Swedish network vendor Ericsson confirmed speculation it is acquiring privately-held Canadian Wi-Fi company BelAir Networks. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Ottawa, Ontario-based BelAir makes high-performance outdoor Wi-Fi technology. Customers including AT&T, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable use BelAir Networks’ high-capacity long-range access points in their outdoor Wi-Fi hotspots. Other players in the outdoor Wi-Fi space include Ruckus Wireless and Israel-based Wavion. Ruckus agreed a deal with Japanese operator KDDI last year to roll out 100,000 Wi-Fi hotspots.

The acquisition is expected to close during the first half of 2012 and will see BelAir’s 120 employees join Ericsson. Ericsson is the latest company to recognise that operators will need Wi-Fi to help relieve the pressure on cellular networks. Last week Alcatel-Lucent announced the addition of Wi-Fi capabilities to its lightRadio portfolio.