SAN JOSE, Calif. – March 17, 2014 – With mobile Internet traffic predicted to grow 11-fold over the next four years and reach an annual run rate of 190 exabytes by 2018, Cisco today revealed that more than 200 global service providers are now using Cisco® carrier-grade Wi-Fi technology to drive new business benefits and enable exciting new experiences for their subscribers.

Service providers are incorporating carrier-grade Wi-Fi into their network infrastructures and are seeing results within their consumer business – in the form of reduced customer churn and increased mobile data offload – and across enterprise verticals such as retail, event venues, and stadiums by directly impacting business outcomes.

The vast majority of new business opportunities are centered on the growing trend of "data-in-motion," real-time and near real-time data generated by billions of connections between people, things, objects and processes, which are intrinsic to Wi-Fi mobile networks. According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast, by 2018, 52 percent of global mobile traffic will be offloaded onto Wi-Fi and small cell networks, up from 45 percent in 2013.

Highlights/Key Facts

Cisco has achieved several milestones to advance its global leadership in Wi-Fi technology. They are:

• More than 200 service providers have deployed Cisco Service Provider Wi-Fi technology;
• More than 18 million carrier-grade access points are deployed worldwide across networks operated by service providers, enterprises, stadiums, public sector entities and commercial organizations;
• More than a half-billion mobile users worldwide receive advanced mobile services through Cisco Wi-Fi technology;
• Delivered the industry's first 802.11ac deployment managed fully from the cloud. This next-generation wireless standard, known as Gigabit Wi-Fi, helps service providers seamlessly offload mobile device users from the cellular network to Wi-Fi and to conserve on bandwidth. This transition affords new business opportunities, whereby organizations can create specialized mobile applications for their indoor venues to deliver personalized services to their end-users; and
• At the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2014, Hotspot 2.0 was deployed on a grand scale for the first time, serving more than 80,000 conference attendees and exhibitors. AT&T, Cisco and Accuris Networks collaborated with several global mobile operators to provide a Next-Generation Hotspot network at the conference.

Global service providers are recognizing the importance of using an intelligent mobile network to deliver new experiences and expand revenue opportunities. Cisco is enabling PT Telkom in Indonesia to deploy 100,000 access points across the country, which is expected to be one of the largest deployments of Wi-Fi access points by a single service provider in Asia. In addition, PT Telkom and Cisco designed, planned and built a high speed, high-density Wi-Fi network for the The Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, a prestigious global meeting of thought-leaders, leaders of industries, countries and economies. Attendees were able to access the network with a single-sign-on (SSO) service set identification (SSID) from any Wi-Fi enabled device across multiple APEC hosting venues, including the airport, convention centers and 51 hotels.

"The APEC Wi-Fi engagement is the embodiment of our great collaboration with Cisco and we look forward to expanding this relationship across the rest of the industries and future events in Indonesia. We have received tremendous positive feedback from the APEC participants including the CEO of Air Asia, the Menteri Negara BUMN Dahlan Iskan, our regional press as well as the President and Director of PT Telkom, Arief Yahya, as you can see from this article on Detik.com," said Pramasaleh Utomo, executive general manager of PT Telkom's Division for Wireless Broadband. "Telkom has subsequently offered similar support for a growing list of high profile events in Bali, including the World Trade Organization event in December 2013 and many more scheduled for 2014."

The broadband cable industry has been at the forefront of Wi-Fi adoption and use. Telecable, a leading quadruple player in Spain, selected the Cisco Service Provider Wi-Fi solution to deploy a robust "core" Wi-Fi network, extending the mobile data service that was previously only available through the cellular network. Telecable will use the Cisco solution to offload data traffic from the cellular network to the Wi-Fi network. This additional capacity will allow Telecable to offer its customers high-speed access over the Asturias, Spain, region and enable a better user experience.

"As a leading cable provider in Asturias, we are committed to further strengthen the capacity and availability of our network through Wi-Fi service adoption to provide innovative services to our customers, who wish to access the Internet, TV, video-on-demand, email, instant messaging and other multimedia applications through high-speed mobile access," said Jesús Pérez Iglesias, strategy, products and services managing director, Telecable. "Adopting the Cisco Service Provider Wi-Fi solution with the Cisco Aggregation Services Router 5000 Series enables us to achieve this goal by optimizing the user experience, making a smooth transition from Wi-Fi to LTE and responding to future network demands."

Telecom New Zealand (Telecom NZ) is rolling out the Cisco Service Provider Wi-Fi solution in supermarkets, stadiums, telephone boxes, ski fields and transportation hubs as part of its Ultra Mobile brand initiative. This allows it to keep its customers connected when they are mobile and to attract new customers with the network's superior Wi-Fi speeds using the latest 802.11ac technology. Telecom NZ is also at the forefront of delivering new location-based services and advertising that also allows it to monetize its carrier-grade Wi-Fi network. Telecom NZ chose to collaborate with Cisco because the company offered an end-to-end solution that can be integrated into Telecom NZ's mobile packet core due to Cisco's expertise in delivering location-based services.

"Telecom New Zealand has been rolling out a Wi-Fi network for a little over a year, from trialing an early conceptual business case to growing an important future-oriented product," said Kerry Trevett, head of Wi-Fi, Telecom Digital Ventures, Telecom NZ Ltd. "Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences and location-based service technologies are proving to be important differentiators who can add value for our partners as we move from a solely phone box-based network to one hosted across a variety of mediums. We are currently partnering with site owners to grow our solution into high-demand spaces, and we anticipate using Cisco infrastructure will also enable future integration with our Mobile network."

SONIFI Solutions, a leader in connectivity solutions for the hospitality industry for more than 30 years, sees Wi-Fi as a Trojan horse for the digital guest experience.

"SONIFI Solutions is excited about our collaboration with Cisco in making it easier for our key hospitality partners to simplify the complexity of providing a consistently connected guest entertainment experience in 1.4 million rooms," said Janis Nakano Spivack, senior vice president of product and consumer marketing, SONIFI Solutions. "SONIFI and Cisco will continue to deliver increasingly flexible, customizable and intelligent solutions as the demands for mobility among the 461.5 million travelers we reach increases exponentially."

Additional Supporting Quotes

• Dr. Ray Mota, founder and managing partner, ACG Research

"This announcement maps to the conversations I'm having with carriers across the globe. Service Provider Wi-Fi is top-of-mind for mobile, cable and fixed operators alike and seen as a vital arm of their data strategies moving forward. A tremendous amount of traffic is being offloaded via Wi-Fi and Small Cell due to spectrum capacity constraints driven by the increase in smart mobile device penetration. Cisco has been an evangelist for carrier-grade Wi-Fi, and has leveraged its service provider thought leaderships by offering solutions that enhance customer experience and increase network efficiency."

• Chris Nicoll, director of wireless research, Analysys Mason

"Operators must look to incorporate Wi-Fi into their networks, with benefits such as more offload of mobile data, increased network optimization and enhanced customer experience. Vendors such as Cisco and others are extending the value of Wi-Fi to support critical business objectives by providing extensive data analytics that can enhance location-based services, offer additional revenue-generating opportunities and make Wi-Fi a strategic partner to cellular services."

Supporting Resources

• AT&T, Cisco and Accuris Networks Deliver Automatic Carrier-Grade Wi-Fi for Visitors to Mobile World Congress
• Cisco Expands Virtualization Offerings for Service Providers
• Information on Cisco Service Provider Wi-Fi
• Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update (2013-2018)

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Tags/Keywords

Cisco, PT Telkom, Telecable, Telecom New Zealand, SONIFI Solutions, Cisco Service Provider Wi-Fi Solution, mobility, mobile Internet, Wi-Fi, small cell, small cells, Visual Networking Index, VNI, service providers, mobile operators, access, coverage, capacity, spectrum offload, 3G, 4G, LTE, Wi-Fi, analytics, data, licensed, unlicensed, converged, data-in-motion

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