Case Study: The City of San José achieves America’s fastest free city‑wide Wi‑Fi with RUCKUS Networks

Empowering connectivity America’s fastest free Wi-Fi with RUCKUS enabling a more connected communit

San José, California — the state’s third-largest city with nearly 1 million residents and more than 56 languages spoken — set out to build “America’s fastest free community Wi‑Fi.” The city faced the challenge of bringing high‑speed connectivity to underserved neighborhoods, maximizing coverage without creating interference, and minimizing deployment time and cabling costs while supporting dense public spaces and city facilities.

Partnering with SmartWave and RUCKUS Networks, San José deployed indoor and outdoor RUCKUS APs, ICX switches, a cloud SmartZone controller and RUCKUS AI, leveraging BeamFlex+, ChannelFly and SmartMesh to boost throughput, reduce interference and enable wireless meshing instead of extensive cabling. The rollout—about 800 additional APs—extended service across schools, libraries, downtown and public facilities, serving 360,000+ households, about 60,000 community users and delivering average speeds of at least 20/20 Mbps, significantly improving digital access and deployment speed.

The City of San José

Walter Orell

Technologies EVP Engineering