Meru Survey of Higher Education IT Leaders Shows WLAN Upgrade Surprising Results

SUNNYVALE, CA, Mar 13, 2013 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Meru Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: MERU), a leader in virtualized wireless LAN solutions, today released the results from its recent survey of higher education IT departments. The respondents completed a set of questions designed to determine their biggest Wi-Fi challenges on-campus relative to BYOD and mobility, and where they stand relative to solving them. Some of the results were quite surprising, moving well beyond the iPad, iPhone and other tablet and smartphone issues commonly reported.

Despite 802.11n offering almost 3X the throughput, 4X the spatial streams and 2X the range of 802.11g, 77 percent of the 230 respondents have not fully migrated to it. Also surprising is the fact that while only 23 percent of respondents have fully deployed 802.11n to support video and voice streaming, which is very difficult with multiple users on 802.11g, only 55 percent of respondents have campus-wide pervasive Wi-Fi coverage.

Others, like Meru networks customer Franklin & Marshall College of Lancaster, Pa., have made the transition in both regards. Greg Schuman, Franklin & Marshall Network Analyst, said that the school completed its full campus coverage of 802.11n in late February 2013 using more than 750 Meru APs, including 120 AP332s and another 630 AP 320s.

"Wi-Fi is a critical means of communication for all aspects of learning and business at Franklin and Marshall," said Schuman. "Just as we provide the best and demand the best from our students and faculty, we expect nothing but the best from our network. It's key to our success." Another surprising finding focused on the locations of "trouble areas," or places where IT receives the most calls for lack of connectivity or unacceptable network performance. Just a year ago these were the lecture halls and libraries where students gathered with their laptops, tablets and smartphones. The Meru survey discovered that the trouble zones have now moved to the residence halls, mainly due to the significant increase in the number of other Wi-Fi devices such as game consoles, televisions, musical instruments and other Wi-Fi-enabled "fixed" appliances that share the same Wi-Fi space with mobile devices in residence halls. Fifty-one percent reported "residence halls or dormitories" as the biggest problem spots, while about 25 percent each identified lecture halls and libraries.

"What this survey indicates to us is that students want to enjoy 'uninterrupted learning' -- wherever, whenever and using whatever Wi-Fi-enabled device they have," said Sarosh Vesuna, vice president and general manager of the education business unit at Meru. "We are seeing an expectation gap, where student demands for pervasive coverage and high capacity Wi-Fi is often unmet by traditional WLAN deployments. Meru Education Grade platform for Uninterrupted learning specifically addresses these requirements." For a copy of a presentation outlining the results of all of the survey results, visit the Meru web site here: http://bit.ly/VMGhnu About Meru Networks Meru Networks (NASDAQ: MERU) designs, develops, and distributes virtualized wireless LAN solutions that provide enterprises with the performance, reliability, predictability and operational simplicity of a wired network with the advantages of mobility. Meru Networks eliminates the deficiencies of multichannel, client-controlled architectures with its innovative, single-channel, virtualized network architecture that easily handles device density and diversity. Meru wireless LAN solutions are deployed in major vertical industries including Fortune 500 businesses, education, hospitality, healthcare and retail supply chain. Founded in 2002, Meru is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., with operations in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Visit www.merunetworks.com or call (408) 215-5300 for more information.

Press Contact: Wilson Craig Parallax Public Relations for Meru Networks +1 408 516 6182 wilson@parallaxpr.com SOURCE: Meru mailto:wilson@parallaxpr.com

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