Meraki

Meraki introduces plug-and-play WiFi mesh kit

Lynnette Luna — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:32:48 -0500

WiFi mesh vendor Meraki introduced the Main Street WiFi Starter Pack, a product design to assist any town or business district to deploy a WiFi mesh network across a square mile for less than $10,000.

Meraki has always had a unique strategy to deploy wireless mesh technology. It makes WiFi equipment and sells its WiFi repeaters and network gateways to residents who volunteer to deploy the equipment on rooftops or on their windowsills to create a wireless mesh. Municipalities have been deploying the solution too, and now they can deploy the Main Street plug-and-play kit network themselves or use a Meraki certified partner to handle the roll out.

Typical mesh solutions that cover a square mile cost between $25,000 and $100,000, Meraki said.

For more:
- read this release

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Meraki rolls out mesh partner program

Lynnette Luna — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:44:39 -0400

Meraki is expanding beyond its grassroots beginnings to announce the Meraki Partner Program, which is designed to help resellers and IT solution providers deploy Meraki wireless networking solutions. By targeting these resellers and solutions providers, Meraki is apparently looking to broaden its market for WiFi hardware.

Meraki has always had a unique strategy to deploy wireless mesh technology. It makes WiFi equipment and sells its WiFi repeaters and network gateways to residents who volunteer to deploy the equipment on rooftops or on their windowsills to create a wireless mesh. In San Francisco, Meraki is picking up the tab for the Internet service and provides free access through the wireless network to anyone without advertising. Meraki is building a citywide network in San Francisco it hopes to complete by 2009. About 150,000 of the city's 860,000 residents use the network.

The new Meraki Partner Program includes dedicated account management, discounted pricing, training, lead distribution, technical support, and access to a partner portal. These benefits are being offered to complement the network deployment and support services Meraki authorized resellers provide their customers.

For more:
- take a look at the company's web site

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Meraki: More than 100,000 have used WiFi in San Fran

Lynnette Luna — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:15:51 -0400

Meraki says more than 100,000 people have used its Free the Net service in San Francisco. The company is using San Francisco as test bed for its ad-hoc network that is formed using shared broadband connections and Meraki's WiFi repeaters that users place in their windows, balconies or roofs. Recently, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said that citywide WiFi will be a reality and that 144,000 residents will be surfing the Web for free by the end of the year at no cost to the city. Meraki is building the network and donating the service. The company expects it will take 15,000 devices to blanket the city with coverage.

For more:
- take a look at VentureBeat

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Meraki unwires affordable housing in San Francisco

Lynnette Luna — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:19:50 -0400

Meraki, whose mission is to bring affordable Internet to the masses using off-the-shelf WiFi equipment and grassroots volunteerism, announced it will bring WiFi to affordable housing in San Francisco. The company has already established free wireless access in Altamont Hotel and Dunleavy Plaza, two of the city's affordable housing communities that provide single occupancy and family housing to more than 100 tenants. During the coming months, Meraki will extend Free the Net to dozens of similar communities in San Francisco. Article

Meraki scores $20M in VC money

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 06:59:56 -0500

WiFi mesh operator Meraki scored $20 million in financing that it says will partly be used to finance the cost of creating a free WiFi network across San Francisco. Meraki has been experimenting with the notion of a massive free WiFi network in San Francisco throughout 2007 and apparently sees a big opportunity now that San Fran's city government pulled the plug on muni-WiFi plans after EarthLink bailed out.

The premise of Meraki is using ad-hoc networks that are formed using shared broadband connections and Meraki's WiFi repeaters that users place in their windows, balconies or roofs. The free San Fran network will be "part of an effort to showcase for other communities around the world how the company's technology can allow the creation of city-wide access networks at a fraction of current costs," said the company.

The second-round $20-million infusion came from Sequoia Capital, DAG Ventures, Northgate Capital and other existing investors. It has already received an undisclosed amount of capital from Google and $5 million in first-round financing last year.

To read more about Meraki's plans for San Francisco:
- check out this article from TelecomWeb

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Meraki users revolt as company jacks up price

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 06:59:57 -0400

Meraki, whose mission is to bring affordable WiFi to the masses, dramatically changed its pricing and service after emerging from its beta, angering existing users, according to Wi-Fi Net News.

Meraki's business model has been to use cheap off-the-shelf WiFi equipment and grassroots volunteerism. The ad-hoc networks are formed using shared broadband connections and Meraki's WiFi repeaters that users place in their windows, balconies or roofs, enabling anyone to become their own wireless ISP.

Now early users are seeing their cost structure skyrocket as Meraki, who lists Google as one of its investors, upped its equipment pricing. Meraki sells two basic nodes, indoor and outdoor. Each was priced at $50 and $100 respectively during the beta. After the beta, the price remains the same but many of the critical features, such as billing and authentication, that were included during the beta period effectively raises the price to $150 for the indoor node and $200 for the outdoor node.

Meraki is also requiring the display of (Google) and a percentage for handling billing. Does this mean Meraki is struggling with this business model?

For more about Meraki's changes:
- take a look at this post from WNN Wi-Fi Net News
- check out the Meraki Forums

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San Fran may finally get WiFi via Meraki

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 06:59:56 -0400

San Francisco may end up getting city-wide WiFi access after all--that is if enough volunteers are found. Meraki, whose mission is to bring affordable Internet to the masses using off-the-shelf WiFi equipment and grassroots volunteerism, is expanding its WiFi network from two San Francisco neighborhoods to the entire city.

The premise of Meraki is using ad-hoc networks that are formed using shared broadband connections and Meraki's WiFi repeaters that users place in their windows, balconies or roofs. After experimenting with the networks in the San Fran neighborhoods of Castro and Dolores Park, Meraki found that its sign-up page started attracting residents throughout San Francisco. Today, Meraki supports about 6,500 users and 200 volunteers who actively share bandwidth and have placed repeaters on their premises. In order to cover the areas Meraki plans, it will need about 2000 volunteers. Meraki was named a Fierce 15 company by FierceBroadbandWireless.

For more about Meraki's plans in San Francisco:
- read this blog post on GigaOm

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