Ericsson Says Will Supply, Manage Wi-Fi Network of Reliance Communications

Swedish telecom firm Ericsson Thursday said it will supply and manage the Wi-Fi network of Reliance Communications (RCom) along with Ozone Networks.

The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Ozone Networks has an agreement with Ericsson to provide a neutral carrier-grade Wi-Fi network across India using small cells.

“Ericsson’s small cell as a service network will enable RCom to utilise the existing Ericsson/Ozone Wi-Fi infrastructure and launch Wi-Fi services for a seamless end-user experience using the carrier-grade small cell network,” Ericsson said in a statement.

Through its small cell as a service offering, Ericsson provides small cell technology, designs, plans as well as builds and optimises networks, and then manages them on behalf of its customers based on long term as-a-service contracts.

“We are pleased to expand our partnership with RCom with this new managed services agreement. Ericsson supports our customer targets of new revenues and subscribers throughout indoor venues and hotspots with the small cell as a service model,” said Jean-Claude Geha, head of Managed Services at Ericsson.

RCom President and Chief Commercial Officer Suresh Rangachar said the surge in mobile connectivity and smartphone uptake has led to immense growth in data usage and this partnership will enable it to meet the customer expectations in ultra-dense environments through data offload to a country-wide carrier-grade Wi-Fi network.