What is our primary use case?
We use it for indoor and outdoor wireless services.
What needs improvement?
Having a better dashboard management system that the client can use to access and control their environment would be a nice addition to the product. They said it was going to be part of one of their updates, but we did not get it. We thought we should have in one of the updates that we did. With that, we would have been able to control the environment if we needed to do something like adding more bandwidth in certain areas. Not getting that update became kind-of problematic for us. That was one of the reasons why we had to try to find a solution with a better dashboard management system.
I think they need to get the product to the next Gen. Currently they are running on Generation 5. I know that they have a new product almost ready to come out, but they are not really ready for Gen 6 yet.
Support could be enhanced as well. With any one of their solutions, they are the means that provides the client with the flexibility and scalability to help manage the product. Instead of the current system where you have to send them a support ticket and then have to go back and forth to get something done, I just think that users should have better control over the process. Their current process does not allow you to have that kind of control. That may be just my limited experience.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using ADTRAN Bluesocket Wireless since 2014.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
From my knowledge, we feel that this solution is not scalable enough for us. It could have been a situation where we just do not know everything about the product. But we feel that it is not as scalable as we thought. It needed more scalability to be to bring on the flexibility that we expected.
We have 260 access points deployed across the campus and we have had to make considerations and concessions to our plans based on what we feel are limitations of the product.
How are customer service and technical support?
I think that the technical support is okay. I just think that the process is a little cumbersome for me. Things are not expedited as we would expect and the lag times lead to extended access issues. In the end, that is not acceptable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are currently considering other solutions because of the limitations of the dashboard management for things that are important to our deployment like controlling bandwidth.
How was the initial setup?
I believe the initial setup was straightforward. I can not remember exactly how much time it took. It may have been maybe two or three weeks. I know it was no more than a month.
What about the implementation team?
We did use the ADTRAN — the vendor company — to help out with the integration. We used a different vendor or partner to install the product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost for our organization was like thirty-something-thousand dollars a year for the 260 access points.
What other advice do I have?
On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate this product as only about a five-out-of-ten. It has a lot of potential areas for improvement and has not completely met our needs.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
