OpenWiFi in Jamaican schools is rapidly expanding, thanks to a groundbreaking partnership between NetExperience and WiBuz. Over 1,000 schools are now connected with enterprise-grade Wi-Fi at a fraction of the cost of previous solutions. The Jamaican Ministry of Education chose OpenWiFi and OpenLAN for their scalability, reliability, and cost-efficiency. Unlike the original Ruckus setup, this deployment is vendor-neutral and fully manageable from a single platform. It’s a game-changer for national digital infrastructure.
The Challenge: High Demand, Tight Budget
The Jamaican Ministry of Education faced a significant challenge: connecting over 1,000 schools to reliable Wi-Fi within a constrained national budget. Their initial deployment plan, based on Ruckus hardware, was cost-prohibitive and would have left many schools offline. To achieve full coverage, the Ministry needed a new approach that could offer enterprise-grade performance and nationwide scalability without the high cost.
Key Requirements for National Deployment
The Ministry needed a solution that could support over 10,000 access points and switches across hundreds of school campuses. It had to be highly reliable and remotely managed, since many schools lacked on-site IT staff. Vendor flexibility was also essential to prevent long-term price inflation from vendor lock-in. Real-time oversight was a priority, with role-based dashboards required for the Prime Minister’s Office, central IT teams, and school administrators. And, above all, the entire deployment had to fit within strict government budget limits while managing both legacy and new network infrastructure from a single interface.
The Solution: OpenWiFi Meets OpenLAN
Jamaican managed service provider MsTECH won the contract and identified OpenWiFi and OpenLAN, managed by NetExperience as the most cost-effective and scalable combination. To ensure seamless management of both the existing Ruckus environment and the new OpenWiFi infrastructure, MsTECH partnered with WiBuz to integrate its API-driven wibipOS platform with the NetExperience system. Within just a few weeks, a fully operational, vendor-neutral network was deployed. It enabled unified control across both legacy and modern technologies, making the transition smooth and efficient.
Deployment in Two Strategic Phases
In Phase 1 of the rollout, 3,150 Ruckus access points were deployed across 364 schools. This laid the foundation for the network infrastructure. Phase 2 significantly expanded the footprint by connecting over 700 additional schools with 5,600 OpenWiFi access points from Actiontec and Edgecore, along with 2,088 OpenLAN switches from Edgecore and Cybertan. This phased approach ensured a stable, scalable transition to a hybrid, multi-vendor environment.
Why It Worked
The project succeeded because of the NetExperience platform’s flexibility and power. Unlike traditional vendor-locked systems, this solution supported multiple hardware types, reducing licensing and support costs. Remote troubleshooting, zero-touch provisioning, and enterprise-grade hardware helped ensure long-term reliability. The inclusion of user-driven, role-based dashboards gave the government complete visibility into operations—from national executives to school-level administrators. Most importantly, the deployment was completed within budget, without compromising network performance.
Results & Future Expansion
More than 8,700 access points are now operational in over 1,000 schools across Jamaica. The network meets national education goals while remaining financially sustainable. Its success has caught the attention of other government departments. The Ministry is now evaluating similar solutions for additional ministries to centralize IT operations, diversify hardware sourcing, and unlock cost savings through economies of scale.
Key Lessons for MSPs
This project proves that vendor lock-in is avoidable when open standards and interoperable platforms are prioritized. MsTECH’s integration of NetExperience and WiBuz created a unified network that supports both legacy Ruckus and modern OpenWiFi hardware. Their approach is scalable and replicable, offering a blueprint for other MSPs working with enterprise vendors like Meraki or Aruba. This model shows how hybrid environments can be streamlined without sacrificing flexibility, cost-efficiency, or performance.
The Jamaican government’s success in deploying OpenWiFi in its schools offers a clear roadmap for future ICT projects—one that other nations and service providers can follow.
