Pavlov Media Acquires NetExperience to Accelerate Global Expansion of Telecom Infra Project (TIP) OpenWiFi Solution

Award-winning open and disaggregated Wi-Fi technology provides seamless connectivity for multifamily, hospitality, senior living, military barracks, sports stadiums, and the enterprise markets

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. and OTTAWA, ON, Jan. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Pavlov Media, a premier Broadband services and software solutions provider, today announced it has acquired NetExperience, developer of the preeminent Telecom Infra Project (TIP) OpenWiFi Cloud Controller. The company, to be run as an independent division of Pavlov Media, will continue to serve its existing customer base, and enable the rapid deployment of OpenWiFi's open and disaggregated technology.

Pavlov Media will remain an independent managed service provider for the multifamily industry, deploying purpose-driven Wi-Fi network solutions as well as OpenWiFi-based solutions for its customers.

The NetExperience subsidiary, will remain based in Canada. It will operate as an autonomous Cloud Platform for the TIP OpenWiFi community. NetExperience will be continue to be run by its' co-founders, Chief Executive Officer Bernard Herscovici and Chief Technology Officer. Marcel Chénier, and Pavlov Media will retain the entire NetExperience team. 

"The OpenWiFi technology serves a specific set of customers. We have been advocates for this technology stack since its launch, and have successfully deployed the solution," said Cory Douglas, Pavlov Media, CEO. "OpenWiFi complements our current enterprise-grade wireless networking partnerships and, together, they will all yield tremendous value for industry as it moves forward to Wi-Fi 7 and beyond.

"NetExperience will continue to provide cloud controller services to existing OpenWiFi customer base  and strive to support new customers with OpenWiFi deployments across the globe," said Herscovici.

"Our number one goal is to expand market opportunities for the industry by utilizing and advancing the OpenWiFi ecosystem. Disaggregated Wi-Fi technology is enjoying more traction across multiple market verticals and the acquisition of NetExperience accomplishes our growth and expansion goals," continued Douglas.

OpenWiFi won the 2023 Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) Industry Award for Best Wi-Fi Network Technology. Said the WBA about OpenWiFi, "TIP OpenWiFi seems to hit the market at the right time! Addressing vendor lock, coupled with shortages in parts and other supply chain problems, OpenWiFi enabled operators to source hardware solutions from different vendors and use OpenWiFi for management. From that perspective, it scores high on technical and business innovation. It is also having good market traction."

In 2023, OpenWiFi also won the 2023 WBA Industry Award for Best Wi-Fi for Social Impact and Light Reading's Leading Lights Award for Best Public Private Partnership.

The TIP OpenWiFi community includes MSPs, ISPs, solution providers, chipsets, as well as ODM and OEM vendors. The global community counts more than 1,100 representatives from 330 companies as its members. There are over 30 access point and cloud controller vendors and, to date, more than 165,000 APs supporting OpenWiFi have been deployed in commercial networks around the world.

About Pavlov Media
Pavlov Media is headquartered in Champaign, IL and offers broadband, voice, video and software solution services. The company operates private and municipal fiber networks connected to its 100 Gigabit national backbone network in 44 states and Canada. Pavlov Media specializes in private networks designed, built and operated by a team of dedicated professionals from the multifamily real estate industry. For more information visit pavlovmedia.com 

About NetExperience:
NetExperience is leading the transition to a disaggregated Wi-Fi and LAN network. The NetExperience Cloud platform includes sophisticated, highly scalable WLAN controller and management capabilities designed for Wi-Fi service providers. The platform is compatible with the key components of the Telecom Infra Project OpenWiFi and OpenLAN architectures and is compatible with OpenWiFi access points and OpenLAN Switch hardware. Learn more at netexperience.com. 

About OpenWiFi:
Launched in 2021, OpenWiFi is a community-developed open-source platform designed to lower the cost of developing and operating Wi-Fi networks. Designed to include a cloud controller SDK and switches and enterprise-grade access point firmware validated to work seamlessly together, the platform's unique approach to Wi-Fi creates an open-source disaggregated technology stack without vendor lock-in, ensuring a cost-effective and seamless way to deploy connectivity in a variety of use cases. OpenWiFi was created through the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), a global community of companies and organizations that are driving open and disaggregated infrastructure solutions to advance global connectivity. The OpenWiFi community currently includes more than 330 participants, including service providers, OEMs, ODMs, software ISVs, system integrators, silicon vendors and industry organizations. Learn more about TIP OpenWiFi here and the OpenWiFi Alliance here.

Chris Hunt
Pavlov Media
chunt@pavlovmedia.com
217.531.9031