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.
