Airspan Acquired Part of Cambium. What Does That Mean for MDU Connectivity?
Cambium Networks was an important name in wireless networking for years, including among MSPs, integrators, ISPs and other connectivity providers serving multifamily properties.
Recent events surrounding the company have therefore left many partners asking a very practical question:
What do we use for our next MDU deployment?
For some enterprise customers the September 22 announcement that Airspan acquired several Cambium product lines provides some welcome clarity. For organizations that relied on Cambium’s enterprise Wi-Fi products in multifamily deployments, however, it does not necessarily answer that question.
What Airspan Acquired
Airspan announced that it acquired several of Cambium’s fixed-wireless product families:
- PMP 450
- PTP 670
- PTP 700
- cnWave
- cnReach
The transaction also includes management and planning technology supporting the acquired portfolio, including cnMaestro, LINKPlanner and cnHeat, as well as more than 135 Cambium employees across sales, support and R&D.
Those are significant assets, and Airspan has stated that it intends to support and invest in the products and customers it acquired.
But there is an important distinction for the MDU market.
Cambium’s enterprise Wi-Fi access points, cnMatrix switches and NSE devices are not among the product lines identified in Airspan’s announced acquisition.
Days before the Airspan transaction was announced, Cambium stated that production of Wi-Fi access points, NSE devices and cnMatrix switches had been discontinued. Cambium also said administrators were pursuing multiple potential transactions, so the ultimate disposition of those remaining assets may still change.
Cambium has also advised enterprise cnMaestro customers to prepare to move Wi-Fi access points and switches to cnMaestro On-Premises because “cnMaestro Cloud may not support Enterprise devices post October 1, 2026″.
For organizations using Cambium primarily for fixed wireless, the Airspan acquisition may therefore provide a fairly direct path forward.
For organizations that built Cambium-based MDU Wi-Fi networks, the strategic question remains.
Maybe “What Replaces Cambium?” Is the Wrong Question
The natural reaction to losing a familiar Wi-Fi platform is to look for another familiar Wi-Fi platform.
For many organizations in multifamily, that may mean looking at Ruckus or evaluating one of several other enterprise Wi-Fi vendors.
There is nothing inherently wrong with doing that.
But a forced technology transition also creates a rare opportunity to ask a more fundamental question:
What are you actually trying to build?
If the objective is simply to provide managed Wi-Fi, then selecting another Wi-Fi platform may be exactly the right exercise.
But many MDU connectivity providers are trying to accomplish something considerably larger.
They want to deliver Internet service to individual residents.
They need to onboard tenants.
They need to define service plans and speeds.
They need to provision individual subscribers.
They need billing and payment processing.
They need to isolate tenants and provide each resident with a real Internet service.
They need operational visibility.
And, increasingly, they want the property owner and the technology provider to participate in the recurring revenue generated by that service.
Those are ISP functions, not Wi-Fi functions.
Wi-Fi Is Part of the Network. It Does Not Have to Define the Business.
An access point is an important piece of an MDU network. So is a switch. So is the router, Internet circuit, fiber, Ethernet cabling and every other component used to deliver the service.
But none of those components has to define how the business operates.
That distinction matters.
When the entire MDU offering is designed around a Wi-Fi platform, decisions about subscriber management, service architecture and even the property’s business model can gradually become shaped by what that networking platform was designed to do.
A different approach is to start one level higher:
Build the platform around operating the property as an ISP.
Then use the networking technologies that make the most sense to deliver that service.
That might include Wi-Fi.
It might include Ethernet.
It might include different Wi-Fi manufacturers over the lifetime of the property.
The infrastructure can evolve without requiring the fundamental business model to evolve with it.
An MDU Internet Platform Should Answer Different Questions
When Aditum approaches an MDU deployment, the first question is not which access point belongs in the building.
The questions are things like:
How will residents subscribe?
What services will the property offer?
How will tenants be provisioned?
How will the property bill for service?
How will subscriber traffic be isolated?
Who controls pricing?
Who retains the recurring revenue?
How will the local technology provider support the property?
Those questions define the ISP operation.
The Wi-Fi platform is then one of the technologies used to deliver it.
This Is Not a New Model for Aditum
Aditum Connect was built around this distinction more than a decade ago.
Today, Aditum-powered properties have been deployed in over 20 states including almost every major metro area in the country, and our oldest operating deployments have been providing continuous service to residents for more than a decade.
The model allows property owners to provide Internet service directly to their residents while working with a local technology provider for deployment and support, without the need of involving complicated Bulk or Exclusive Marketing Agreements with their regional ISPs. Just bring in a standard DIA fiber connection and let our platform take care of the rest.
Aditum supplies the platform behind the ISP operation, including tenant onboarding, service provisioning, billing and network automation. The physical network remains the infrastructure used to deliver that business.
That means the conversation does not have to begin with:
“Which Wi-Fi vendor are we standardizing on?”
It can begin with:
“How do we want this property to operate as an ISP?”
Then we work together to accomplish it.
What Cambium’s Changes Create for the MDU Market
The current Cambium situation is disruptive, particularly for partners who had standardized on its enterprise networking portfolio.
But disruption also creates an architectural decision point that normally comes along only once every several years.
Organizations planning their next MDU deployment now have an opportunity to do more than substitute one manufacturer’s access points for another manufacturer’s access points.
They can reconsider what the model at the center of the deployment is supposed to accomplish.
Airspan’s acquisition may provide continuity for important pieces of Cambium’s fixed-wireless portfolio. What happens to the remaining enterprise networking assets may become clearer as the administration process continues.
But connectivity providers do not have to wait for that process to answer the larger question.
If you’re trying to build an ISP, build it around an ISP solution.
Wi-Fi can remain an part of how you deliver the service without becoming the platform that defines it.
Before You Choose Your Next Wi-Fi Platform, Let’s Talk
If you have existing Cambium MDU deployments, had Cambium specified for upcoming properties, or are now considering another Wi-Fi platform for future projects, this is an excellent time to look at the architecture from a different perspective.
Before simply replacing Cambium with another Wi-Fi platform, talk to Aditum about what it looks like to build the property around the ISP business instead.
Be the ISP.