Case Study: Phoenix College achieves ubiquitous, high-performance campus WiFi and six-figure cost savings with Cisco Meraki

Phoenix College - Customer Case Study

Phoenix College, the flagship institution of Maricopa Community Colleges serving 12,000+ students and 850 faculty/staff across 50+ acres and three campus sites, faced a weak, unreliable Wi‑Fi network built from 50 consumer-grade access points that left steel-and-concrete buildings full of dead spots, frequent roaming dropouts, and no differentiated access control or QoS. To address rising iPad and mobile device use without a large controller-based cost, Phoenix College evaluated and chose Cisco Meraki’s cloud-managed networking solution.

Cisco Meraki piloted a cloud-managed rollout and Phoenix College then deployed 200 Meraki access points campus-wide (including stadium and outdoor spaces), using the Meraki dashboard, multiple SSIDs, 802.1X, and Layer 7 traffic shaping. The result was campus-wide coverage with seamless roaming, centralized remote management handled by three IT staff, visible device and usage metrics, departmental adoption of iPads, and substantial cost savings (projected six-figure savings), transforming Phoenix College’s wireless experience and eliminating prior dead spots.

Phoenix College

Mark Koan

Dean, Information Technology