WLAN central management software creator Wavelink Corporation of Kirkland, WA, is entering a marketing agreement with Aptilo Networks and WiFicom Technologies , two competing companies that supply user management and billing solutions for hotspot networks.
The deal will have the Aptilo and WiFicom recommending Wavelink solutions for their customers that have grown to the point of needing centralized management of their network. Wavelink claims this makes them the first wireless management company in the hotspot market.
“Hotspot providers are initially rolling out their networks without any central management,” say Wavelink’s marketing development manager, Brennon Martin. “The have to have a company like Aptilo or WiFicom to capture revenue, but they can go without the centralized management when small… but as the network grows, that becomes more costly and you need a solution like ours.” Wavelink’s solution is called Mobile Manager .
Martin says they have not had to upgrade the Wavelink products for this move, though some changes have been required in the service providers network setup — many set products up with default settings that block features like SNMP, or hide IP and MAC addresses.
“Once you do that you remove any sort of remote management capabilities,” says Martin. He says that most of the networks using Aptilo and WiFicom don’t have this problem.
In turn, Wavelink will refer its customers to Aptilo or WiFicom for everything from hotspot user management to visitor connections on an enterprise WLAN.
WiFicom is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, and Aptilo Networks is based in Stockholm, Sweden; both primarily service customers in their home continent and the Asia-Pacific area.