Wireless

Wireless equipment maker Meraki is helping make universal broadband a reality.

The company announced Thursday that it's working with a nonprofit called OneEconomy, which focuses on closing the digital divide by targeting low-income housing. Using Meraki's technology, OneEconomy will deliver affordable broadband via Wi-Fi to more than 100,000 families in the U.S. and, eventually, around the world over the next two years.

Meraki and OneEconomy will launch their partnership at San Francisco's largest housing development, which has more than 2,200 residents. AT&T is providing the DSL service.

OneEconomy provides affordable broadband to low-income housing by forming a kind of campus network that brings in big pipes of broadband and allows residents to share the capacity, much like how an office network is set up. In the past, the organization has focused on providing wired broadband services, because other wireless equipment proved to be too expensive and too difficult to manage.

But David McConnell, senior vice president of access service for OneEconomy, said that Meraki's technology is cheap and easy to use, reducing the cost of running new cabling by 50 percent.

"With other wireless gear you needed a technician to set up and maintain the network," he said. "But Meraki access points just plug in and work. And the online dashboard allows Web-based monitoring that's simple to use."

The reduced equipment and maintenance costs mean that OneEconomy can serve more low-income families. OneEconomy can also pass on the savings to the individuals it serves, reducing the cost of its broadband service by about 75 percent. This means that instead of charging $20 or $30 for Internet service, the group is able to charge low-income residents only $5 or $7 per month for service.

OneEconomy is just one of many organizations across the country that is trying to bridge the digital divide. Wireless Philadelphia has been trying to build a citywide Wi-Fi network to bring wireless to low-income families. The organization, which had originally worked with EarthLink, has developed relationships with state and city agencies to create a program dedicated to meeting the broadband needs of Philadelphia's poor.

But the citywide Wi-Fi movement had barely gotten off the ground, before companies such as EarthLink abandoned the idea. As a result, cities such as San Francisco, have put plans for citywide Wi-Fi on the back burner.

Meanwhile, cities, community groups, and nonprofits have been exploring alternatives, using inexpensive gear from Meraki to set up smaller Wi-Fi hot spots to serve a given community. Meraki, which is backed in part by Google, has targeted this market with products that are easy to install and maintain. Its radios simply plug into a wall and begin transmitting radio signals. It has also simplified management by providing an online tool that allows administrators to easily check usage and troubleshoot problems.

The company has built thousands of wireless networks in 125 countries. And it has built a test bed network in San Francisco, where the company is headquartered. Meraki offers residents free equipment and Internet access. About 80 percent of San Francisco's major neighborhoods have a free Meraki network operating. The company plans to continue building the "Free the Net" network in 2009, deepening coverage in each neighborhood.

In September, Meraki announced it was partnering with the city of San Francisco to add wireless coverage to 12 low-income housing projects in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. Meraki also plans to provide Wi-Fi Internet access to low-income housing owned by the city in other neighborhoods as well as provide free Wi-Fi to senior centers throughout the city.

While Meraki's mission is not necessarily to bring broadband to low-income people, the inexpensive and easy to use nature of its products make it an ideal partner for organizations, such as OneEconomy, that are trying to bridge the digital divide. And as the new presidential administration takes office and plans for universal broadband access take shape, Meraki could find itself being used in even more communities to provide low-cost broadband access.

Mesh Wi-Fi provider Meraki is going green with a new solar-powered repeater.

(Credit: Meraki)

The company, which builds low-cost and easy-to-manage Wi-Fi gear, said the Meraki Solar Wi-Fi repeater will ship starting December 4. The price of the solar repeater costs between $749 and $1,499.

Sanjit Biswas, co-founder and CEO of Meraki, said he expects customers in developing markets, where power infrastructure is not reliable or nonexistent, to be especially interested in the product. But he said that there has also been interest among customers here in the U.S. and other developed markets.

"Some people might want to set up a Wi-Fi on their roof or somewhere else they don't have power," he said. "And then they realize how much it will cost them to get an electrician to wire that area."

For this reason, Biswas said that the Meraki Solar repeater is ideal for installations in places like city parks. Even the higher initial cost of the solar equipment will still be cheaper than running power to bay stations and radios throughout a large area like Central Park in New York, he said.

Meraki had announced its solar-powered product last year. But the product was delayed when the company decided to change battery types after receiving feedback that the batteries ran out of power too quickly. The company now uses lithium iron-phosphate, which gives it greater capacity. Biswas says the new battery can store enough energy to power the Wi-Fi radios 24 hours a day seven days a week even during times of limited sunlight.

In addition to its solar-powered repeater, Meraki introduced a new Wi-Fi radio wall plug, which features a hole to screw the unit to an outlet. The design is part of Meraki's push to sell its gear to apartment buildings and complexes. The company has been experimenting with product designs and ideas for better coverage in multiple dwelling units as part of the free network it offers to San Francisco.

Earlier this year, Meraki announced it would help the city provide free Internet access to low-income housing projects as part of its plan to unwire every neighborhood in San Francisco. Meraki, which is based in the Bay Area, sees the San Francisco Wi-Fi network as an important test bed for its products and services.

Update 1:20 p.m. PDT with comment from San Francisco's mayor.

Meraki, the San Francisco company that is providing free Wi-Fi to San Franciscans, is teaming up with the city to bring free Internet access to low-income housing projects as part of its plan to unwire every neighborhood in San Francisco.

On Tuesday, Meraki held a press conference with the city's mayor, Gavin Newsom, to kick off its latest initiative, which will add wireless coverage to 12 low-income housing projects in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. Meraki also plans to provide Wi-Fi Internet access to low-income housing owned by the city in other neighborhoods as well as provide free Wi-Fi to senior centers throughout the city by the end of the year.

About 150,000 of San Francisco's 860,000 residents are using the Meraki network, Newsom said. "We're a few years from having this city covered" with free Wi-Fi access, he added.

Meraki Chief Executive Sanjit Biswas and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announce the expansion of free Wi-Fi service at St. Anthony's center, which offers food, shelter, and computer training to low-income people. The map projected on the wall shows concentrations of San Franciscans using the Meraki Wi-Fi service in various neighborhoods in real time.

(Credit: Elinor Mills)

To date, Meraki has provided its Wi-Fi gear and free access to the Internet to residents in 80 percent of San Francisco's major neighborhoods. The company plans to continue building the "Free the Net" network in 2009, deepening coverage in each neighborhood. Currently, the network spans roughly 10 to 13 square miles, a far cry from the city's proposed plan with EarthLink to blanket 49 square miles. But the Meraki network, which does not use city-owned assets to mount its gear, has grown tremendously. Six months ago only 2.5 to 3 square miles were covered with Meraki Wi-Fi.

Sanjit Biswas, CEO of the company, said that usage on the network is growing, despite the fact that San Francisco has one of the highest penetrations of broadband access in the country. Much of the usage is being driven by Apple's new iPhone. Biswas said that over the last couple of months since the iPhone 3G was announced, Meraki has seen more than 20 percent of its new users coming from the iPhone.

"The Meraki network is faster than AT&T's 3G network," he said. "So for users who know the Meraki signal is there, they prefer to jump on the free Wi-Fi network. "

Biswas said that users can also roam among Meraki hot spots seamlessly as long as they are traveling at a slow pace, like walking or riding the bus.

The Meraki network differs from municipal Wi-Fi networks because it costs the city and the people who use the network absolutely nothing. Other citywide networks, such as the ones that had been built by EarthLink, only provided limited free network access and usually required users to pay a fee for the service.

Meraki, which makes Wi-Fi equipment, gives away its small Wi-Fi repeaters and network gateways to residents who volunteer to deploy the equipment on rooftops or on their windowsills. In exchange for mounting the gear, Meraki picks up the tab for the Internet service and provides free access through the wireless network to anyone without advertising.

In neighborhoods where Meraki is deployed people can access the Meraki network while walking down the street or they can get a repeater for in-home coverage. Meraki acts as the network operator providing support for the service. But Meraki, which competes against Wi-Fi gear makers such as Cisco Systems, Tropos Neworks, and Bel Air, has no plans to replicate its completely free Wi-Fi network in other cities.

Stick this free gizmo in your window in San Francisco to boost the Meraki signal, for yourself and others.

(Credit: Meraki)

San Francisco, which is where the company is based, serves as a test bed for the network, Biswas said. Meraki funds the expense of building and running the network through its research and development budget.

"We've already seen benefits of the network," he said. "It gives an opportunity to stress test the network and try out new radios. We can also get a better sense for what tools our customers will need to serve their customers."

Biswas said that working with the city to unwire its low-income housing developments served two purposes for Meraki. One, it allows the company to test deployments in larger apartment buildings, where Wi-Fi service can be offered as an amenity. Instead of working with individual residents to deploy the Meraki Wi-Fi repeaters, the city is allowing the company to deploy the repeaters in stairwells and hallways to provide indoor coverage, a service that Meraki's equipment customers around the world might want to replicate.

But Biswas added that Meraki also felt that it's free Wi-Fi test bed could also help the city bridge the digital divide.

"Meraki also has a social mission to help connect people to the Internet," he said. "So we felt we might as well do some good with our network by targeting the low-income housing to get people online."

The city plans to combine Meraki's free network access with other programs run by nonprofit groups that provide subsidized computers and technical training for residents.