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ADTRAN Bluesocket Wireless vs Cisco Wireless comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

ADTRAN Bluesocket Wireless
Ranking in Wireless LAN
29th
Average Rating
6.6
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Wireless
Ranking in Wireless LAN
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
4.9
Number of Reviews
154
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of ADTRAN Bluesocket Wireless is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Wireless is 9.8%, down from 11.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Wireless9.8%
ADTRAN Bluesocket Wireless0.4%
Other89.8%
Wireless LAN
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1397640 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President of Business and Finance at a university with 201-500 employees
Access points work but there are problems with support, scalability, and keeping technology current
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.
EvansEsezobor - PeerSpot reviewer
Group IT Head at Euracare
Has enabled centralized user management and improved wireless access point aggregation
To improve Cisco Wireless, the ports on the access points are all 100 Meg, not 1 gig. We have not gotten a gigabyte interface of about 1,000, but the controller we have is just 1 gig. We would prefer if we could increase the controller to a 10 gig interface because we want to connect our controller to a 10 gig interface, which currently limits us to 1 gig. When we want to move higher capacity data via wireless, it limits us to 1 gig.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I believe the initial setup was straightforward."
"Authentication is the important feature for us. My IT staff no longer has to look after catering to clients who come from overseas."
"The most valuable feature for us is management of the systems. We can easily access all features."
"It is tough, has a nice speed, and is quite reliable."
"Some of the valuable features of this solution are security, the controller is simple to configure, devices are easy to install, and we use the software to administrate all the APs."
"Cisco's technical support is very good, I've never had an issue with their technical support."
"The ability to deploy wireless access points with templates."
"The customer always feels confident with the solution because of its reliability."
"Stability is fine."
 

Cons

"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."
"Support is not really up to par in quickly addressing issues."
"What my company doesn't like about the product is related to the coverage it provides to access points, an area which is one of the most important ones for us."
"The product could be improved with interference reduction. Because wireless frequency interferes with microwave or Bluetooth technologies, this causes issues. A lot of users still use legacy wireless adapters and black box and they do not experience the speed that they could get using the latest technologies. The number of devices on the market makes wireless communications complex. If the problem of interference could be resolved it would further improve utility and ease of system design."
"The solution should introduce natural language troubleshooting processes. It will identify possible problems or errors due to the symptoms."
"The configuration interface could be easier. They should make roaming easier and should fix it so that when you cross a building you can keep the signal."
"In the next release, they should add a better reporting feature. The reporting will tell you if you have a problem. That will make the diagnostics easier."
"The product’s interface must be improved."
"I would like to see less dependency on other products such as ISE and Prime for certain implementations."
"It would be better if some utility lets us know the best place to install the system. Every time we install it, we have to change it, and we have to add more access points. This is a problem we have all the time. It would be better if it integrated seamlessly with products from other vendors. It'll also help if they included a device diagnostics feature in the next release."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It cost over $30,000 for us for 260 access points."
"Cost is one of the reasons why we are switching to Aruba. Aruba is significantly lower than Cisco in price. We do the licensing on a three-year basis. Cisco makes licensing very difficult."
"This is an expensive product."
"As far as I know Cisco is very competitive, price-wise. Talk to your third-party vendor. It all depends on the company size - how many employees, how big the building is. If it's wireless, and you have only 50 employees but you're using a large building floor, in that case you need many access points. But if you have 50 employees using two or three rooms, then you probably don't need it and it's going to be high density, so there is a different design. So you need to talk to a subject matter expert. Talk to them and design accordingly."
"Cisco is more on the expensive side, as compared to Aruba, but I must say Cisco's quality is unmatched, for sure."
"There are annual subscriptions to use this solution. I have not been able to understand the licensing of Cisco. Some of the Cisco executives were not able to understand them either. When you first start out the price is zero but when it comes to a time of renewal you have to pay."
"However, when you integrate the access point and the controller with the DNAT across multiple sites, you need a DNAT cluster, which is a costly solution. Every site has a controller, and a DNAT cluster is not a good option in a global framework. It's okay for a small office or a few offices. But when you're talking about 500 offices, the cost becomes enormous."
"The product is expensive."
"I think it's affordable. Maybe there are little differences, but it's not very expensive. But with all Cisco products, you have to pay more for the power supply. You'll have to pay for the PoE converter."
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Comparison Review

it_user212721 - PeerSpot reviewer
President at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Mar 24, 2015
Cisco vs. Aruba Wireless Solutions
Cisco or Aruba Networks? If you are considering wireless access solutions, this is a common question that you are probably asking. You probably have sales people knocking at your door. How do you make sense of all the stories that you are presented with. If you have done any research, you are…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business77
Midsize Enterprise40
Large Enterprise74
 

Questions from the Community

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Which is better - Cisco Wireless or Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN?
Cisco Wireless is very robust, very rugged, and can handle indoor and outdoor coverage extremely well. We found it to be very reliable and to consistently run very efficiently. Cisco Wireless helpe...
Which is better - Ruckus Wireless or Cisco Wireless?
Ruckus Wireless offers users the benefit of being both easy to set up and get running as well as being very user friendly. This user-friendly quality also renders it easy to learn how to use and ma...
How does Cisco Wireless compare with Aruba Wireless?
On the most basic level, Cisco Wireless can offer a rather straightforward initial setup. In the span of about three hours, the basic framework can be set up. Step-by-step instructions are availabl...
 

Also Known As

Adtran WLAN, Bluesocket Wireless
Cisco WLAN Controller
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Thomas College, North Cobb Christian School, Archbishop Riordan High School, Dickson Public Schools, Hamilton Heights School Corporation, North Idaho College
Aegean Motorway, Baylor Scott & White Health, Beachbody, Bellevue, Brunel University London, Bucks County Intermediate Unit , Chartwell School, Children's Hospital Colorado, Cisco Live Milan, City of Biel, City of Mississauga, Dundee Precious Metals, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Erickson Living, Goldcorp, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS)
Find out what your peers are saying about ADTRAN Bluesocket Wireless vs. Cisco Wireless and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.