Ericsson, Ozone to provide Small Cell as a Service to RCom

NEW DELHI: Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications (RCom) has become the first mobile operator in India to join the Ozone Networks and Ericsson Small Cell as a Service carrier-grade Wi-Fi network.

Ericsson’s Small Cell as a Service network will enable RCom to utilize 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.

This will enable RCom to offer Wi-Fi services with a faster go-to-market approach by leveraging Ericsson’s established market presence and reach. Ozone Networks and Ericsson will benefit from additional utilization of their already-deployed Wi-Fi infrastructure.

“The surge in mobile connectivity and smartphone uptake has led to immense growth in data usage. This partnership will enable us to meet the ever-growing customer expectations in ultra-dense environments through data offload to a country-wide carrier-grade Wi-Fi network,” said Suresh Rangachar, President & Chief Commercial Officer, Reliance Communications.

“This partnership will increase Reliance Communications’ capacity and footprint, primarily when it comes to ultra-dense environments. With Ericsson’s Small Cell as a Service platform we have the unique ability to seamlessly combine 3G/4G with carrier-grade Wi-Fi for mobile data offload, thereby ensuring that RCOM’s network capacity always exceeds demand, which in turn helps the Company meet customer expectations,” said Sanjeev Sarin, Chief Executive Officer at Ozone.

“We are pleased to expand our partnership with Reliance Communications with this new managed services agreement. Together with Ozone India, we are realizing our vision of providing a neutral, shared Wi-Fi infrastructure. Ericsson supports our customers’ targets of new revenues and subscribers throughout indoor venues and hot spots with the Small Cell as a Service model. Ericsson’s Small Cell as a Service supports all technologies, from MuLTEfire with the Ericsson Dot solution to Cisco’s Wi-Fi solution,” said Jean-Claude Geha, Head of Managed Services at Ericsson.

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