Case Study: PCCW achieves citywide WiFi expansion and seamless quad-play mobile services with RUCKUS Networks

PCCW - Customer Case Study

PCCW, Hong Kong’s largest telecom and the only operator offering fixed line, broadband, mobile and IPTV together, faced rapidly growing mobile data demand driven by smartphones and netbooks. Rather than investing heavily to expand 3G capacity, PCCW needed a cost-effective way to deliver city-wide wireless data while addressing WiFi limitations such as limited coverage, stability, and seamless user authentication and handoffs.

PCCW implemented a mixed 3G+HSPA+WiFi strategy, expanding hotspots from about 300 to nearly 4,000 (5,500 planned), deploying client software for seamless 3G/WiFi switching, USB dongles for notebooks, captive-portal/SMS and MAC-based authentication, and upgrading access points to 802.11n (Ruckus). The approach enabled quad-play services and mobile IPTV, increased ARPU, provided actionable subscriber-location insights, and by mid‑2009 offloaded roughly 5% of traffic from the 3G network — a share that continued to grow.

PCCW