Telecom companies are increasingly deploying W-Fi technology in a bid to offload data from their networks and free up bandwidth. US-based Ruckus Wireless is among the few players globally which has taken the lead in making Wi-Fi ready for addressing the future needs of wireless data consumption.

From 2009 to 2011, the NYSE-listed company, grew 64 per cent with revenues reaching $120 million in 2011. Business Line spoke with Selina Lo, CEO and President, Ruckus Wireless, on the challenges with Wi-Fi and the opportunity in India.

Are mobile operators now changing their perception about Wi-Fi from being a competitor to being a critical part of their networks?

Wi- Fi is no longer seen as a competitive technology by telecom firms. Before when mobile data was mainly SMS then operators saw Wi-Fi as potentially taking away traffic. But ever since smartphone happened the perception has changed. It has become more relevant in markets like India where there’s not enough spectrum so operators are seeing Wi-Fi as an opportunity to offer data services that’s cheaper than 3G.

One of the issues is that users today do not get seamless access while moving from mobile network to a Wi-FI network. How are you addressing this?

Work is going on to enable users to have a seamless experience. There is the Passpoint technology that allows the mobile users’ handset to query for W-Fi access points. Wi-Fi Alliance is certifying equipment both on phone and equipment. In 2014, you will see Passpoint supported in all handsets. You will see new handsets in the second half of 2013 with this technology and by 2014 majority of handsets will support this capability.

Telecom companies are also deploying micro cells. Do you see it as a competition to Wi-Fi?

I don’t see them as competition. It will coexist. A lot of small cells are in trials. But acquiring the site is much more expensive. The fact of the matter is spectrum is expensive and operators will not be able to buy enough spectrum. Since W-Fi runs on unlicensed spectrum, it has the lowest cost per bit of data.

But unlicensed spectrum also raises quality of service issues, especially in conventions and stadiums.

Yes that’s where Ruckus has its biggest advantage. Our smart antenna technology is able to steer around interference, including neighbour networks. In public venues like conventions centres, stadiums, sometimes you see dozens of Wi-Fi networks. No matter how good the Wi-Fi chipset it does not know how to manage network interference. Ruckus has learnt the best path to transmit to a particular destination.

In India, Ruckus has bagged only a few deals. Are Indian operators not investing in building W-Fi networks?

We are working with some large tier-1 customers in India. Bharti Airtel and Tikona are our customer. We also support You Broadband . What we found is that some of the most aggressive W-Fi operators are not tier-one operators but Internet Service Providers. That may not be the case in India. In North America, cable players are building W-Fi more aggressively than Verizon. India is strategic for us because many enterprise is just starting deploy Wi-Fi so Greenfield opportunity is tremendous. From telecom operators’ point of view, there is density of subscribers but not enough spectrum so there is an opportunity.

Is it true that a number of employees have quit Ruckus in India?

Ruckus is very selective and what I have been telling my employees is to do just do it because if you don’t then you will be run over. So performance is what we are focussed on. But we are ramping up our team here. We are also growing R&D in India, which is working on W-Fi cellular integration. Employee base in India is growing much faster than global.

What kind of market share are you targeting globally?

According to Gartner, in the third quarter of 2012, Ruckus was the fastest growing vendor. Our market share was around 6 per cent surpassing Motorola. In the service provider segment alone, we saw 27 per cent market share. We intend to grow faster than the overall market.

Will Ruckus play the pricing game to gain market share from players like Ericsson and Cisco?

Ruckus does not play the pricing game. Operators can go to many places for low-cost solution but Ruckus technology has unique things. Ericsson acquired BelAir but I heard key people at BelAir have already left. I don’t see Ericsson as a competitor because Wi-Fi is a small piece compared to LTE so they don’t have a broad portfolio like we do. So the only competition is Cisco. It’s not too bad to be one of two players. .

Does Ruckus see M&A as a way to grow?

Big piece of why we went public as a company is to build our sales, marketing and customer sales. I believe that right now the deals we want are deals that we don’t see. Ruckus has always been tech company and we have focussed on innovation and grow by investing in R&D.

>Thomas.thomas@thehindu.co.in

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