Industry Forums > Wireless Service Providers > Meraki for ad based wifi in small town + business plan

Meraki for ad based wifi in small town + business plan

That's going to be hard to pay for 700 to 1,000 radios.

/edit
For the full 25 square miles.

Meraki estimate almost 2 miles between nodes, but you indoor laptop range would be under 500 feet.

reply to Thorpe
So is the meraki the problem or the idea?
They just make it sound so great on the site.

I don't expect to cover every square mile unless the city foots a huge chunk of the bill.

But I could focus on downtown square, apartments, hotels, coliseum and maybe the hospital for alot of our spending population. Then branch out from there.

reply to Thorpe
I would go with Ubnt stuff for half the cost of the Meraki setup!!!

reply to Thorpe
Whatever you decide to use for access points, the range will have a limitation equal to that of your anticipated client devices. As was previously mentioned, this alone may become cost prohibitive. A typical client device in a small town with mostly 1 story wooden structures would have a connection range of about 1/2 mile to a good quality Uniquity access point. Keep your access points no further than 1/4 mile apart for really decent service. I've got something similar in operation, so I speak from even more than just the massive amount of RF theory I happen to be endowed with.

Edit - By far, your biggest expense and complication will be the captive portal / authentication / advertizing server. Don't even think about radios / access points until you get the server part well figured out. Unless you have a generous rich uncle, your entire plan is already doomed.

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I feel more like I do now than when I first got here.

reply to Thorpe
Tried before by many and failed...

reply to Thorpe
avoid meraki

In fact avoid mesh

You should have a high site with a 5ghz ap
Then down below on streetlamps or buildings, you should have a 5ghz reciever, with a 2.4ghz AP for the end users to connect to.

If you need to use mesh, come up with a routing plan so that you can use microtik routers at each ap site, and just have a 5ghz ring, with 2.4 ap's

Dont overbuild - start off by offering coverage in public places such as parks and your central business district.

oh and most importantly - avoid meraki

reply to Thorpe

reply to WHT

reply to Thorpe
If the business model worked, it would have been done.

The reason that Meraki works in San Francisco is very simple, people join the network and make their DSL circuits available to the world at no charge, lots of people.

reply to Thorpe
I guess that is the cool part about Meraki. Self healing, ability to use multiple gateways, plug and play...

reply to WHT
don't forget the monthly cost of the portal, etc. They charge a monthly fee for EACH radio/AP.

reply to wirelessdog
Open Mesh does the same thing.

So does wifirush.com

reply to raytaylor
Mesh could be done. I know a company that does it over an entire city. Works fine. but they're network is not a typical "mesh".

They back haul the APs to towers spread around to obtain the best service for them. Its like every 20 or so APs have a radio that is for backhaul only. That's the way mesh should be done to work.

reply to Thorpe
A performance oriented mesh system will have at least three radios, one on the local access channel (B/G) and two on the backbone (A).

The processor will need to be robust, as it has to handle the traffic of the other nodes in addition to its own.

Needless to say, there are costs associated with such a system.

Single radio/band store-and-forward nodes can give access, but at the price of performance. They are far less capable than the multi-radio solutions.
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»www.archive.org/details/Meatpies_1984

reply to Thorpe
Ok so this thing has moved in a different direction that might be even better.

The city contracted to have wifi installed on our downtown square.
It is now open and free to the public.

They are looking to branch out to the rest of the city.
They are negotiating with a contractor that is only responsible for installation and maintenance.

The city will be looking to for the ISP elsewhere.

This is where my idea fits in. I provide internet to the city at a greatly reduced cost, with the agreement that I have control over the city's Splash page.

I have been talking with them and trying to come to an agreement.

The way I see it, this cuts down on my overhead considerably, yet still gets exactly what I originally was hoping to offer:

Free internet to the public with ad based splash page.

Am I missing any set backs here?

reply to Thorpe
You will normally have the following obstacles:
Wireless topology
Authentication
AP locations/density
routing
bandwidth (amount and pricing)
tech support (just because it's free, doesn't mean people won't call to bitch about their WLAN card acting up!)

The order of the list will vary greatly based on which is your weakest area! Someone could give you a working network with great locations and yet you're screwed if you don't have bandwidth. Mesh itself is not the bad guy, it's the way it's implemented. We have a modified MESH network that has been working really well for years. We have also gone to repair Mesh networks and modified them from a true(screwed up) Mesh to a hybrid, where you add PtP within the Mesh.

Thanks ,

Ok if the system is in place, all I do is provide the connection. So my main concern will be primarily bandwidth,correct?

I will not be the one handling the mesh or Ap. on provide service to the city.

Read my last post for newest info