enhancing its vibrant community, and encouraging businesses and consumers to come together to better enjoy San Jose's innovative technology heritage.

"As the Capital of Silicon Valley, we are pleased to expand our Wickedly Fast Wi-Fi network to our airport and newly-renovated convention center," Mayor Chuck Reed said. "These two facilities are key drivers of economic activity, and equipping them with the most advanced wireless technologies available will greatly aid their ongoing efforts to attract new business. I'd like to thank Ruckus Wireless and SmartWAVE Technologies for their continued partnership to deploy this cutting-edge technology at a minimal cost to the City of San Jose."

Out with the Old, In with the New

The Ruckus-powered Wickedly Fast Wi-Fi network, designed, installed, and managed by SmartWAVE Technologies, one of the nation's leading wireless network integrators, replaces older Wi-Fi networks previously installed to provide free public access throughout the City's airport and convention center.

"Our previous Wi-Fi network served its purpose but was based on older technology," said Sammeta. According to Sammeta, the airport needed to address three key issues:  1) high capacity demand from the relentless proliferation of more smart mobile devices, 2) spotty signal coverage, and 3) erratic performance.  "Ruckus brought to the table unique technology specifically designed to deal with these issues."

With a reliable and high-speed Wi-Fi network now in place at Mineta San Jose International Airport, airport officials can now consider a range of new applications, such as connecting digital information kiosks, new mobile applications for facility maintenance, and an overall improved traveler experience.

Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi was selected by Mineta San Jose International Airport because it overcomes the physical and technical challenges of bringing high-speed access to environments with high-capacity coverage requirements where many users are trying to access the network simultaneously.

Further expansion of the City of San Jose's free, Ruckus-powered Wickedly Fast Wi-Fi network into the newly renovated San Jose McEnery Convention Center creates a "Wickedly Fast" user experience between the airport, convention center, and downtown core for business travelers and visitors to San Jose.

"Providing free, Wickedly Fast Wi-Fi throughout our convention center incentivizes businesses and organizations from across the country to hold their events here," added Sammeta.

"Conventions and exhibitions are an extremely competitive business, and we believe offering not just free, but proven, high-performance, reliable Wi-Fi will attract more business to the convention center which, in turn, will help us generate more revenue for both the city and businesses across downtown."

Located in the heart of San Jose's downtown core at the corner of W. San Carlos and S. Market Streets, the City has recently completed an extensive renovation and expansion of its Convention Center. Following a $130M investment, 169,000 square feet have been added for a total of 550,000 square feet of convention space, including a new 35,110 square foot Grand Ballroom, plus a revamped Executive Ballroom, more flexible meeting configurations, an outdoor plaza, and additional meeting and networking spaces. Ruckus-powered Wickedly Fast Wi-Fi is the perfect complement to serve the thousands of visitors using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets during various conventions and exhibitions held throughout the year.

"We're extremely proud to be an integral part of this expansion of San Jose's Wickedly Fast Wi-Fi network," said Selina Lo, president and CEO of Ruckus Wireless. "We are seeing a huge resurgence around the country and the world for more reliable public and managed Wi-Fi services for business to satisfy an exploding population of users now armed with multiple smart devices. These carrier-class Wi-Fi networks are becoming instrumental for offloading mobile data traffic from cellular networks and giving users a much more satisfying online experience."

ABOUT MINETA SAN JOSE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) is Silicon Valley's airport, a self-supporting enterprise owned and operated by the City of San Jose. SJC served 8.8 million passengers in 2013, a 5.9 percent increase year-over-year, and was the second fastest growing medium hub airport in the US. SJC offers approximately 130 daily flights on 12 domestic and international carriers to 29 nonstop destinations.

SJC's five-star customer service experience sets it apart from other Bay Area and US airports. Airlines and passengers respond positively to SJC's customer amenities, including modern terminal buildings, free and fast WiFi, comfortable seating with built-in power outlets, a luxurious VIP lounge that is open to all travelers and a rental car center conveniently located across from the terminals. Silicon Valley's airport is located in San Jose, California's third largest city and the nation's tenth largest city.  SJC facts can be found here.  For more airport information, visit www.flysanjose.com.

ABOUT TEAM SAN JOSE
Team San Jose, Inc. is an economic development organization and San Jose's official Convention and Visitors Bureau, unifying the destination, hotels and venues to deliver an exceptional visitor experience. San Jose offers all you would expect from a big city destination with small town charm and serves as the gateway to Northern California attractions. Our company provides full management services for seven venues on behalf of the City of San Jose including the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. For more information about San Jose and the Convention Center, visit sanjose.org.

ABOUT THE CITY OF SAN JOSE
Known as the Capital of Silicon Valley, San Jose is the nation's tenth largest city and the largest city in Northern California with an ethnically diverse population of more than one million people. San Jose was founded in 1777, once served as the state capital of California, and now encompasses 180 square miles. Facts about San Jose can be found here: http://www.sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/780. The City's website is www.sanjoseca.gov.

ABOUT SmartWAVE TECHNOLOGIES LLC
Headquartered in Atlanta, with project locations throughout the United States, SmartWave Technologies is a leading "wireless" centric systems integrator that provides the planning, design, and integration of wireless networks, along with the unique applications these networks support. With an operating legacy of over 12 years, our history is rich with experience in delivering award winning wireless networks and applications. We work in close collaboration with our clients to deliver the strategic insight, proven experience, and practical knowledge necessary to transform their business through wireless. Whether our Clients require the expertise to deploy the network and applications throughout an Enterprise, a Campus, a City, or even a Small Country, our resources have the experience, capabilities and passion for delivery. For more information, visit our website at www.smartwave.us. Catch the Wave! 

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 over 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.

BeamFlex, Ruckus, Ruckus Wireless, and ZoneFlex 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

Lenka Wright
City of San Jose

[email protected]
+1 408-535-8113

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131014/MM96280

SOURCE Ruckus Wireless, Inc.