Ericsson, Ozone Partner to provide 'Small Cell as a Service' to RCOM

Reliance Communications or RCOM has become the first mobile operator in India to join the Ozone Networks and Ericsson Small Cell as a Service carrier-grade Wi-Fi network.

Ericsson’s Small Cell as a Service network will enable RCOM to utilize the existing Ericsson/Ozone Wi-Fi infrastructure, and launch Wi-Fi services for a seamless end-user experience using the carrier-grade small cell network.

This will enable Reliance Communications to offer Wi-Fi services with a faster go-to-market approach by leveraging Ericsson’s established market presence and reach. Ozone Networks and Ericsson will benefit from additional utilization of their already-deployed Wi-Fi infrastructure.

Suresh Rangachar, President & Chief Commercial Officer, Reliance Communications, says: “The surge in mobile connectivity and smartphone uptake has led to immense growth in data usage. This partnership will enable us to meet the ever-growing customer expectations in ultra-dense environments through data offload to a country-wide carrier-grade Wi-Fi network.”

Sanjeev Sarin, Chief Executive Officer at Ozone, says: “This partnership will increase Reliance Communications’ capacity and footprint, primarily when it comes to ultra-dense environments. With Ericsson’s Small Cell as a Service platform we have the unique ability to seamlessly combine 3G/4G with carrier-grade Wi-Fi for mobile data offload, thereby ensuring that RCOM’s network capacity always exceeds demand, which in turn helps the Company meet customer expectations."

Jean-Claude Geha, Head of Managed Services at Ericsson, says: “We are pleased to expand our partnership with Reliance Communications with this new managed services agreement. Together with Ozone India, we are realizing our vision of providing a neutral, shared Wi-Fi infrastructure. Ericsson supports our customers’ targets of new revenues and subscribers throughout indoor venues and hot spots with the Small Cell as a Service model. Ericsson’s Small Cell as a Service supports all technologies, from MuLTEfire with the Ericsson Dot solution to Cisco’s Wi-Fi solution.”

Through its Small Cell as a Service offering, Ericsson provides small cell technology, designs, plans, builds and optimizes networks, and then manages them on behalf of its customers, based on long-term as-a-Service contracts.