Home / Company / Press Releases / 20 Feb 2014 - OptiWi-fi signs deal with O2 Wifi for UK & Ireland entire network deployment

20 Feb 2014 - OptiWi-fi signs deal with O2 Wifi for UK & Ireland entire network deployment

PRESS RELEASE

20 February 2014
Dublin, Ireland. 20 February 2014

Selected UK and Ireland hotspots due to get even hotter

OptiWi-fi signs deal with O2 Wifi to deploy industry-first Wi-Fi network bandwidth optimization across their UK & Ireland network. This will revolutionize user experience by significantly improving Wi-Fi quality at congested hotspots.

From 2014 UK and Ireland Wi-Fi users will be able to enjoy faster and more reliable Wi-Fi even at the busiest O2 Wifi and Bitbuzz hotspots, thanks to OptiWi-fi unique congestion optimization platform, deployed on the Wi-Fi Operators’ networks.

The demand for anywhere/ anytime reliable connectivity from any device is rapidly increasing. Consumption of bandwidth hungry applications and the number of devices per capita are also increasing. In addition to this, Mobile Network Operators are resorting to offloading their excess data traffic to Wi-Fi in order to ease the strain on their limited capacity mobile networks.

Wi-Fi Network Operators are therefore increasingly faced with the challenges of congestion in hotspots. If not addressed congestion problems result in declining quality of user experience, this varies from poor/ dropped connections and slow downloads to total inability to connect.

OptiWi-fi’s patent-protected congestion optimization platform provides Wi-Fi Operators’ with full visibility of bandwidth performance; it delivers autonomous, dynamic and real-time optimization of their network. This enables Wi-Fi Operators to identify and remedy issues on their network at congested hotspots, before they impact user experience.

As part of their constant effort to maintain a world class, quality Wi-Fi user experience, O2 Wifi investigated how OptiWi-fi’s innovative technology could help them solve the problem of increasing congestion at busy hotspots, without needing to resort to additional heavy capital expenditure.

Adrian Cunliffe, Head of Wi-Fi, Telefonica UK, said: "We are immensely pleased to partner with OptiWi-fi enabling us to deliver the best possible Wifi quality to our 10 million users. Today users are demanding increasingly high levels of data on our network, streaming HD video, downloading rich content and uploading photos. Our users expect to be able to access enriched and data-heavy content on their Wi-Fi enabled devices. OptiWi-fi’s unique patented technology will ensure we're able to offer the UK’s best Wifi experience to our users across our hotspot locations and on the busiest streets of central London.”.

Bitbuzz, Ireland’s leading independent Wi-Fi network, has evaluated the technology from the early development stages.

Alex French, Operations Director at Bitbuzz, said: “As Ireland’s busiest Wi-Fi network we were one of the first to get a glimpse of what OptiWi-fi’s technology can provide in terms of better Wi-Fi quality. They successfully completed live trials on the Bitbuzz network proving a significant reduction in bandwidth congestion during busy periods. We are now looking at the potential of deploying their solution in 2014. This is due to the proven ability to show us the causes of poor Wi-Fi quality seen by users at congested hotspots which is not currently available on the market today. We look forward to working with OptiWi-fi to further improve our users’ experience in our hotspots”
Michael Moriarty, Manager HPSU Financial and Enterprise Software, Enterprise Ireland said "OptiWi-fi is exactly the type of innovative and export focused High Potential Start Up (HPSU) Company that Enterprise Ireland is keen to support. The OptiWi-fi solution is meeting an urgent and growing need of Mobile Operators & Wi-Fi Providers for solutions to improve Wi-Fi quality and increase carrier capacity. The partnership with Telefonica UK is an exciting one and an opportunity for OptiWi-fi to roll out their technology to the entire UK market. Enterprise Ireland will continue to work in partnership with them in further developing their international growth’.
Mark Burke, CEO, OptiWi-fi said: “We are delighted to have been appointed by O2 Wifi and Bitbuzz to enable them to optimize their entire Wi-Fi estate. We have already proven that our unique technology delivers tangible results in terms of existing bandwidth optimization with Bitbuzz in Ireland. It is now time to show the world, starting in the UK & Ireland and at Mobile World Congress 2014, that Wi-Fi can work in very busy congested venues.”

Ends:

For further information please contact Mark Burke, CEO

+353 86 823 1258, email: Mark.burke@optiwifi.com

For Media questions please contact our marketing department.

+353 1 524 2443, email: info@optiwifi.com

Note to the Editors:

About OptiWi-fi www.optiwifi.com

OptiWi-fi Ltd. Is a cutting-edge, award-winning technology company founded by Mark Burke, CEO, and Dr. Mark Davis, CTO, a global expert on Wi-Fi networks performance. The company’s origins lie in from the world-leading Communications and Network Research Institute (CNRI), an Irish University think-tank for network communications run by Dr. Davis himself for the past 10 years. The company has since grown and been propelled through Telefonica’s Wayra Accelerator and supported by Enterprise Ireland. OptiWi-fi is based in Dublin, Ireland, a city renowned for its high-tech culture. This allows OptiWi-fi to continue its strong links with the CNRI. Dr. Davis has developed and patented unique technologies that solve Wi-Fi performance issues. OptiWi-fi now makes these technologies available to Wi-Fi Providers globally.

OptiWi-fi is exhibiting at Mobile World Congress from the 24 to the 27 of February 2014 - Barcelona - Irish Pavilion – Enterprise Ireland - Hall 7F70

Industry Unique Solutions

OptiWi-fi enables Wi-Fi Network Operators to deliver “Wi-Fi That Works” at busy hotspots. We provide Carrier-Class Wi-Fi with our industry-first patented optimization solutions. Our globally unique solutions provide the ability to optimize existing available bandwidth so that users can experience the best possible Wi-Fi quality, the way they want to, anywhere, anytime, from any device.

Benefits

For Users: