There’s no denying the tsunami of data is threatening to overwhelm carriers. The need to feed the growing tide of smartphones and tablets is causing many carriers to look at Wi-Fi to deal with this hunger for data. Fortunately for these carriers, there are companies like Ruckus Wireless (News - Alert) to provide the Wi-Fi infrastructure to help deal with this issue. I recently spoke with Steve Hratko, director of carrier marketing for Ruckus, about the company, its position in the space and its future.

Hratko stated that Ruckus works closely with MNOs, which are starting to focus more and more on Wi-Fi deployments. Ruckus works with the usual suspects, including Time Warner Cable and Comcast (News - Alert), deploying Wi-Fi networks in indoor, outdoor and even aerial environments.

According to Hratko, Ruckus can solve the most difficult problems, addressing issues of backhaul power, for example, and making sure that their deployments are at the right height. It has had success in large venues such as hotels, airports, airports, hospitals, stadiums, college campuses and pretty much any high-density area.

Ruckus also works with enterprises, serving many customers in the hospitality space, including most of the major hotel chains. These hotels know that Wi-Fi is a huge differentiator, so it must be good. Ruckus serves many customers in the education space as well.

Moving forward, Hratko said that people should keep their eyes on Hotspot 2.0. He stated that it is an extremely important emerging technology. It is secure and easy to connect to, and that its technology is driven by an industry meeting in London. Samsung (News - Alert) just shipped a phone that supports Hotspot 2.0, and Hratko said that we’ll see more of that going forward.