In this episode of the Critical Lowdown, we dive into the world of open Wi-Fi with Corey Douglas, CEO of Pavlov Media, a trailblazer in the connectivity space. Discover how Pavlov Media is transforming the internet landscape by leveraging OpenWiFi to deliver innovative, affordable, and scalable solutions that are changing the way people and businesses stay connected.
Corey takes us on a journey through Pavlov Media’s evolution—from its beginnings as a student housing ISP to becoming a nationwide provider of cutting-edge broadband. He shares how the company embraced OpenWiFi as a strategic response to global supply chain disruptions, unlocking new possibilities for flexibility, cost efficiency, and innovation. With over 20,000 OpenWiFi access points already deployed across the U.S. and Canada—and plans for 10,000 more—Pavlov Media is connecting communities in multi-dwelling units (MDUs), single-family homes, and businesses like never before.
In this conversation, Corey delves into the challenges and triumphs of adopting OpenWiFi, from navigating technical hurdles to rethinking traditional vendor relationships. He explains how open ecosystems have empowered Pavlov Media to offer more competitive pricing, reduce dependency on single suppliers, and integrate advanced line-of-business applications that enhance the user experience.
But the impact of OpenWiFi goes beyond technology—it’s about people. Corey highlights how Pavlov Media’s OpenWiFi initiatives are bridging the digital divide, bringing reliable, high-speed internet to underserved communities and creating opportunities for millions to thrive in an increasingly connected world.
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Corey Douglas:
Thank you for inviting me to take part in today's webinar. This is a topic that, like you heard from Marco, is something that we're very interested in and something that we could spend a lot of time talking about. But for the sake of today, I'll try to keep it high level and just talk about our company and how we've embraced open Wi-Fi.
My name is Corey Douglas. I'm the CEO of Pavlov Media. We are located in Champaign, Illinois. That is where the company was founded 33 years ago. Pavlov Media is a designer, builder, and operator of networks in 150 cities throughout the United States and Canada.
Our company started out as an internet service provider focused strictly on off-campus student housing. Over time, the company has evolved, and we now provide internet and broadband solutions to not only MDUs but also single-family homes and businesses. That's one of the things that makes us different from a lot of other companies in the industry. We started in MDU and moved into more of an ISP model, building fiber throughout the United States as opposed to doing it the other way around.
As you can probably imagine, purpose-built Wi-Fi solutions are critical for the communities we serve so they can fully realize the benefits of the fiber optics we're actively deploying and connecting people to.
We've been members of the open Wi-Fi community since 2021 and are active contributors. Our start into open Wi-Fi can best be summarized as necessity being the mother of invention—not all invention, but some.
Until 2021, Pavlov Media was partnered with a very small number of Wi-Fi manufacturers. Our partnerships were strong, and the products we used were widely accepted in the markets we serviced. However, in preparation and response to supply chain disruptions caused by COVID, we joined the open Wi-Fi community in 2021.
After taking a chance on some of the new access point hardware, specifically from EdgeCore, we partnered with NetExperience to orchestrate our open Wi-Fi products, and really, the rest is history. You can now find our open Wi-Fi products in single-family homes, MDUs, and businesses all over the country, with approximately 20,000 open Wi-Fi access points deployed to date.
One last point I'd like to make is that the more we've become involved in the community, the more we've come to appreciate how this ecosystem of products allows us to support a larger number of customers.
It's our mission at Pavlov to connect not only devices but the hearts and minds of people connected to our network infrastructure. With a lower price point, multiple form factors, and an open code base, we've been able to provide modern connectivity solutions for users who may have never experienced a managed Wi-Fi solution before.
Specific to our deployment types—as mentioned earlier, we have open Wi-Fi products deployed in MDUs, single-family homes, and businesses. Of those segments, our MDU environment currently has the largest concentration of open Wi-Fi hardware deployed.
If we focus on the MDU vertical, it's important to note that we've had success meeting the demands of both off-campus student housing and conventional housing customers in this vertical.
At a high level, the primary difference between these two segments is that off-campus housing clientele has turnover every 12 months. College students move in at the start of the school year and move out at the end. Building a network infrastructure that can accommodate hundreds of thousands of people moving in and out in a short amount of time takes careful planning and preparation to ensure all components work seamlessly.
Conventional housing doesn't experience that level of turnover. Residents in conventional housing typically stay longer. So while there are other differences, I think that's the most significant when it comes to ensuring you have a product set that can accommodate each vertical.
Our typical deployments include at least one access point in every unit of the property we service, connected directly to a switch in the unit, a switch stack in the IDF, or a switch stack in the MDF.
Additionally, there are several product models that work well when mounted on walls, ceilings, or outdoor environments. Whatever the use case or nuance—whether a property owner wants the lights off or a cover to hide Ethernet cables—we've found models that satisfy the requirements and demands of our customer base.
Lastly, being able to effectively implement RRM and security is a must in high-density and B2B environments. By using NetExperience in the cloud, we're easily able to deploy thousands of APs at a site with minimal effort. The management, automation, and analytics allow our support teams to operate effectively and efficiently.
As far as challenges—like Marco mentioned earlier—figuring out the certificate issue was a bit of a challenge for us. But beyond that, the appeal of open Wi-Fi is its openness and the ability to customize it as needed.
We initially considered deploying our own controller or developing one to manage all open Wi-Fi environments. However, we estimated it would take at least 12 months to deploy a solution with the feature set we required.
We quickly realized it didn't make financial sense to reinvent the wheel when viable products were already on the market. Instead, we redirected our internal development resources to focus on meaningful integrations with line-of-business applications rather than recreating an existing product.
Similarly, we had to learn to drive innovation through the open Wi-Fi community rather than putting pressure on single hardware vendors, as we had in the past. Understanding the benefits of contributing code and communicating within the community was new to us, but now that we've figured it out, things are working really well.
So, what are the results of our open Wi-Fi deployment initiatives? To date, we have a wider range of product and pricing options to offer potential customers. As we expand into new verticals and markets, we're able to engage with more customers than before, thanks to these new options.
We're also less exposed to disruptions in the global supply chain. While vendors may claim to be insulated from potential disruptions, we're not comfortable relying on that. By adopting open Wi-Fi, we have access to different manufacturers and methods of receiving products.
Lastly, we're able to take some of our line-of-business applications and create deeper integrations into the open Wi-Fi ecosystem that weren't possible before.
All of this has led to us deploying over 20,000 open Wi-Fi access points. Given our success, we've already committed to another 10,000 for 2025 and expect that number to increase significantly.