Richmond Free WiFi Blog

Last week, we received word that our equipment provider, Meraki, was changing its business models by offer three different levels of service for its customers. These new levels, and their respective differences may be accessed via this link.

We’ve considered going with the “Pro” level of service because it initially offered the ability to keep the customized SSID, i.e. the ability to keep using “RichmondFreeWireless” as our access ID, along with the ability to keep a customized splash page and redirect options. Initially, Meraki stated they would basically allow us to keep these features, which we can currently do anyway, for a price of paying 1.5 times more for their equipment than the current pricing. This means the radios would have caused $150 and $199, for indoor and outdoor units, respectively, versus the current price of $49 and $99, respectively. Needless to say, we were very much taken aback, as were other Meraki customers. I had even gone as far as posting this message on DSLReports, where I moderated a very active WISP forum for a number of years.

Fortunately, Meraki listened to their customers and made positive changes. That being said, we’re considering sticking with the “Standard” version as this allows us to keep our customized splash page and SSID features. Meraki is still working on the code changes to make this happen. While they are doing this, we’re planning on sticking with the Legacy version (our current version) until the changes are complete, after receiving this clarification directly from Meraki:

Thanks for your inquiry. With our Standard Edition, we are enabling the ability to fully customize your SSID. We are also working on ways for users to include community information and ad support on their splash page. Standard edition products will continue to list at $49 and $99. Please let me know if you have any further questions moving forward.

We realize that our network will not make it without your support. We’ll continue to monitor Meraki’s changes and keep everyone informed.

If you’d like to contribute to the network and to our project, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 at 10:02 pm and is filed under Industry News, Network Status, Partners, Progress Reports.