Meraki Phones

kYutobi
Kind of a big deal

Meraki Phones

Anyone think Meraki is going to come back with phones again? I got to briefly test one of their now expired ones but only for a few days as I was on vacation the week before. Were they really good or is the reason they got retired was because they weren't working as Meraki expected? Any input would be awesome. Thanks guys 📗

 

Enthusiast
7 REPLIES 7
NolanHerring
Kind of a big deal

I don't know any details about why they got discontinued, but I would assume it was sales related not technology. And if my theory is correct that it was a sales issue, then I would be amazed if they came back with them in the future.

I'm sure someone else knows more than my 'feeling the ether' guess.
Nolan Herring | nolanwifi.com
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@NolanHerring wrote:
I don't know any details about why they got discontinued, but I would assume it was sales related not technology. And if my theory is correct that it was a sales issue, then I would be amazed if they came back with them in the future.

I'm sure someone else knows more than my 'feeling the ether' guess.

Hey @NolanHerring any info is better than none.

Enthusiast

With  some experience of MNO operations, sip services etc, I would say the problem was that, outside of North America, the kind of contracts with other telcos/sip service suppliers/Incumbent fixed operators, that Meraki would have to write to create affordable run environments for their VoIP architecture are not sufficiently well understood. Which is not surprising as the telco world varies greatly depending on location. This meant that implementation times became protracted and uneconomic.

 

And quite frankly, not cost effective. My team in the EU all have one or more cloud hosted landline numbers together with apps on their mobile phones. We get great rates to and from all over the developed world, including North America, as well as surprising places like the West Indies and Greenland (according to one of the guys). Plus we have messaging. We can take the office with us anywhere there is a phone signal, without extra equipment.

 

Cloud hosted land line - calls may be made from or to an apparent fixed line number in a specified location that originate from a mobile or fixed line phone.

 

A premium priced VoIP phone has to be darn sophisticated, or ultra cost effective to compete with that.

Robin St.Clair | Principal, Caithness Analytics | @uberseehandel

This is the official closeure notice:

https://documentation.meraki.com/MC/Meraki_MC_Closure

VOIP is a flooded market with lots of open source options available as well. I still think phones would be a good idea but that powers that be decided it wasn't their bread and butter. 

kYutobi
Kind of a big deal

Thank you guys for the input.

Enthusiast
UARiT
Here to help

Meraki did nothing to further development of the MC. They pretty much dumped it in the lap of intelepeer and ignored it. It had potential but it should not have been a "complete" solution but a managed device like a switch or an AP. If it was merely managed through a dashboard with the backend available for configuration with any SIP provider it would have been a really innovative, competitive product but it was essentially ruined by the whole "Meraki will be your SIP provider" thing.

 

Simply put it was ill-conceived and never developed. The hardware was beautiful and it had amazing potential. Imagine something like the Grandstream IPBX software with those phones, managed from the Meraki dashboard. 

So much potential. I really liked those phones.... when they worked.

 

Then they just dumped it and didn't let the already licensed customers just run out their licenses... What a nightmare for the MSPs... They got slaughtered. 

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