After months of teasing, Wi-Fi specialist Ruckus Wireless Inc. filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S. on Friday. (See Ruckus Guns for an IPO.)

According to the S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) , Ruckus could raise up to US$100 million from its stock offer, but the company did not state how many shares will be offered or the price range for those shares.

The unaudited financial figures published in the S-1 reveal solid revenue growth and a recent shift into profitability for the Wi-Fi firm. Ruckus recorded revenue of $93.9 million in the first six months of 2012, up from $47.3 million in the same period last year, according to the regulatory document. The company's net income for the first half of 2012 was $24.3 million, compared with a loss of $862,000 in the first half of 2011.

Ruckus sells its Wi-Fi access points, controllers and gateways to service providers as well as enterprise customers. The company says it has 45 carrier customers, among which are Bright House Networks , The Cloud , KDDI Corp. , Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd. , Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) and Towerstream Corp. (Nasdaq: TWER). (See Ruckus Makes Over KDDI With Wi-Fi Offload.)

The company considers its main competitors to be Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) (since it acquired BelAir in Febuary this year), HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ), Motorola Solutions Inc. (NYSE: MSI) and Aruba Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: ARUN). (See Ericsson Adds Wi-Fi With BelAir Buy .)

Ruckus did not reveal specific plans for what it would do with the proceeds from the stock offering, but said that the funds would go toward working capital and general business purposes, such as sales and marketing and product development.

Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., Ruckus had 559 employees at the end of June 2012 and offices in China, India, Japan, Taiwan and the U.K.

Why this matters
The demand for carrier Wi-Fi is hot, as fixed and mobile operators look to deploy the wireless technology to add capacity and coverage where cellular networks are congested. Ruckus's revenue figures and recent service provider customer wins show this trend clearly.

But the move to go for an IPO also indicates how Ruckus needs to get bigger to compete with the likes of Cisco and Ericsson for carrier Wi-Fi deals with larger service providers. The company recently partnered with Nokia Networks to address the service provider market, but an IPO would give the company another boost. (See NSN Raises a Wi-Fi Ruckus and Will NSN Play the Wi-Fi Field?)

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— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Light Reading Mobile