Press Releases
EE Times Names Ruckus Wireless 2007 “Start-up of the Year”
Latest Accolade is 15th Award in Past Year for “Smart Wi-Fi” Pioneer
SUNNYVALE, CA, April 4, 2007 – Ruckus Wireless was named “Start-up of the Year” by EE Times at the Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Awards program last night at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, CA.
The “smart Wi-Fi” innovator was recognized for its growth and progress as a leader in the global triple play service delivery market with devices that significantly improve the range and reliability of Wi-Fi networks in the home. Ruckus President and CEO Selina Lo was also a finalist in the “Executive of the Year” category.
The EE Times ACE Awards celebrate the creators of technology who demonstrate leadership and innovation in the global industry and shape the world we live in. Now in its third year, the ACE Awards are the fastest-growing electronics industry recognition event honoring the people and companies behind the technologies that are changing the way we work, live and play. A prestigious panel of judges comprised of the leading voices of academia, industry and Wall Street executives evaluated the finalists and selected winners in each of seven categories.
The ACE Award is the latest in a long list of accolades for the company credited with creating a new class of “smart Wi-Fi” multimedia products. Based on Ruckus’ patent-pending BeamFlex smart antenna technology – which automatically steers Wi-Fi signals around interference and constantly picks the best path through the air for traffic – the company’s MediaFlex products provide extended range of Wi-Fi signals and glitch-free whole-home streaming of IP-based video, voice and data over standard 802.11g.
Since its inception nearly three years ago, Ruckus has lived up to its name in creating a “ruckus” in the worldwide broadband service delivery market. In January of this year, the company announced it has shipped 100,000 Ruckus MediaFlex wireless multimedia systems to more than 125 broadband operators worldwide, and has sold more than 1,000,000 BeamFlex-equipped access points since first introducing the “smart Wi-Fi” technology in 2005.
“It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come in the past three years. With such a strong team of networking and wireless veterans leading the business, and with technology that addresses a critical need in today’s home networking market, we’ve accomplished many significant milestones in a short amount of time,” said Ms. Lo. “We’re now seeing overwhelming demand for extending triple play delivery outside the home from service providers and business owners, who realize that in the end, consumers want dependable Wi-Fi wherever they go. In the coming months we’ll be doing even more to help blanket the world with Wi-Fi that’s reliable enough for the next-generation of services and applications now becoming available.”
Lo also noted that in order to build a successful company, market demand and timing are essential, along with an open company culture that focuses first and foremost on customer needs, fosters innovation and rewards the pursuit of technical excellence. “These are the elements that turn startups with a great product and vision into leading industry brands,” she added.
Ruckus Wireless’ MediaFlex NG is the industry’s first and only carrier-class managed wireless services platform for the home that solves the “last 100 feet” problem, and reliably distributes multimedia content over standard 802.11 Wi-Fi to every corner of the home. Deployed by major and independent service providers around the world, including Belgacom, Telefonica O2 Czech Republic and Pioneer Telephone Cooperative in Oklahoma, the MediaFlex NG is the only proven solution that provides whole-home broadcast quality coverage and gives the provider extensive remote management capabilities.
In the past year Ruckus also introduced its MetroFlex broadband access gateway – a single device that gives subscribers wireless connectivity to outdoor broadband metro networks while simultaneously providing indoor Wi-Fi connectivity to home PCs and other Wi-Fi-enabled devices. With MetroFlex, Ruckus is currently the exclusive or preferred supplier of customer premise metro equipment for a number of municipal Wi-Fi networks across the country, including: Minneapolis (see related release), Mountain View, CA; Portland, OR; Toronto, Waterloo, Ontario; Vail, CO and St. Louis Park.