“There were two main considerations for choosing a wireless solution. One of the considerations was to look for a solution that is easy to deploy, and Meraki fit that requirement,” mentioned Dr. Surapant. “However, the most important factor was whether this solution was able to create a sustainable business model for wireless around Phuket.”
Phuket has limited technology infrastructure, so it was crucial to Dr. Surapant that they chose a wireless solution that was easy to deploy. With Meraki, “the team can complete the configurations via the web-based Meraki dashboard,” said Dr. Surapant. This allowed the CAT Telecom team to simply mount the Meraki wireless access points around the city centre and the beaches, plug them in, and the APs downloaded the configurations automatically from the cloud.
The Government of Thailand instructed and funded CAT Telecom to find, install, deploy, and manage the wireless solution, but “there was only initial budget to install and deploy this wireless solution and minimal budget to maintain the network,” Mayor Chalermluck. Keen to ensure that the city WiFi be a continuing service to the city, Mayor Chalermluck, Dr. Surapant, and the team needed to find a sustainable business model.
Meraki leverages on location-based advertising to enable a sustainable business model
“We worked with our partners and they showed us a location-based business model which leverages an advertising model for tourists, powered by Meraki wireless solutions,” explained Dr. Surapant. “With this model, we would offer tourists and locals a seamless login to the free city WiFi and provide location-based and personalised advertisements based on each user’s profile.” To achieve an intuitive and seamless WiFi signup process, Meraki with its channel partner's solutions, Turnstyle and SpotAnalytics, is able to provide an external captive portal to allow users to roam throughout the city without having to re-authenticate at every access point.
Phuket is able to get deeper visibility into its clients with the analytics provided by the Meraki dashboard. “Features including the built-in heat-map and client analytics on the cloud-based dashboard are perfect for our needs,” noted Mayor Chalermluck.
With this advertising model in place, along with the partnership with global media agencies, CAT Telecom and Phuket have access to advertising to provide tourists and businesses with an enhanced experience, while providing the revenue that is crucial for a sustainable business model to the maintain of the city WiFi project for the future.
