The Nokia Beacon is a new entry into Mesh WiFi, but unlike others, Nokia targets service providers (SPs) as partners and channels with a variety of advanced, remote and cloud-based optimization and troubleshooting capabilities (such as things like TR-069). While this is an attractive thesis, it begs the questions: “is the Nokia Beacon system competitive?” and “Does it truly make a major improvement in home WiFi?”. We have now tested it and feel that it does. But rather than accept that “binary” answer, read on. Is the Nokia Beacon competitive? In an effort to answer those questions, Nokia send me a Beacon 3 set to evaluate in my home and home office/lab environment. It replaced my Verizon FiOS quantum router/AP— and my several attempts at WiFi range extenders — all abject failures not just in performance but in compatibility with advanced services. The kit includes 3 identical beacons, one of which takes the role of “base” (router) and the other two become satellites. Beacons communicate with each other constantly for back-haul, and also to optimize configurations and to manage automated hand-offs. You never change SSID or subnet and never need to make manual selections. It just happens (as with most […]