Case Study: Naperville Park District achieves monetized, no‑cost public Wi‑Fi across eight parks with RUCKUS Networks

Monetizing Public Wi-Fi to Help Municipalities

Naperville Park District, an independent municipal agency managing 2,400+ acres and 137 parks in Naperville, Illinois, faced growing demand for reliable public Wi‑Fi at popular sites like Centennial Beach. An initial vendor quote of $72,000 for equipment and first‑year service for just two parks was beyond available funds, prompting IT Director Omar Sandoval to seek an alternative that wouldn’t burden taxpayers.

Digital Lobby provided a turnkey, ad‑supported managed Wi‑Fi solution that expanded the rollout to eight locations to reach critical mass, deploying Ruckus indoor/outdoor 802.11ac access points managed by a Virtual SmartZone and installed by Vack Inc. The advertising model fully funded deployment and operations, delivered rich analytics (including footfall and zip‑code data), produced over 45,000 logins with typical speeds of 60–70 Mbps, and enabled the district to extend and plan further park Wi‑Fi expansion at no cost to taxpayers.

Naperville Park District

Omar Sandoval

Information Technology Director