Meru Enlists Voice VARs

To do so, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based WLAN vendor last week revised its channel program to encourage its solution providers to deploy voice-over-WLAN (VoWLAN) solutions.

It also has inked a distribution deal with Westcon's Voda One division, a major Avaya channel partner.

Meru, which generates about 60 percent of its revenue from indirect sales, will grandfather its existing WLAN-trained partners into the first level of the new program, said Ben Gibson, vice president of corporate marketing at the vendor.

VARs can rise into an upper deck where incentives increase after they are certified for voice solutions, Gibson said. "Once you add voice to the wireless equation you can't have anymore holes in coverage, so this program trains our VARs for the special requirements of voice over wireless LAN."

Katie Brown, director of channel marketing at Microtech Information Systems, a Meru reseller in Rochester, N.Y., said one of the biggest selling points of Meru's technology is the fact that the end-user experience doesn't drive people crazy.

"It almost sells itself when we perform a demo where we are downloading movie trailers over the WLAN and then simultaneously walking around on a Wi-Fi phone and not getting dropped off the call," she said.

A sharp uptick in the use of Wi-Fi-enabled phones was inspiration for the timing of the channel program changes, Gibson said. And even if a customer is only ready to deploy a WLAN for data traffic at this point, the option to offer wireless VoIP down the road gives an edge to Meru resellers, he said.

The seamless VoWLAN roaming and high-bandwidth performance of Meru's technology are complimented by the centralized WLAN management software included with the products, Gibson said. Security tools that can help prevent unauthorized devices from entering a network and detect rogue access points are integrated into the management platform, he said.

Later this year, the vendor plans to add new software applications, such as tools that better manage wireless voice traffic, Gibson said.

The three Meru Radio Switching systems that make up the voice-enabled components of the vendor's WLAN system—the RS-4000, RS-8000 and RS-12000—became available this month. The four-radio RS-4000 and the eight-radio RS-8000 start at $1,595 and $2,995, respectively. Pricing for the RS-12000 has not yet been announced.