MR44 - Are they going EOL soon

[Baka]

I know they are not EOL yet,  but they have been around for a good while and  need to do a decent deployment for a customer and don't really need to go to the Catalyst WIFI6E range  ..  as the equivalent  CW9164 is quite a bit more expensive.   I also don't want to put MR44 and then in 6 months they are announced as EOS  and on the 5 year path of end of support.  .. any insights would be useful,  many thanks  

[BlakeRichardson]

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@Baka wrote:

I also don't want to put MR44 and then in 6 months they are announced as EOS  and on the 5 year path of end of support.  .. any insights would be useful,  many thanks.

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I would not be worried about the MR44 being EOL and support only being 5 years because realistically you don't want to be using those devices in 5 years. I would be aiming to refresh access points every 3-4 years. 

[Baka]

I know what you're saying and I agree, but last time they put MR33s in there with a diffrent MSP and they were announced EOS a week after deployment and it did not sit well with the leadership. Thanks

[GIdenJoe]

Not everything can be WiFi 6E.  So until WiFi 7 comes out I don't see it going EOL that fast.
Secondly we have the MR46E which is the only WiFi 6 indoor model with external antennas.  WiFi 6E does not allow for external antennas at least in ETSI regulatory area so I do see a big use case for regular Wi-Fi 6 for the time being.

I do think the MR46E will remain longer thane MR44.

[Mloraditch · Accepted solution]

Very few people know these plans ahead of time and no one official is going to give you anything on a public forum. Talk to your Meraki Rep they may be able to get you information under NDA. There are also significant discounts on APs right now through at least the end of January that can probably make the Wifi 6Es a no brainer.

[Ryan_Miles]

☝️This is 100% the correct answer

[cmr]

We recently had quotes on the MR44 vs the CW9162 and the pricing was pretty similar.  In our case the balance of features in combination with the device release dates led us to choose CW9162s for those less dense locations.  We do already use the CW9166 APs for new or replacement APs in high density areas.

[thomasthomsen]

I had the same thoughts, MR44 and CW9162 more or less have the same price.

The question, for us, (form a tech perspective, not looking at possible EOS / EOL times) is do you like 2x2 / 4x4 radio config more then a 2x2 / 2x2 / 2x2  ? 🙂

[cmr]

We use MR44s or now CW9162s in low density mobile areas (such as corridors and fire escapes) so the 4:4 would not make any difference.  At the moment neither will the 6GHz for 99% of devices, but I'm sure it will get used in the future...