Rural Link and Meraki

[Tomo]

I wanted to let the group know that Rural Link (a WISP specialising in
rural broadband) has been looking at the Meraki devices. They
currently import them (the non mesh variety) for use in their
networks.

Rural Link have close ties with Waikato Uni and have some pretty smart
wireless networking guys on the team and in the Uni. Dr Murray Pearson
is a lecturer in the Computer Science Department and the CTO of RL
They have been investigating the mesh devices and can see a few
problems and are looking at ways of making a NZ friendly mesh network
device by importing the basic card from Korea, adding some open source
mesh software and some management firmware (and a casing and antenna)
to provide a very flexible mesh network solution. eg their ISP
platform will allow casual use, token use or monthly subscription. It
can also allow free "on net" traffic and paid "off net"
If you have a token amount of downloads and it runs out, it will still
allow on net traffic.

They currently operate this ISP system in the university where they
offer free on net traffic to all students and one package is a monthly
subscription of $20 for 1Gb of traffic

I think they could play an important part of any solution and they are
keen to attend a meeting of interested parties to discuss options and
possibilities