Full License Keys Delay

Hi Cambium reps,

Is there a reason why generating full upgrade licenses for AP's take so long? I mean I'm not getting a new device just upgrading lite ap's to full ap's. If I place an order in the morning it should at least be done by mid day to the afternoon.

Any other license for any other product out there is instant. 

Please anyone?

Thanks,

Ken Mitre

Hi Ken,

How long of a delay are you seeing?

There is typically a 24 hour time frame it takes for us to receive keys from Cambium (Elevate and upgrades). You should not be seeing anything longer than 1-2 business days. I have not seen same day turnaround.

Garrett

Thank you for that. Then I guess this is common practice by Cambium. 

If you have any significant number of Lite APs deployed, I'd recommend always keeping a couple of upgrade keys on hand. 1-2 days normally isn't a big deal, if you just try to always upgrade the AP when it hits 9 or so SMs, but it happens once in awhile that I don't notice an AP is at capacity and I get a call from an installer wondering why the SM won't connect... then I have to quick upgrade the AP so he can finish the install. I know we're going to need them eventually (just not necessarily where they'll be needed), so I don't have a problem with just always keeping a couple keys on hand and re-ordering as they get used.

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Good point. The keys never expire so having one or two as spares is a great idea. Just beware there are different product numbers for the 1000 and 2000 APs.

Garrett

Why does it take 24 hours to get  a key ?    I never ordered a lite AP and yet after the storms took out 3 of our towers I found myself at the last tower and two 110 AP's that are lite versions... the last two epmp110 5ghz AP's I had..   No idea how I ended up with lite APs but here I am with 2 of them on a tower.   So I think "No problem, I'll just jump online and buy a couple keys and be up and running in no time!"  Imagine my surprise...

Apparently Cambium hasn't completely entered the digital age because here I am 3 days later and I still don't have the  keys.  

Seriously Cambium, I can't think of a single digital thing that I can't get emailed or down loaded within seconds of paying for it so what's so special about Cambium's keys ?    

So now  I have 2 lite access points that shouldn't be lite access points  and 50+  angry customers that can't connect because 10 people already connected.  And I don't know, maybe Cambium will get me some keys tomorrow or maybe they won't .

ALso, how the hell do you tell if you have lite APs without taking them out of the box, plugging them in, logging into them to see if there is a 10 connection limit on them ?   I'm setting here with all 12 boxes of ePMP 110 GPS Sync radios and they are all exactly the same yet the radios that came out of two of these boxes were Lite versions ? Not one of these boxes says "Lite" anywhere on them.  So basically I paid for full AP's, got lite APs, paid even more to get license keys  that apparently have to go through some special process that requires at least 24 hours minimum before they can delivered..

The slow turn around time is most likely due to your distributor. Cambium is pretty good at providing keys in 24 hours. If it is taking days to get them, you should contact your distributor or purchase them from a different one.

The lite APs have a different part number.

C058900L132A: ePMP 2000: 5 GHz AP Lite with Intelligent Filtering and Sync (FCC)

C058900A132A: ePMP 2000: 5 GHz AP with Intelligent Filtering and Sync (FCC)

C058900A112A: ePMP 1000: 5 GHz Connectorized Radio with Sync (FCC)

C058900R052A: ePMP 1000: 5 GHz AP Lite / Force 110 PTP Radio (FCC)

Garrett

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Besides the part number being different, the packaging should also be a bit different on the Lite APs - they normally have a green sticker on the box that says "5 Ghz Connectorized Radio with Gigabit Ethernet".

If you've ever purchased any Force 110 PTP radios, those would have come with LiteAPs.

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