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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
28th
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
5.2
Number of Reviews
155
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Wireless LAN category, the mindshare of ADTRAN Bluesocket Wireless is 0.5%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Wireless is 9.2%, down from 11.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Wireless LAN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Wireless9.2%
ADTRAN Bluesocket Wireless0.5%
Other90.3%
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

"Being able to centralize the wireless environment using virtual machines and having all AP management in the same place (our data centers) is very big because now we don't have to manage multiple devices out in the field and costs also go down because now you don't have to worry about maintenance on those controllers."
"I believe the initial setup was straightforward."
"The Adtran 3448, Adtran 1531P, and Adtran 160 AP are deployed for a customer in their retail clothing environment, constituting the network infrastructure on each retail site location and supporting IP cameras, Mobile POS on iPads, people counters, and traditional POS registers."
"It has allowed our SMB team to provide an easy wireless solution."
"This solution is highly stable. We have only had one issue in seven years."
"We can deploy a simple guest captive portal to allow guests to connect to the internet."
"I'm very satisfied with Cisco's technical support."
"Some of the features I find valuable are the FlexConnect and overall it is a good global solution."
"The speed and security are most valuable."
"I like that it's a standard wireless solution that can be rolled out throughout the campus. I also like that it is easy to manage. It is a good end-to-end solution."
"Cisco's technical support is very good, I've never had an issue with their technical support."
"Stable and scalable with good technical support."
 

Cons

"The AP160 is dated and not yet integrated into the Bluesocket family and we can't run a good Bluesocket cloud solution with the router 3448."
"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."
"Customer Service: Moderate. Technical Support: Moderate."
"Additional features other vendors have might be useful as well as an MDM integration."
"To improve Cisco Wireless, the ports on the access points are all 100 Meg, not 1 gig."
"There are areas for improvement with Cisco Wireless, as well as with wireless technology in general. For instance, while Wi-Fi 6 offers significant advancements, some unresolved issues and quirks have delayed our migration to this standard."
"I had to reboot the controller a couple of times to force correct EAP key exchange."
"Cisco won't work with any other vendors. That is a significant problem with Cisco."
"There is no technology without room for improvement. The main setback with Cisco solutions, not only with Cisco Wireless, is having to update the OS manually. We are now migrating to Miraki, so we've been able to work that out."
"The installation is not too difficult but the solution could improve by making the configuration easier."
"The main concern is the length and overlapping. We have to put on four to six access points on the same floor, and we face the issue of overlapping areas. If Cisco can extend the range of their indoor APs, we would need to install just one or two access points, and it would eliminate the problem of the overlapping area."
"The GUI could be made more user-friendly. There should also be a dashboard where it can showcase how many end-users are connected to a particular access point."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It cost over $30,000 for us for 260 access points."
"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."
"Cisco Wireless is a little bit expensive when compared to other solutions."
"I am not a fan of Cisco's software pricing model. Their management software is far too expensive."
"The solution does not come with a licensing fee."
"The solution is very costly."
"It's expensive because a lot of the controls come with licenses."
"The cost model is expensive."
"We opt for a one-time purchasing fee model in our setup. Since we don't utilize a management platform or WLAN controller, there are no recurring costs. The access points we typically use, which support Cisco's wireless masters, are priced at around $250 each. Occasionally, we purchase them in packs of five or as part of extended packs at a prorated cost."
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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
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business78
Midsize Enterprise41
Large Enterprise73
 

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: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.