Ruckus Wireless, till recently known as Video 54, is about to announce a partnership with Tropos Networks. (I wrote about Ruckus in the most recent issue of Business 2.0.) Ruckus will make gear that will pick-up signals from the Tropos Networks’ MetroMesh Wi-Fi networks. Tropos is one of the vendors supplying equipment to Earthlink in Philadelphia and Anaheim. The fact that two companies have a common venture investor – WK Technology Fund of Taiwan – would have helped craft this deal, don’t you think! The new box is said to be called the Ruckus Metropoint. It is a high-powered Ethernet-to-Wi-Fi bridge that makes it easy for end users to connect to metro Wi-Fi networks by providing a more reliable connection, better performance and extended range. It is most likely to be available in January. My review of Ruckus router is still pending!