Meru Makes The Honor Roll In Philadelphia Schools

Meru Networks announces large-scale wireless network for the School District of Philadelphia, a significant win for a player who has often been snubbed for its small size. -->
-->
Dec 3, 2007 - By Frank Bulk

Meru Networks has come up from behind and apparently stole the prize for the largest deployed Wi-Fi installation in North America. Publicized accounts mention over 3000 access points installed at Ohio State University, and a source has said that Microsoft has over 10,000 access points deployed worldwide, both wins using Aruba Networks. In Australia Victoria's Department of Education deploy a few more: 10,000 access points across 1700 sites in Cisco's autonomous mode. Previously hinted in the Mobile Observer newsletter, it's now public news that the School District of Philadelphia has deployed over 7000 Meru radio switches in more than 90 schools. What's remarkable is that this is just the beginning - contingent on further funding from E-Rate, twice the existing number of schools will be deployed to complete the project. A representative from Meru Networks predicted that another third would be installed this coming year, and when that happens, the district will have the most wireless access points of any organization in the world. The School District of Philadelphia encompasses 268 schools, 166,000 students, and 10,000 teachers.
It was just a year ago that Meru announced their involvement with Philadelphia's "School of the Future" project, an initiative led by Microsoft. According to a school spokesperson in a radio interview with NPR, Microsoft's involvement in the "School of the Future" was to provide guidance and direction and they were not a significant financial supporter. Key themes of the "School of the Future" project included using technology and well-designed workspaces to help students achieve their maximum potential. The wireless network, one component of that project's technology infrastructure, was delivered by Meru.