Telefonica UK (O2) Makes First Big Move to Small Cells with Ruckus Wireless

SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Ruckus Wireless^® today announced that it has been selected by Telefonica UK, which operates the popular O2 brand, to supply high-capacity small cell products for high-speed wireless services being deployed throughout London.

Already deployed throughout the busiest, iconic areas in central London, such as Trafalgar Square, Parliament Square, Leicester Square, Regent Street and Oxford Street, Ruckus SmartCell™ 8800s have initially been deployed to provide free, fast and reliable Wi-Fi to anyone.

Within a single, low-profile design, the SmartCell 8800 is the first carrier-grade, modular multi-radio system to integrate patented adaptive antenna array technology supporting multiple licensed and unlicensed radio technologies including: high-speed dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, small cell 3G/4G radios and 5GHz wireless backhaul. This gives Telefonica UK the flexibility to easily and economically offer high-speed Wi-Fi and cellular services in specific locations when needed.

"For O2, it's all about us providing customers with fast and reliable connectivity where they need it," said Derek McManus, chief operating officer for Telefonica UK. "Our vision is for Wi-Fi to be simply another access layer to our mobile core. Customers don't really care about the underlying technology; they care about getting connected, fast and reliably. The introduction of small cells helps us to support these requirements and completely complements our mobile strategy by letting us push capacity closer to users in locations where it makes the most sense."

"In telecoms there is now a mad race to the lamppost, and the first one there wins," said Selina Lo, president and CEO of Ruckus Wireless. "A big barrier in small cell deployment is simply securing the physical locations with the requisite power and backhaul to support small cells. Once physical assets secured, it becomes important for operators to exploit them with as much technology as they can.  This means multi-function, carrier-grade products that are simple deploy, unobtrusive and massively scalable. SmartCell is one of those products and O2 is one of those operators taking a lead in this race."

After extensive evaluations of wireless suppliers, Telefonica UK selected Ruckus and its SmartCell system. "It all really boiled down to who had the best Wi-Fi for carriers and the most forward-thinking strategy to integrate Wi-Fi within existing and future cellular infrastructure," said McManus.

Beating the Backhaul Dilemma

"A major challenge with small cell deployments is how to reliably backhaul traffic from potentially thousands of small cell nodes without breaking the bank," said Robert Joyce, chief radio engineer at Telefonica UK."

Telefonica UK effectively eliminates this problem by meshing traffic over highly reliable 5 GHz Wi-Fi mesh links between nodes using Ruckus Smart Mesh technology. Smart Mesh uses advanced self-organizing network (SON) principles with Ruckus-patented adaptive antenna arrays (BeamFlex™) and predictive channel management techniques (ChannelFly™). Combined these technologies create highly resilient, high-speed Wi-Fi mesh backbone links between nodes that automatically adapt to changes in environmental conditions.

Thought by many to not be possible, Smart Mesh has demonstrated to deliver reliable backhaul for licensed cellular and unlicensed Wi-Fi traffic in both line of sight and non-line of site environments.

"Ruckus Smart Mesh technology is proving to offer a cost-effective, reliable and flexible alternative to conventional approaches," said Joyce. "With Smart Mesh, we are running fiber to just one of every five nodes. This has proven to be a huge benefit in reducing capital and operational expense with the added bonus of reducing the time to market."

Big Improvements with Small Cells

Small cells represent a new architectural approach for injecting much needed capacity into service provider networks. Small cells are miniature base stations that combine licensed and unlicensed radio technology with wireless backhaul to deliver lower powered wireless signals much closer to mobile users.  This results in better signal coverage, improved voice quality and higher data performance.

Small cells enable operators to provide a premium quality mobile signal where it was never previously economic, such as indoor environments and remote outdoor locations. They also enable operators to meet the burgeoning demand for mobile data, by multiplying the data capacity of the macro network at a fraction of the cost.

With the Ruckus SmartCell system, mobile operators gain a capacity boost from LTE small cells, cutting costs and complexity by co-locating and combining them with Wi-Fi access points, sharing site-lease agreements and backhaul. The integration of Wi-Fi and LTE small cells within the cellular core also helps operators optimize network utilization across the radio access network, providing a further improvement in performance, and creating a seamless experience for subscribers.

ABOUT TELEFONICA UK
Telefonica UK Limited is a leading communications company for consumers and businesses in the UK, with 23.3 million mobile, fixed line and broadband customers as at 31 March 2012. Telefonica UK Limited is part of Telefonica Europe plc, a business division of Telefonica S.A. which has 103 million customers.  Telefonica Europe uses O2 as its commercial brand in the UK, Ireland, Slovakia, Germany and the Czech Republic, and Movistar in Spain. Telefonica UK employs around 11,000 people in the UK and has 450 retail stores. O2 is the naming rights partner of The O2, the world-class entertainment venue.O2's UK 2G mobile network provides voice and data services which are available to 99% of the UK's population. O2's UK 3G (HSPA+ 900 / 2100 MHz) network currently provides voice and high speed data services to over 84% of the UK population, with speeds of up to 42.2 Mbps in major cities. O2 was the first UK operator to deploy a 4G/LTE trial network which has demonstrated peak speeds of over 100Mbps to a mobile device. Telefonica Europe also owns 50% of Tesco Mobile, which operates in the UK and Ireland, and 50% of Tchibo Mobilfunk in Germany.  

ABOUT RUCKUS WIRELESS
Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Ruckus Wireless is a supplier of advanced wireless systems for the explosive mobile Internetworking market. The company markets and manufactures a wide range of indoor and outdoor "Smart Wi-Fi" products for mobile operators, broadband service providers, and corporate enterprises around the world. Ranked as the top telecom company by Inc. Magazine and named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, Ruckus invented and has patented state-of-the-art wireless technology, such as adaptive antenna arrays that focus and direct Wi-Fi transmissions over the best signal path, automatically avoiding sources of Wi-Fi interference. These unique capabilities extend signal range, increase client data rates and ensure 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
David Callisch
Ruckus Wireless
[email protected]
+1-408-504-5487

SOURCE Ruckus Wireless