Cisco says it been tapped by PT Telkom to deploy 100,000 access points across Indonesia. The access points are being used to offload mobile data from the cellular network and offer better wireless broadband service in hotels, malls, schools and other venues.
"This will be the largest deployment of Wi-Fi access points by a single service provider in Asia," a Cisco spokesman claims. Although Light Reading Mobile should point out that Ruckus CEO Selina Lo told us recently that KDDI Corp. in Japan rolled out 120,000 APs in a year. [Ed note: What's 20,000 access points between friends, eh?]
Why this matters
Carrier Wi-Fi is big business for Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) (thanks to its recent BelAir Networks acquisition), Ruckus and others. Many of the big deals still to come will be outside the U.S., as Wi-Fi is a less expensive way of providing some degree of high-speed data service for many carriers. (See Ericsson Adds Wi-Fi With BelAir Buy .)
With its moves to manage both hot spots and small cells in a carrier network, Cisco has been getting more serious in the carrier Wi-Fi space throughout the year. Its planned US$1.2 billion acquisition of Meraki Networks Inc. -- while more enterprise focused in nature -- shows it is not afraid to spend money in order to boost its stake in the world of Wi-Fi.
So if Cisco is keen to buy in technology again and SP Wi-Fi is on its radar could the firm buy in this area? And if so, what? Seems like Ruckus might have put itself out of the picture with an IPO for instance...
Huh? The population of Indonesia is 200-ish million.
Note that the country is actually an archipelago of 13.5k islands, if I remember right. Different kettle of fish. Article says across Indonesia, but I wonder if it's atually the main islands???
The have 1/3 of the worlds population (4th largest) but only 15th for total area. Compared to the US is 3rd on the list for population and 3rd for total area. So using WiFi there makes it more iaccessible to a given portion of the population.
There is probably more, a lot more of the red tape in the US too.
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