The condominiums along the white sand beaches of Sanibel Island, Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico are a vacationer’s dream. At least half of the residents of SunDial East and SunDial West Condominiums rent their condos to people looking for a relaxing getaway or a comfortable spot for a business gathering.
Prospective renters, as well as residents, have come to expect reliable wireless Internet as an included amenity. “Our rental guests expect WiFi before they expect a stove,” laughs Kathy Holdrum, manager of SunDial East.
Rental agents in the area report that when they show two comparable units, only one of which has WiFi, renters almost exclusively choose the unit with WiFi. “That’s a key advantage for rentals,” according to Bret Fisher, CEO of Caller-IP, a Florida VAR. “They don’t lose business to other developments.”
The problem for Holdrum and Stacey Goode, manager of SunDial West, was how to deploy a WiFi network across the entire complex of 407 units, and to bring it in at a price the homeowners’ association would accept. They had a bad experience with their previous effort, a Cisco solution.
“The previous system caused nothing but trouble,” said Holdrum. In one 180-day period, the network was up for only 85 days. The managers’ offices were flooded with constant complaints. When Internet radios went down – because of wind, heat, rain or the salty air corroding the mechanisms ¬– management personnel had to crawl up on the rooftops and reboot them manually. No one was happy.
SunDial hired Caller-IP to remedy the situation. Holdrum had heard of another nearby complex that was using Meraki’s wireless solution and called up the manager to see how it was working. But one positive review wasn’t enough. Holdrum called at least four other managers who had deployed Meraki and asked them about their experiences, too. Convinced, Holdrum and Goode asked Caller-IP to deploy Meraki. In four days, the network was up and fully functional. Caller-IP plugged two 5 Meg DSL lines and four 20 Meg Comcast feeds into the Meraki access points, and used directional antennas to jump the signal from building to building. The Meraki Outdoors is especially designed to withstand tough weather conditions and is used in some marinas because they resist salt corrosion.
SunDial management reported almost zero downtime in the 45 days the network has been active. “What’s great about it is that if there are problems, they’re easy to fix,” said Holdrum. She spends less time fielding complaints and clambering on rooftops now. And because the solution is one-fifth the price of the original failed network, the HOA didn’t have to raise fees to make the new network happen. The total deployment worked out to $24,000, or about $59 per unit. Ongoing monthly costs now work out to $5.95 per unit per month. And considering that it would cost an owner $25 to $50 per month to have DSL or cable internet wired directly in their unit, that’s a savings homeowners could get behind.
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Author Name: Ivan Montoya
Ivan Montoya is the vice president of marketing for Meraki.
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