Case Study: WISE Employment achieves all‑wireless agility, major cost savings, and 5G readiness with Cradlepoint NetCloud

Nonprofit’s Shift to All-Wireless Offices Creates Unprecedented Agility & Growth

WISE Employment, an Australian not‑for‑profit with 160 offices and 1,000 employees, was struggling with costly and unreliable wired broadband (VDSL costing about $1,100/site per month plus heavy installation fees), frequent downtime, and long deployment times that limited growth. To “cut the copper” and gain agility, WISE turned to Cradlepoint, using Cradlepoint NetCloud Service for Branch and LTE‑enabled AER2200 wireless edge routers alongside SIM‑enabled laptops and mobile phones.

Cradlepoint’s all‑in‑one wireless routers and centralized NetCloud management replaced VDSL links and enabled a private APN to Telstra and WISE’s data center; phones and PCs were migrated to cellular. The move cut average monthly network costs from ~$1,100 to ~$650 per site (including SIMs and subscriptions), delivered roughly 99.95% uptime, and produced dramatic performance gains (about 30× with 3G, 100× with 4G, and 500× with 4G LTE vs VDSL), while reducing CapEx/OpEx, speeding deployments, allowing IT to manage far more sites, and positioning WISE for 5G.

Wise Employment

Mick Havill

CIO