Wi-Fi equipment provider Ruckus Wireless sees growth in India and is planning to grow its headcount by 50 per cent.

Seeing demand in sectors such as hotels, hospitals, telecom and the education sector for Wi-Fi hotspots, the company today said that it expects to grow in excess of 30 per cent this year.

Wi-fi hotspots

While there is no study on the number of Wi-Fi hotspots in India, according to Ruckus Wireless estimates there are in excess of one lakh hotspots across tier-1 and -II cities.

According to a study by Wi-Fi Alliance and Tonse Telecom, the wireless equipment market will reach $744 million by this year-end.

Currently, India has 951.3 million mobile subscribers and it is expected that the country will add 367 million mobile broadband connections in the next four years, thereby, making India the world's second largest mobile broadband market by 2016, according to GSMA.

The company said that currently the Oberoi and Leela chain of hotels, hospitals such as SevenHills and telecom service providers such as Aircel and Tikona have deployed their Wi-Fi products.

Also, the company is planning to increase its headcount by 50 per cent this year. It has a development centre in Bangalore with 70 employees working on some specific parts of a Wi-Fi product.

“With high 3G spectrum costs, telecom service providers can use a combination of Wi-Fi and 3G to manage costs,” Mr Sudarshan Boosupalli, General Manager, India and SAARC, Ruckus Wireless, told Business Line .

Currently, companies such as Cisco, Motorola and some smaller companies selling Wi-Fi equipment.

According to Mr Boosupalli, Ruckus Wireless through its patented technologies, offers a guaranteed 2x-4x performance through its WiFi devices.

The company also announced the launch of two new Wi-Fi products that can connect up to 500 people through a single Wi-Fi device.

> venkatesh.ganesh@thehindu.co.in

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Published on May 17, 2012