New Year, New Performance: Why Upgrading to the ePMP 4500 is the Best Move Today for Your Network

By Bruce Collins
ePMP 4500 Series 5 GHz Fixed Wireless Access Points

In the world of WISPs, staying still is not an option—especially when your customers expect faster speeds, better reliability, and robust connectivity while the competition from fiber and satellite continue to encroach. Many WISPs have built businesses around the ePMP 3000, which has been a proven winner for many years.

Now, there is a step-function throughput increase available simply by upgrading the ePMP 3000 AP to the ePMP 4500 AP. Starting with just upgrading the AP, WISPs are seeing 30% increases in uplink capacity using the ePMP 4500’s 8×8 beam-forming technology. With backwards compatibility, these performance boosts are not an all-or-nothing prospect, and certainly no forklift upgrade is required. Just upgrade those customers that are looking for a higher service plan or those top-talkers that consume the most air-time. WISPs who have migrated from all Force 300 SMs to Force 4525 SMs see incremental performance increases with each SM upgraded, ultimately yielding more than 100% sector capacity upgrades.

ePMP 4500 also delivers higher individual SM throughput where many WISPs are seeing long-range SMs increase multiple Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) levels without changing anything at the customer premises. The ePMP 4500 accomplishes this with its 8×8 beam-forming gain, which bumps up the link budget. Higher modulation levels also get data packets on the air and off the air more quickly, expanding sector capacity.

Providers like Omni Wireless in Canada saw a 30% bump in capacity by simply upgrading their access points; after upgrading the SMs, they saw a doubling of sector capacity.  

What about versatility? The 4500 family is like the Swiss Army knife of access points. For most, the primary option is the ePMP 4500 8×8 MU-MIMO AP with an integrated 90-degree sector antenna. With the ePMP 4500C connectorized AP you can deploy creative split-sector solutions with RF Elements horn antennas or if you have a small, targeted sector you can use the 2×2 ePMP 4500L. Another path is to upgrade the 5 GHz network with ePMP 4500 and then overlay that network with the 6 GHz ePMP 4600 with all that new clean spectrum.    

For those WISPs outside of North America, we have also introduced the ePMP Force 4525L Feedhorn. The Feedhorn is the radio-only portion of a Force 4525L and allows the operator to upgrade Force 200, Force 200L, Force 300-25 or Force 300-25L subscribers while preserving the dish that is already in place. This reduces upgrade time, lowers storage costs, reduces waste and of course is priced lower considering you re-using the existing dish and power injector.

And don’t sleep on Cambium’s ONE Network portfolio. With cnMaestro at the helm, managing your upgraded network becomes a breeze. A single pane of glass for monitoring, planning, and troubleshooting ensures you’re not just keeping up—you’re staying ahead.

Upgrading your ePMP network is an investment that pays back quickly. Improved network performance means less churn, happier customers, more capacity to add users and higher service tiers for those existing customers. ePMP offers the best price/performance on the market, so these upgrades pay for themselves.

Start 2025 off by giving your network a step function boost in performance and yourself a competitive advantage as you retain your customers, add new ones and grow your revenue.

Join us on December 10 for a webinar on upgrading your network with the ePMP 4500. You’ll have a chance to interact with the ePMP engineering and product teams. Plus hear directly from a customer who is already done the upgrade and is gaining from the new performance already. Register now and take the first step toward 2025 growth plan.

Published December 3, 2024
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