Ruckus Wireless may be currently focused on convincing the world that it should use WiFi instead of cellular for Broadband Wireless, but it hasn’t entirely forgotten the market that gave it a start in life, and has signed Australia’s Telstra for its Smart 802.11n WiFi, to go inside the Telstra T-Box set top.
The new T-Box combines TV with BigPond video, which is video over the internet (OTT) and offers movie downloads and HD free-to-air channels and it also acts as a personal video recorder. However like most Ruckus Wireless video over WiFi deals, these are only being offered as an option for Telstra customers. On the few occasions where video WiFi has been offered as standard, Ruckus ships an awful lot of devices, here it is only when a customer specifically asks for the more expensive version of the box.
The Ruckus box is based entirely on 5GHz channels and feature all that stuff which Ruckus goes on about, such as longer range transmission of video using its smart antenna beamforming technology. Ruckus also has a patent applied for technology, whereby the TV requests packet resends from the device’s buffer, eliminating packet loss, which easily ruins video.
Ruckus says that more than one million Smart Wi-Fi units have been installed in subscriber homes worldwide by Belgacom, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, PCCW, Swisscom, Telecom Austria, SingTel, Telef’nica O2 Czech Republic Telef’nica Del Sur, Telenor and others.