
Swedish broadband company A3 offers Wi-Fi as a service powered by Seliro’s solutions
by Mårten Olsson
A3 is a Swedish turnkey supplier in telecom and IT, offering a full range of communication services for private customers and companies as well as modern IT solutions for the digital office. A3 was founded in 2017 when the broadband and telecom companies AllTele and T3 joined forces, with the common goal of spearheading digital life.
Only providing equipment doesn’t add value
In 2019 it had become clear to A3 that the ever-growing need for high quality Wi-Fi called for more than just being able to offer Wi-Fi-enhancing products. They also needed to take on a bigger responsibility for how such products actually work when they reach the end customer’s home. Mathias Utterström is product manager at A3 and is responsible for value added services as well as Wi-Fi related products and services:
– By only providing our customers equipment, we were basically functioning as a reseller which didn’t add value for the customers. We had no insights about the challenges our customers experienced with the products and could therefore not take proactive measures to prevent them. We wanted to take responsibility for the customer experience throughout the entire process – from purchase to installation and usage in a way that works optimally for their specific needs. And to be able to help them if anything goes wrong.
Better quality with Wi-Fi as a service
A3 decided they wanted to offer Wi-Fi as a service for their customers and started looking for a solution that could offer higher quality and a better customer experience. Two of the most common challenges for customers using Wi-Fi are “dead zones” caused by poor coverage and throughput issues due to multiple users and devices sharing limited radio resources. Therefore, network stability and being able to ensure best possible Wi-Fi coverage were key elements when choosing a new solution. Mathias Utterström continues:
– Seliro provides a solution that addresses both of these issues, as well as an ACS that facilitates provisioning. The ACS also offers the possibility to develop managed services and new functionalities that further improves the overall customer experience. We had already successfully teamed up with Seliro in a previous co-operation for broadband phone services. Their Wi-Fi solution was also on par with the quality of service as well as quality of experience we want to provide to our customers which ultimately led to the decision to choose them yet again.
Successful launch despite on-going pandemic
As a result, two new services were launched: A3 Wi-Fi and A3 Wi-Fi Mesh. A3 Wi-Fi consists of a Wi-Fi gateway for a small to medium-sized household, and A3 Wi-Fi Mesh includes a gateway plus a mesh extender that covers a larger household. The gateways offer full mesh functionality based on Qualcomm’s leading SON platform. The ACS is used to ensure optimal provisioning – making sure that the right equipment ends up in the right home with the right setup. Further down the road, the ACS can also provide diagnostics tools that help analyze Wi-Fi quality inside subscribers’ homes, in order to better service them for customer support.
A3 has now provided these services since June of 2020 and Mathias Utterström views the launch as successful:
– In terms of sales things have gone well, and we are moving forward at a satisfactory and stable rate. We haven’t marketed these services more than on our site, so the interest in has grown organically and developments are really positive so far. Especially considering that the prerequisites for launching new services have been far from optimal due to the ongoing pandemic. Seliro has also been very forthcoming – great communication and always eager to identify and take responsibility for what needs to be done.
Don't miss out!
Get news, articles, insights and discussion about rugged computing technology for demanding environments, straight to your inbox by submitting your email below.