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Merit Offering E-rate Eligible Managed Wi-Fi Service

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February 24, 2015

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Wireless networks have become a growing necessity for schools and libraries as more and more students and patrons bring their laptops, tablets and mobile devices to campus. Implementing and maintaining a Wi-Fi network can be a challenge. Merit Network has teamed with Education Networks of America (ENA) to offer a managed, E-rate eligible Wi-Fi service, ENA Air, that provides a turnkey solution for schools and libraries.
ENA Air logo
ENA Air is a fully-managed service that encompasses all aspects of a Wi-Fi network implementation. It includes the network design, installation, monitoring and maintenance—freeing an organization’s IT staff from the headaches of maintaining a wireless network within their buildings.

“We are excited to work with our partner, Education Networks of America, because they are an organization that is much like Merit—they have extensive experience in serving schools and libraries with Internet and IT services, and they are committed to strengthening the educational community,” said Charlotte Bewersdorff, director of sales at Merit. “In Michigan, Merit takes great pride in owning that role, but we felt bringing a strong partner with experience specific to this service was an important step.”

“ENA is excited to work with Merit to provide our robust and comprehensive wireless services to schools and libraries throughout Michigan,” said Michael McKerley, chief technology officer at ENA. “We have a longstanding partnership and friendship with Merit and are proud to be part of the great work they do on behalf of their members.”

ENA tailors each Wi-Fi installation to the specific needs of an organization. ENA Air can be provided over a Member’s existing wireless network infrastructure or ENA-provided access points and switches. ENA will design the physical layer of the wireless spectrum, as well as the security and network access policies.

Subscribing organizations will receive 24x7x365 monitoring, maintenance, troubleshooting, and customer technical support throughout the life of their contract, which includes software updates and design alterations, if needed.

Members can easily keep track of what is happening on their network using ENA Air’s reporting features. The online analytics allow administrators to track the maximum number of devices that are connected to the network, monitor what applications are using their data, identify who the top data users are, and much more. Best of all, ENA Air qualifies for E-rate discounts for libraries and schools.

“ENA Air Wi-Fi enables organizations to focus on and achieve their business and educational goals, using our service to effectively manage their Wi-Fi environment. This allows schools and libraries to focus their limited resources in other more critical areas,” Bewersdorff added.

If you are interested in deploying ENA Air for your organization, please contact Merit at [email protected] or 734-527-5785.

About Merit Network

Merit Network, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation owned and governed by Michigan’s public universities. Merit owns and operates America’s longest-running regional research and education network. In 1966, Michigan’s public universities created Merit as a shared resource to help meet their common need for networking assistance. Since its formation, Merit Network has remained on the forefront of research and education networking expertise and services. Merit provides high-performance networking and IT solutions to Michigan’s public universities, colleges, K-12 organizations, libraries, state government, healthcare, and other non-profit organizations.
For more information: www.merit.edu

About ENA

ENA is the leading provider of managed Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solutions to schools, libraries and governments. In 1996, ENA created one of the first statewide K-12 networks in the U.S. and has earned a reputation as experts in the design, deployment and management of data, voice and video solutions. Today, ENA manages multiple statewide and district-wide networks, including 16 of the largest school systems in the country, successfully serving approximately 6,000 sites, 535 school districts, 3.3 million students, educators and administrators, 290 libraries and 3.5 million librarians and patrons. For more information, please visit www.ena.com or call 866-615-1101.

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