AirTies has introduced a new line of dual-band and tri-band WiFi 6 mesh extenders and routers.

The Istanbul-based vendor said the devices will be brought to market in “the coming months” and that it already has deployment deals with “multiple Tier 1 service providers.”

The new products include the Air4960 WiFi 6 extender, a dual-band device that incorporates Broadcom’s BCM67532 chipset and has integrated 2.4 GHz 2x2 WiFi 6. A BCM43684 chipset delivers 5 GHz 4x4 WiFi 6 performance.

The Air4970 tri-band WiFi extender is designed to work with WiFi 6 tri-band gateways and provides a dedicated backhaul channel. It uses a Broadcom BSM6755 chips set with 2x2 dual band concurrent at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, and 5 GBHZ dedicated backhaul with 3x3 WiFi 6 using a BCM6710 chipset.

Finally, the Air4960 WiFi mesh router is designed to support operators using existing cable modems or fiber terminations. The router enables operators to deploy only two devices, integrating the router software into the WiFi 6 mesh extender. Hardwire specs are identical to the Air4960.

“Today’s service providers want WiFi 6 as part of a managed WiFi solution to deliver the best possible home WiFi experience for consumers,” said Philippe Alcaras, CEO of AirTies, in a statement. “It’s clear that the number of connected devices is increasing at an accelerated rate, and trends such as UHD video, online gaming, and working from home, are all placing more demands on home networks. To address these evolutions, we’re excited to introduce our new Wi-Fi 6 portfolio, powered by AirTies Smart WiFi and supported by AirTies Cloud.” 

AirTies has other clients besides big international telecoms like AT&T and Sky, and the Istanbul-based managed home Wi-Fi company just announced a big chunk of them.

According to AirTies, together with its North American sales partner AirSonics, it has 34 deployments with regional operators in North America.

These clients include Beanfield, GRM Networks, Lumos Networks and Whidbey Telecom.

“AirTies is perhaps best known for providing Smart Wi-Fi solutions to national or multinational service providers, but local and regional service providers face the exact same challenges and opportunities when it comes to in-home Wi-Fi,” said Philippe Alcaras, CEO of AirTies, in a statement.

AirTies smart Wi-Fi software intelligently directs consumer devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones, game consoles, IoT, smart home devices, etc.) to the optimal channel and band (2.4GHz and 5GHz), based on real-time network conditions to improve performance.

In addition, operator clients use AirTies’ Remote Manager, a cloud-based Wi-Fi network management tool that gives broadband service providers real-time visibility into their subscribers’ Wi-Fi usage, allowing remote diagnostics and troubleshooting with proactive alarms and insights into data consumption patterns and client devices.

“Consumers want consistent Wi-Fi in every corner of the home, and operators want more insights and control over home networks. AirSonics’ extensive experience has enabled us to reach dozens of new operators across North America,” Alcaras added.

Chapel Hill, N.C.-based AirSonics serves as a sales partner for AirTies, offering its managed Wi-Fi products to regional service providers throughout North America. These operators deploy mesh access points from AirTies, branded as AirSonics’ StratiFi 4920s.

“Operators know that providing premium in-home Wi-Fi is critical, which is why we partnered with AirTies,” said Ron Musai, president and CEO of AirSonics. “AirTies’ smart Wi-Fi and remote management software empower us to offer the best scalable, end-to-end wireless networking solution to our customers and prospects in towns and cities across North America.”

Technicolor has sold its WiFi management software business to AirTies for an undisclosed sum, the two technology vendors have announced.

Istanbul, Turkey-based AirTies will assume control of Wireless Doctor, Technicolor’s suite of WiFi management applications for home and business, its sales contacts, as well as the 30-person team behind the product.

AirTies and the Paris-headquartered Technicolor, one of the larger suppliers of WiFi gateways to the global operator community, will stay in business together, jointly looking for ways to develop and sell WiFi management solutions.

Related: AirTies to Debut RDK-Based Mesh WiFi Solution for Operators

Wireless Doctor is a suite of cloud-based performance management software, embedded decision logic, and apps used by service providers to support field technicians, network engineers, customer care agents, marketing personnel and data analysts to improve the in-home WiFi experience of their subscribers.

The acquisition will be used to bolster AirTies Remote Manager, a cloud-based optimization suite that provides real-time visibility and historical performance analysis to better manage consumer WiFi.

“One of the most critical issues facing service providers today is the lack of visibility and control over their subscribers' in-home WiFi experience,” said Philippe Alcaras, CEO of AirTies. “We have been tremendously impressed by Technicolor’s software, intellectual property and personnel, and look forward to strengthening our position as the leader in Smart WiFi solutions for service providers. We are also extremely excited to partner with Technicolor on ways to leverage our Smart WiFi software."

AirTies said it will debut a version of its mesh Wi-Fi software for broadband devices running the cable industry’s open-source RDK platform, beginning in the first quarter of next year.

The Instanbul-based technology vendor also said that it has already signed on a Tier 1 operator, as of yet unnamed, to deploy its new software product.

Related: RDK Partners with Metrological for Easier OTT App Integration

RDK is an open-sourced software stack, backed by Comcast, Charter Communications and Liberty Global, and designed for pay TV set-tops and broadband gateways.

AirTies didn’t specify which vendors might use its RDK-enabled software in devices, but the company works with leading CPE vendors, including Arris.

Increasingly, service providers are emphasizing whole-home performance management of the customer Wi-Fi experience. And finding ways for hardware including gateways and extenders to play nice is part of the plan. 

“Since the RDK is an open source software platform for the connected home, improving the home Wi-Fi experience through new applications and analytics is of paramount importance,” said Steve Heeb, president and general manager of RDK Management.

“With this forthcoming integration, operators using RDK will easily be able to deploy AirTies’ Managed Wi-Fi Mesh software on their broadband CPE, and it will be deployed by a Tier 1 operator in the near future,” added Philippe Alcaras, CEO of AirTies. 

Looking to give its whole-home WiFi efforts a boost, AT&T is offering two Smart Wi-Fi Extenders (made by AirTies) to customers who upgrade to its “fastest broadband speeds,” meaning its symmetrical 1 Gig service, in this case.

Per the fine print and this blog post from Stephen Vincent, assistant VP-wired voice and broadband prducts at AT&T, the offer, good through June 28, is for new and existing residential internet subs who purchase or upgrade to AT&T’s fiber-based Internet 1000 tier (some MDU units aren’t eligible).

The promos comes about five months after AT&T launched a premium, whole-home WiFi mesh product that utilizes AirTies extenders (pictured at left), specialized software that optimizes those connections and lets users set their own network names and passwords.

RELATED: AT&T Taps AirTies for Whole-Home WiFi

AT&T is also selling those extenders online for $34.99 each. Those devices work in tandem with certain AT&T-supplied wireless gateways (the BGW210, 5268AC or NVG599) for “standard” internet plans (12 Mbps or higher).

Coincidentally, AirTies also announced Thursday that its deployments now span more than 25 million homes and more than 50 operators around the globe. Other known customers include Atlantic Broadband, Deutsche Telekom, Frontier, Orange, Midco, Singtel, Sky, Swisscom, Vodafone, and Waoo.

AirTies also announced some stats based on aggregated data from those deployments, noting that the average home has more than seven WiFi-connected devices, and the average daily connection time per WiFi device is ten hours. About 45% of devices use only 2.4 GHz WiFi channels, with the balance having dual-band chips that can operate at 2.4 GHz or 5GHz.

Data rates at 5 GHz are almost five times as fast as on the lower spectrum band, reflecting the importance of network-based client steering technology that can get devices on the best available channel, AirTies added.

Citing data from more than a dozen AirTies partners, the company found that 75% reported a decrease in churn since implementing its WiFi products, 80% reported an increase in customer satisfaction, and 67% said they’ve had a decrease in WiFi-related support calls.

RELATED: Whole-Home WiFi Heats Up

AT&T, Cox Communications, Comcast, Blue Ridge Communications and MidCo are among other ISPs that have recently, introduced whole-home WiFi products with partners such as Arris, eero, and Plume, among others.

RELATED: Comcast Plugs xFi Pods into National Rollout

On the retail front, Netgear has launched an Orbi-branded retail device that combines a DOCSIS 3.0 modem with a Tri-Band Mesh WiFi router designed to broaden wireless coverage and work in tandem with an Orbi Satellite device/extender.

RELATED: Netgear’s New Retail Cable Router Targets Whole-Home WiFi

AirTies Wireless Networks has inked a retail-focused deal with Deutsche Telekom that will see the service provider sell a mesh-based, whole-home WiFi “Starter Kit” at its shops and online to residential customers in Germany.

Under the arrangement, Deutsche Telekom’s Starter Kit, with two AirTies 4920 extenders equipped with dual-band 802.11ac WiFi, for €199.95 (US$246.51), plus shipping. AirTies said its platform can be expanded to up to six extenders per mesh network.

RELATED: Whole-Home WiFi Heats Up

The retail agreement will give AirTies exposure to Deutsche Telekom’s customer base, which spans 28.5 million fixed-access lines, 18.5 million broadband lines, and 165 million mobile customers.

The agreement with DT follows a recent one with AT&T, and adds to other partnerships AirTies has with service providers such as Orange, Singtel, Sky, Swisscom, Comporium, Frontier Communications and Midco. 

RELATED: AT&T Taps AirTies for Whole-Home WiFi

Comporium has hooked up with AirTies to bring a whole-home WiFi offering to customers in the Carolinas that matches the Air 4920, a mesh WiFi extender, and AirTies’s management software.

A premium, subscription product, Comporium is offering a two-device kit for $9.99 per month to new customers or existing ones that upgrade to a higher-speed internet service tier. Comporium will also use Remote View, a cloud-based platform from AirTies that monitors in-home WiFi performance and uses that data to help to optimize connectivity.

The Air 4920 is a 3x3 802.11ac and 2x2 802.11n dual-band concurrent access point.

The deal expands AirTies’s agreements with cable operators and other service providers that have added whole-home WiFi services to their arsenals. Other announced partners include Atlantic Broadband, AT&T, Frontier, Midco, Singtel, Sky, Swisscom, and Vodafone.

RELATED: AT&T Taps AirTies for Whole-Home WiFi

The trend has also opened up opportunities for other suppliers focused on whole-home WiFi gear and software, including eero, Arris and Plume, which has teamed with Comcast on the deployment of WiFi “pods” that aim to extend the reach of WiFi signals to all corners of the home.

RELATED: Blue Ridge Greenlights Eero for Whole-Home WiFi Offering

In other new Comporium news, NCTI has teamed with the Comporium Security, Monitoring and Automation (SMA) unit on a new online training course for SMA technicians.

Comporium SMA, which provided turnkey security, home automation and energy management services to the cable industry, and NCTI will make the course available to current and prospective Comporium SMA Solutions customers beginning in early-to-mid February.

The course, Home Security Technician, is currently comprised of three lessons, with two more to be added. NCTI estimates that most students will finish the course within four or five hours.  Upon successful completion, students will receive an NCTI certificate of achievement.

AT&T has evidently tapped AirTies to bring whole-home WiFi capabilities to a sizable portion of its broadband subscriber base.

AT&T doesn’t identify AirTies by name in this blog post about the new in-home WiFi mesh product, but an image of the WiFi extender on offer is clearly made by AirTies.

AT&T is initially selling the “Smart Wi-Fi Extender” online for $34.99 (with two-day shipping), down from a stated original price of $99. Per AT&T, the Smart Wi-Fi Extender on offer is designed for use with its BGW or 5268 WiFi Gateway.

RELATED: Whole-Home WiFi Heats Up

The new WiFi extender, when used in the mesh setup, “boosts your coverage by up to 1,000 sq. ft.” while also reducing network congestion and auto-selecting the fastest avaialbity connection for each device that hangs off the in-home WiFi network, Stephen Vincent, assistant VP, in-home-broadband, wired voice and broadband products at AT&T, explained in the post.

Vincent also used the post to introduce the AT&T Smart Home Manager that, among its features, lets users personalize their WiFi network name and password, invite guests to the user’s in-home WiFi network and chat with customer service. AT&T is offering versions of the Smart Home Manager app for iOS and Android mobile devices.

It’s not immediately clear what role AirTies is playing with that app, but the vendor has previously said that is offers a program that enables ISP partners to sub-license its technology to their broadband gateway suppliers. 

UPDATE: An AT&T official confirmed that the company's new mesh platform uses AirTies software,  noting that it's compatible with AT&T's latest line of WiFi gateways. While those gateways are available to customers across multiple speed tiers, the new WiFi extenders and new mesh platform is not available to AT&T's DSL subscribers. 

The AT&T tie-up marks a significant win for AirTies, which opened an R&D center in Austin, Texas, late last year, and has agreements in place with several other broadband service providers, including Atlantic Broadband, Frontier Communications, Midco, Orange, Singtel, Sky, Swisscom, Vodafone and Waoo, among others.

RELATED: Midco Rolls Whole-Home WiFi Offering

Other WiFi technology vendors are also taking advantage of this trend, as ISPs and other service providers develop and launch premium whole-home WiFi products.

 Plume, for example, is heavily involved with new ‘xFI Pod” products that Comcast has introduced in a few markets. Eero, meanwhile, has complemented its retail strategy with one focused on service providers that recently was parleyed into a deal with BlueRidge Communications. Last fall, Canada’s Westman Communications was the first operator to announce a rollout of Hitron Technologies’s new whole-home WiFi product set.

RELATED: Comcast Launches ‘xFi,’ Invests in Plume

WiFi is the foundation for the super-connected home. With escalating device counts, increased video streaming, and the rise of the Internet of Things, the need for a new approach to whole-home WiFi has never been clearer. But, not all whole-home WiFi solutions are created equal.

Retailers are aggressively marketing new kinds of whole-home WiFi solutions to consumers that circumvent service providers. At the same time, service providers have an array of whole-home WiFi choices from suppliers. In evaluating what to do, several key things should be considered.

Retail vs. Managed Solution
Improving in-home WiFi should not be a consumer’s problem to solve. Most consumers are not IT experts – nor should they be. In fact, survey research commissioned by AirTies across the U.S. and UK found that nearly 80% of consumers would prefer that all their WiFi equipment be supplied by their service providers – versus having to try to solve this issue on their own. There is a comparable history lesson from DVRs, which first gained popularity in retail, until operators seized on the opportunity themselves. WiFi remains the number one customer care call for many service providers. Service providers cannot afford to cede this new market opportunity to retail competitors.

Multiple Access Points: Tree vs. Mesh Topology
There is a growing consensus that multiple WiFi access points are required to provide consistent, quality coverage throughout the home. One approach is a “tree” topology whereby WiFi is extended from the core gateway using repeaters/extenders that can only make a single path to the gateway node without any alternative paths for in home data flow between devices. Another is to use a “mesh” topology whereby every extender connects with each other simultaneously to manage data flow dynamically.

New advances in repeater technology and adaptive cloud management software, coupled with a rise in devices that support 802.11v, can certainly make a multi-AP tree topology more effective that having a single WiFi router in the home. However, there are some key issues to consider.

Most homes have numerous legacy devices that lack 802.11v support, meaning the gateway can’t be relied upon to command a device to connect to a closer AP, thus increases latency and bandwidth consumption. For devices that can, the AP switch can cause an interruption in the signal flow as the transfer to the new AP occurs. Such disruptions can impact streaming video quality, especially live broadcasts, a “no-no” for many service providers. Most repeaters also cannot prioritize video over other in-home network traffic. In addition, simply forcing a device to connect to the closest AP isn’t always the best option based on network conditions, if that closest AP has more hops compared to a slightly further gateway.

Tree topologies rely heavily on the gateway for network intelligence, which presents its own challenges. Most gateways do not support WiFi’s Wireless Distribution System (WDS) technology. Implementing a repeater technology without supporting WDS requires a manipulation of users’ device MAC addresses when roaming between gateway and repeater nodes, which often creates problems such as a DHCP server assigning a new IP address, device applications getting disconnected, or connection drops. In addition, a single gateway can only measure the interference from where it’s located, thus it may not make the best WiFi channel selection for extenders in the home, which may be experiencing very different network conditions. Repeaters also do not obey the rules of regulators for radar detection, because they ignore radar signals detected by the repeater which is located in a different location compared to the gateway node.

Mesh systems, in contrast, rely on more sophisticated approach because every extender has the intelligence to participate in determining optimal use of aggregate resources.

The internet itself is based on a similar principle. Mesh technology avoids the inherent challenge with tree topology-based repeaters because it uses WDS protocol, which employs additional MAC address fields to carry the original MAC address of the client devices when they roam between the gateway and extenders, enabling fast and seamless roaming. Mesh systems also fully comply with DFS rules as the radar channels are vacated even when only one extender detects a radar signal.

When evaluating Mesh systems, ISPs must consider whether it can continuously calculate the best data route and dynamically adjust to changing conditions in real-time, based on the number of active devices, the traffic profile, and any QoS required. This intelligent routing should also enable client steering, which dynamically connects devices to the best available WiFi channel and frequency (2.4GHz or 5GHz), based on actual network conditions in the home to ensure optimal performance. The system should be able to leverage client steering to sequester slow performing devices so they don’t degrade the performance of other devices in the home, and should work with any legacy WiFi device, which account for most of all devices in use today -- not just those with 802.11v/k/r.

Other considerations
Selecting the right in-home hardware is not enough. Service providers should also consider whether their whole-home WiFi software is portable across original equipment manufacturers and chipset suppliers. They should also look for a cloud-based solution that can provide real-time monitoring, analytics, and remote control of in-home WiFi to assist field technicians, call center operators, and subscribers.  

Service providers now realize that they can either view WiFi as a problem, or as a significant new opportunity. Relying on outdated WiFi is no longer a viable option. Subscribers demand and deserve more. Fortunately, new innovations in whole-home WiFi will enable service providers to reap the benefits, including: competitive differentiation, the ability to upsell subscribers to higher broadband plans or generate new monthly subscription revenue, and to better serve all of their subscribers.

Metin Taskin is CTO and co-founder of AirTies.

[Image Source:  Best  Buy]

Atlantic Broadband is joining a growing number of service providers to push ahead with a premium whole-home WiFi mesh offering that utilizes access points and smart networking software from AirTies.

The new product, to be offered to residential and small-business customers, will be based on AirTies’s Air 4920 802.11 ac “video grade” mesh access points and the vendor’s dual-band client steering technology. The platform will also enable field techs and network engineers to tap into AirTies’ cloud-based Remote View performance monitoring platform.

They said Atlantic Broadband will provide additional information about its service launch and pricing later this month. 

RELATED: WiFi ‘Volcanos’ No Longer Cut It

As a point of reference, Midco, another AirTies partner, currently sells a whole-home WiFi product for a baseline price of $7.95 per month (for up to three devices, with additional devices going for $2 per month), plus a $50 installation fee.

RELATED: Midco Rolls Whole-Home WiFi Offering

Atlantic Broadband, a subsidiary of Canada’s Cogeco, serves about 246,000 TV subs in Western Pennsylvania; Miami Beach; Maryland/Delaware; Aiken, S.C., and Eastern Connecticut.

RELATED: Study: Most Consumers Prefer ISPs to Supply In-Home WiFi Products

 AirTies works with several other service providers, including Frontier Communications, Singtel, Sky, Swisscom, Vodafone, and Waoo, among others.

Some 79% of U.S. and U.K. consumers prefer that their ISP provide in-home WiFi equipment rather than buying that equipment themselves, according to a survey commissioned by whole-home WiFi equipment and software specialist AirTies.

The survey of 1,050 respondents with multiple WiFi users per home conducted by Qualtrics, also found that 43% reported having areas of their home or apartment with Internet dead spots, and that 54% have called their ISP to complain about their home Internet or WiFi.

RELATED: Frontier, AirTies Make Home WiFi Connection

Additionally, 74% said they would consider upgrading to a faster tier of Internet service if they were ensured of better speed and coverage to all parts of their home or apartment and that 77% would be willing to pay extra. Of that latter group, 68% said they’d be willing to pay between $5 to $10 per month extra for better in-home WiFi.

RELATED: WiFi 'Volcanoes' No Longer Cut It 

Those findings, of course, fit snuggly with a sizable portion of AirTies’s business, which includes whole-home WiFi equipment and software combos that are sold in partnership with cable operators and other ISPs that include Frontier Communications, Midco, Sky, Vodafone, Singtel, and Swisscom.  Of that group, Midco, for example, offers a whole-home WiFi platform starting at $7.95 per month for up to three integrated devices, plus $50 for the installation.

RELATED: Midco Rolls Whole-Home WiFi Offering

“When most consumers think about their own home Internet experience, they don’t view Wi-Fi as something separate. This is why they are quick to call or blame their ISPs for performance issues,” Philippe Alcaras, CEO of AirTies, said in a statement. “Improving this experience shouldn’t be the responsibility of consumers or third-party retailers, but rather their ISPs. In fact, the vast majority of consumers would prefer that, and would consider paying extra for a premium Wi-Fi experience that works in every corner of their home.”

Among other findings, the survey found that 67% of respondents would consider buying small, extra WiFi access points  that complement their router to expand and improve coverage, but 78% said they’d rather get all of  that gear from their ISPs.

Some 70% said they have at least five WiFi devices in the home, while 58%  have between five and 10, and 11% have between 10 and 15. The vast majority, 92%, said they stream video via WiFi in the home.

Taking aim at the gigabit home, AirTies Wireless Networks has introduced a new whole-home WiFi system based on the Air4830 access point.

AirTies, which is pitching a platform based on multiple APs, taps into the company’s WiFi mesh platform and supports 2 Gbps of total wireless data via 4x4 11ac Wave 2 Mu-MIMO technology at 5GHz simultaneously along with 2x2 11n technology at 2.4 GHz. The product also ties in a “Client Steering” technology that helps device connect to the best available access point.

RELATED: Sky Meshes With Whole-Home Video

AirTies announced it just ahead of IBC, noting that the Air 4830 will be commercially available by year-end.

AirTies’s strategy is largely based on deals with cable operators and other types of service providers. It has an installed base of more than 15 million devices worldwide, and has partners that include Sky (including Sky Q in the UK, Germany, Austria, and Italy), Vodafone, Singtel, Midco, Swisscom,  and, of recent note, Frontier Communications.

Looking to provide better, more consistent in-home WiFi, Frontier Communications is hawking AirTies Wireless Networks’ Smart Mesh WiFi” platform via Frontier Secure, a site that sells a mix of smart home products and services.

Per the site, Frontier is selling the AirTies Smart Mesh WiFi product individually for $72 and in pairs for $144. Customers link those devices to the main router/gateway to expand and improve WiFi access in the home. Frontier sells products and services via Frontier Secure to residential and small business customers on a national basis, and offers products wholesale through strategic partnerships.

Frontier is the second (and largest) North American operator to deploy AirTies’s WiFi Mesh product; the first was Midco, which is selling a whole-home WiFi service starting at $7.95 per month. Frontier said it also has trials underway with mid-sized and large service providers in the U.S. AirTies is working with several providers outside the U.S., including Sky, Vodafone, Singtel, and Swisscom.

“At Frontier, we’re committed to continually improving the Connected Home experience to meet the needs of our customers across the country,” Kelly Morgan, SVP and GM of Frontier Secure, said in a statement. “AirTies has a proven track record of enhancing the performance of in-home Wi-Fi for leading operators around the globe, and we are pleased to bring its next-generation technology to our customers.” 

“Delivering quality broadband is no longer just about reaching the home, but about the experience throughout the entire home – a vision we share with Frontier,” added AirTies CEO Philippe Alcaras.

AirTies Wireless Networks has introduced the 1.0 version of a “Remote View,” a performance monitoring platform that gives cable operators and other providers a clearer view of their broadband customers’ in-home WiFi networks.

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AirTies said the platform, now available for field trials, provides deeper insight into WiFi network performance using a combo of real-time and historical data gathered across both managed devices (such as MSO-supplied gateways) and unmanaged devices (PCs, tablets, smartphones) that are hanging off the subscriber’s WiFi network. Data from the Remote View dashboard can be viewed in any browser, the company said.

AirTies, which offers partners a mesh-based WiFi platform, said those in-home networks are becoming more difficult to manage amid the growing number of mobile clients that are connecting.

“It’s getting very, very crowded,” Bulent Celebi, chairman and co-Founder of AirTies, said.

On top of that, MSOs have limited visibility into those WiFi networks, which can lead to truck rolls and calls to customer care when customers run into problems.

AirTies, which will be demonstrating at the show’s CableLabs Tek Stadium pavilion, believes its Remote View system can help by measuring the signal strength of connections between the access points and the clients. The platform stores that information locally in the access points every minute and ships that info to the cloud every ten minutes, providing operators with an updated snapshot of in-home performance and a way to visualize how traffic is travelling on the home’s mesh network.

“We’re able to provide tangible, actionable information about what’s going on in the individual house” as well as the client devices that are attached, Celebi said.

AirTies is offering remote view to its current crop of service provider customers, which includes Midco, which recently introduced a whole-home WiFi offering, as well as Sky (for its new video-optimized whole-home service), Vodafone, Singtel, and Swisscom, among others. 

Celebi said AirTies supports multiple deployment models for Remote View, including software-as-a-service (for mid-tier operators), and licensing-based options for larger providers.

AirTies is also a licensee of the Reference Design Kit (RDK), a preintegrated software stack being managed by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global.  RDK started off supporting video set-tops, but has since expanded to also include data with a version called RDK-B.

Midco has pushed ahead with the launch of a whole-home WiFi service, powered by gear and software from AirTies, that costs $7.95 per month for up to four wireless access points.

The offering, hinted at last November, uses an intelligent mesh system from AirTies that’s designed to boost in-home WiFi coverage. The system uses wireless access points from AirTies that work together to create a wireless mesh system that, the vendor claims, provides better performance that the use of wireless extenders.  

For subs who take the offer, Midco said a tech will visit to do an assessment and determine how many wireless access points are needed to extend the signal strength, handles the install, and then provides an updated “heat map” showing the results.

Midco joins a growing group of operators that offer premium, whole-home WiFi products aimed at eliminating wireless dead zones. Bright House Networks, for example, launched its Echo Home Networking service in July 2014. Pricing for that product varies based on the customer’s Internet package, but most pay less than $10 per month for it, the company ntoed.

Midco, which is offering the new premium product in Sioux Falls, S.D., is the first-announced U.S. service provider customer for AirTies, which has said it has trials underway with other, still-unnamed mid-sized and large service providers here. Outside the U.S., its customersinclude Sky, Vodafone, Singtel, and Swisscom, among others. 

“With more connected devices than ever and bandwidth consumption doubling every 18 months, home wireless networks can become overburdened,” Jon Pederson, CTO of Midco, said in a statement. “At the same time, factors such as home layout, other wireless devices, and devices using older technology can interfere with Wi-Fi signals. “Our Whole Home Wi-Fi solution helps customers’ wireless networks provide a consistently strong signal to every corner of the house, even to decks and patios.”

AirTies Wireless Networks, a vendor that makes whole-home WiFi systems and set-tops, has licensed the Reference Design Kit (RDK), a software platform for set-tops and broadband equipment being managed by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Liberty Global.

AirTies said it is licensing the preintegrated software stack in support of RDK-B, a version that supports STBs as well as broadband devices. Midcontinent Communications (now known as Midco) is AirTies’s first announced North American MSO customer; it’s offering a whole-home WiFi product that uses AirTies’s Air 4920 access points and its WiFi Smart Mesh and Client Steering technology.  

AirTies said it has trials underway with other, unnamed mid-sized and large service providers in the U.S. Other AirTies customers include Sky, Vodafone, Singtel, and Swisscom, among others. 

Though smart whole-home  WiFi is key to AirTies’s gameplan for the U.S. cable market, one of its IP set-tops recently passed through the FCC, according to The Donohue Report.

“We’re excited to join the growing RDK community, especially as it turns its attention to new broadband equipment in the home,” Bulent Celebi, executive chairman and founder of AirTies, said in a statement. “We look forward to evaluating how RDK-B can fit into our future plans, and sharing our expertise in ultra-performance Wi-Fi solutions with RDK operators and partners.”  

“AirTies is well respected for providing next-gen in-home Wi-Fi systems to global operators, so we are very pleased to welcome them into the RDK community,” added Steve Heeb, president and general manager of RDK Management LLC. “As interest in RDK-B grows, we’re confident that innovative companies, such as AirTies, can play an important role in delivering significant benefits to RDK-based operators.”  

The RDK is supported by more than 250 companies including CE manufacturers, SOCs vendors, software developers, system integrators, and network operators. 

CableLabs is holding court this week at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, where it's holding its annual Winter Conference.

Here’s a snapshot of what participating vendors are demonstrating to CableLabs and its contingent of MSO members:

-Casa Systems said it’s demoing upstream speeds of 400 Mbps-plus via its C40G, a more compact DOCSIS 3.1-capable converged cable access platform, that’s also outfitted with a 16x8 upstream module. That demo, it said, comes on the heels of a D3.1-powered demo of its C100G pumping out downstream speeds of more than 4.5 Gbps at the SCTE Cable Tec-Expo in New Orleans last fall.

-MaxLinear and Celeno Communications have teamed on a MoCA/WiFi extender reference design aimed at enabling whole-home gigabit WiFi. At the event, they’re demoing the design, which features Celeno’s Quicksilver CL2440 802.11ac Wave 2 4x4 Multi User MIMO Wi-Fi chip and MaxLinear’s low power EN2810 MoCA 2.0 SoC.

-AirTies Wireless Networks is showing its in-home WiFi solution that coordinates and optimizes performance across access points and addresses “bad apple’ WiFi performance issues that can degrade active devices on the home network.

-Video streaming company MediaMelon is showcasing MediaMelon QBR, a platform, it claims, can reduce bandwidth requirements by 35% using existing adaptive bitrate techniques without disrupting the underlying workflow. That will come in handy, it said, as operators deliver 4K fare and look to reduce storage costs. MediaMelon said its platforms are compatible with major streaming formats, including HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), MPEG-DASH, HTTP Smooth Streaming (HSS) and HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS).

-Big data specialist Guavus is demoing Service Reflex 3, an analytics application that enables service providers to improve service quality and enhance customer experience by ingesting, fusing and contextualizing network impacting events with subscriber data in real time.

-SMK Electronics is using the event to introduce two next-gen remote control product families – Evolution and Voice Navigator. Evolution, available in both 47-key and 9-16-key models, can use the service provider’s choice of IR, RF, Bluetooth, ZigBee, RF4CE or WiFi Direct wireless technologies, while the sleeker Voice Navigator, which supports up to 20 keys, utilizes Bluetooth Low Energy to bring voice command apps to pay TV applications.

-Greenlee Communications is showcasing AirScout, a WiFi test and measurement device that relies on multi-client hardware that communicates with a master client that gives an accurate reading of the WiFi environment. The tool, the company said, can reduce truck rolls and repeat service calls while also helping technicians better manage their workflow. 

Sky, the U.K.-based video and Internet service, Sky shed a few more technical details about Sky Q, its next-gen whole-home, multiscreen video platform, announcing that it will use AirTies Wireless Networks’ Mesh technology to enable and manage WiFi on all Sky Q devices.

Sky Q, slated to launch in the early part of the year, will feature an array of connected devices, including the Sky Q Silver and Sky Q – primary boxes for the home’s main TV that’s packed with 12 tuners and 2 terabytes of storage; the Sky Q mini (a WiFi-connected box for viewing on secondary TVs), and the Sky Q Hub, a gateway-style device that will use Powerline- and WiFi-based technology to communicate with Sky Q boxes.  The provider has also developed the Sky Q app for tablets, with plans to extend support to smartphones later this year.

Sky’s new platform will use AirTies’s Mesh system to deliver linear, over-the-top and stored local content to Sky Q-compatible devices that are hanging off the home network. Last month, Cisco Systems announced that it will provide security for Sky Q, including its Cisco VideoGuard Everywhere, as well as its headend platform for service delivery, and its set-top middleware.

Supporting a hybrid system with both wired (via powerline) and wireless (via WiFi) was important to Sky for it to address the challenges posed by the varying types of building materials that are used in subscriber homes.

“We've got a somewhat challenging situation from an architecture standpoint,” Andrew Olson, director of new products at Sky, said, noting that WiFi can have trouble penetrating thousand-year-old stone walls and cinderblocks.  “Using different technologies… allows us to create this great network and extend the WiFi coverage for all of those standard devices throughout the home to make the network stronger, which we think is really important for customers." 

And it fits well with “Fluid Viewing,” the term Sky is using to describe its whole-home video experience. In addition to supporting live and VOD across screens, Sky Q will also allow subs to download some VOD assets as well as shows recorded to the DVR.

“Once people start to get a taste of being able to get the same content flowing across these different screens, it becomes a really powerful story,” said Olson, who joined Sky in February 2012, and previously served as COO at Comcast within its Converged Products Group, which played a key role in the development of X1, that MSO’s next-gen video platform. He joined Comcast via its 2006 acquisition of multiscreen publishing firm thePlatform.

While a device with 12 tuners might seem like overkill, Sky believes that number fits well with consumer viewing trends as more and more content becomes available to them.

In an example scenario, Sky Q will enable viewing on the main TV and to two Sky Q Mini boxes, and streaming to two tablets – at the same time – while providing enough tuning overhead to record four additional programs.

“It’s a huge step forward,” Olson said. “It's a bit of a golden age in content…there are more things people want to record than ever before." 

Blending TV with OTT

Sky Q will also open the door to OTT content. But rather than tacking that content on as separate apps, Sky will integrate those partners with the Sky Q experience. Announced content partners for that initiative include YouTube, Vevo, Barcroft TV, Electus, and Funny Or Die, GQ, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Wired, GoPro, Jukin Media, Kin Community, Red Bull Media House and Whistle Sports.

And what about Netflix, which has been integrated with Virgin Media’s TiVo-powered platform?

“We’re definitely talking to a lot of different partners,” Olson said. “We’re definitely open to working with other people, but we are strongly prioritizing brining the content natively into the experience.”

As for that experience, Sky Q will add a voice-based navigation capability later this year, and is enabling its platform to stream in audio by integrating it with Apple AirPlay.

On tap: Ultra HD

Looking further ahead, Sky Q will also support Ultra HD content, including on-demand movie titles and some live sports, later this year. But rather than streaming that content, Sky Q will rely on progressive downloads in an attempt to unify how that content is delivered via speedy fiber-based connections as well as slower DSL links.

Sky plans to deliver 4K fare using the new bandwidth-efficient HEVC codec. Early on, Sky Q won’t offer any YouTube content in 4K because that implementation requires VP9, which currently isn’t supported by the Sky Q hardware.

On Monday, AirTies also announced a hybrid mesh software platform for in-home networking that supports the management of WiFi connections as well as several wired-based technologies, including powerline, Multimedia over Coax Alliance, and Ethernet.

“Hybrid Mesh enables the next-generation of video distribution in the home” said Bulent Celebi executive chairman and co-founder of AirTies, in a statement. “Today we consume HD video - soon to become ultra HD - on mobile devices in addition to multiple TVs.” 

Looking to replicate the success it’s had across the pond pitching smart, in-home WiFi systems to Internet service providers, AirTies has planted its flag in North America and identified its first customer in the region – Midcontinent Communications.

AirTies, a company formed in 2004, cut its teeth in the Europe, where WiFi and other wireless technologies faced challenges of breaking through the building construction that’s prevalent in the region – namely a lot of brick walls. While speedy home networking technologies such as Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) and powerline offer wired-based option, AirTies took the all-wireless route with a platform made up of a mesh of high-octane access points that are powered by an automated networking management platform that’s designed to steer signals through the best path in the home.

That approach has helped AirTies land some sizable clients, including Sky in the U.K., Germany, Austria, and Italy, Vodafone, Singtel, and Swisscom, among others, and it believes that it can duplicate that success with U.S.-based operators.

In the U.S., video streaming “has put a lot of pressure on the home network,”  Bulent Celebi, AirTies’ executive chairman and co-founder, said. He said typical in-home setups that rely on a primary access point are challenged because signals become weaker and performance is impacted as mobile devices are used in different parts of the home.

He said mobile clients tend to make “poor decisions” on where to connect and turn into “bad apples” on the home network. AirTies attempts to remedy this and boost performance through the use of multiple access points connected to an intelligent network management system that coordinates traffic and dynamically signals through the best route.

To pursue opportunities on this side of the pond, AirTies has spent the last year and a half setting up an operation in Silicon Valley, and today named company vet Oz Yildrim as EVP and GM of North  America, who will be based in Sunnyvale, Calif. Celebi said AirTies currently has about five people stationed here, and expects to hire “well over a dozen” people for North America within a year. AirTies currently has 275 employees.

As for its first U.S.-based customer, Midcontinent, the MSO will tap AirTies’s Air 4920 access points (pictured), which bake in dual-band WiFi (2x2 802.11n at 2.4 GHz, and 3x3 802.11ac at 5 GHz), two Gigabit Ethernet ports, and support for the company’s WiFi Smart Mesh and Client Steering technology. Those APs can be connected through a mix of technologies, including Ethernet, MoCA, powerline-based platforms and AirTies’ own wireless mesh systems, the company said

Midcontinent, an operator that serves more than 300,000 subs in parts of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, is expected to launch its AirTies-powered platform later this year, but has not announced how it will be priced. Midcontinent has also hatched a plan to bring gigabit speeds to its entire footprint by the end of 2017.

“At Midcontinent, we see our customers’ bandwidth consumption doubling every 18 months – and more devices than ever are dependent on the in-home wireless network,” said Jon Pederson, CTO of Midcontinent, in a statement. “The AirTies approach will help our customers enhance their in-home wireless performance and coverage.”  

Celebi said AirTies partners have marketed its technology under a variety of models, either selling it directly, making it part of subscription-based, premium WiFi offerings, or including it with speed upgrades.

He said AirTies already has trials underway with some big, but still unnamed, U.S. operators, and noted that the company can license its technology to other modem and gateway vendors.

And AirTies does expect to compete with traditional gateway and set-top box suppliers as MSOs look to shore up their whole-home WiFi strategies, but hopes that its network intelligence system will serve as a differentiator.

Modem/gateway suppliers such as like Arris have been beefing up their gateways to pump more wireless speed in the home, and others, such as Actiontec, have been aggressively pursuing the whole-home networking opportunity with carriers. On the MSO side, Bright House Networks has shored up its whole-home capabilities with “Echo,” a program that pairs wireless gateways with access points that are installed at different cable outlets in the customer’s home.