ADTRAN moves into wireless LANs with Bluesocket acquisition

ADTRAN, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADTN), which has carved itself a nice niche in wireless equipment provision, will now branch out into the wireless realm with the acquisition of Bluesocket. The privately held company offers wireless LAN technology that ADTRAN plans to pair with its existing enterprise network equipment offerings from its Enterprise Networks Division.

Terms of the deal, which includes all of Bluesocket’s intellectual properties, technologies, and customer base, were not disclosed.

Bluesocket differentiating feature is virtual control of 802.11n Wi-Fi networks. ADTRAN says the technology plays well in both enterprise and campus applications. The new assets and ADTRAN’s complementary equipment also will enable service providers to offer new cloud-based wireless services where both management and control are centralized in a secure data center, the company says.

“Bluesocket is a recognized leader in virtual wireless LAN solutions,” said Rick Schansman, senior vice president and general manager, ADTRAN Enterprise Networks Division. “Bluesocket’s Virtual WLAN solutions combined with ADTRAN’s extensive portfolio of LAN and unified communications solutions will enable ADTRAN to significantly advance seamless wireless and wired communication across major enterprise and campus environments.”

“Bluesocket has completely redefined the WLAN architecture with their breakthrough innovations in both virtual control and virtualized implementations,” said Zeus Kerravala, senior vice president of research, Yankee Group. "With this acquisition, ADTRAN becomes the only company in the industry with full wireless/wireline integration and will accelerate the industry shift to seamless virtual solutions.”