Case Study: Columbia Public Schools achieves district-wide gigabit, reliable high-capacity Wi-Fi with RUCKUS Networks

Columbia Public Schools - Customer Case Study

Columbia Public Schools (CPS), serving more than 18,000 students across 300+ square miles and 30+ K–12 schools, faced chronic wireless bandwidth and reliability problems as device counts surged (nearly 20K Wi‑Fi devices district‑wide and iPads for every two students). Teachers struggled to deliver digital lessons when Wi‑Fi failed, and the district needed a higher‑capacity, more dependable infrastructure that could support media‑rich curriculum and growing classroom density.

CPS deployed over 1,400 Ruckus ZoneFlex 710 802.11ac Wave 2 access points managed by SmartZone 100 controllers, boosting concurrent client capacity, signal strength and range while extending the life of their network. Proof‑of‑concept testing showed roughly double the Wi‑Fi capacity and a 60–70% reduction in APs versus competitors; a single R710 supported more than 90 HD streams. The upgrade delivered gigabit‑class performance and reliable district‑wide connectivity for teaching tools, streaming, collaboration and security systems.

Columbia Public Schools

Christine Diggs

Director of Technology Services