Alcatel-Lucent Partners with Ziggo to Turn Homes into Public Wi-Fi Hotspots

Looking to take the convenience of Wi-Fi technology forward, Alcatel-Lucent recently partnered with Dutch cable operator Ziggo (News - Alert).

This partnership has the ability to turn private homes into public Wi-Fi hotspots and offer wireless broadband access to Ziggo’s customers.

The Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) lightRadio Wi-Fi solution provides service providers with a carrier-grade, end-to-end Wi-Fi solution. Service providers can now provide a seamless wireless broadband experience and offer mobile users safe and trusted connectivity across Wi-Fi hotspots and cellular networks, by integrating Wi-Fi with their cellular or fixed network.

The trial being conducted under this partnership allows various Ziggo customers to have simultaneous access to high-quality wireless Internet. This can be done without affecting either the existing home broadband service quality or the safety of existing home Wi-Fi networks.

18,000 homes will benefit from this service in November 2012, and thus it will be the largest and most dense hotspot network in the Netherlands, the company has stated.

Paul Wijngaard, account director at Alcatel-Lucent said, “Alcatel-Lucent has deep-rooted expertise in delivering novel communications solutions to meet the needs of operators across the globe. By working closely with Ziggo we have been able to develop our lightRadio Wi-Fi technology further to offer a complete Wi-Fi access solution available today. This trial is a great way to show people the benefits of sharing secure Wi-Fi hotspots, and we hope to have set the standard for community Wi-Fi projects.”

Recently, the company helped China Telecom increase the capacity and reach of its fiber optic data network. While expanding it to reach all of China's major cities, the agreement between the two companies will see Alcatel-Lucent increasing the capacity of China Telecom's (News - Alert) optical transport network.

As such, with its fixed-line broadband access network, the network operator can now reach more users, both business and residential.