Every sensor deployment depends on a gateway getting data off the site reliably, and that decision — cellular or Wi-Fi — gets made too quickly in a lot of rollouts. It’s a less interesting conversation than sensor placement, but getting it wrong causes more support calls than almost anything else in the deployment.
Where Wi-Fi Makes Sense
Wi-Fi gateways are cheaper to run month to month and simpler to deploy when a facility already has reliable guest or IoT network coverage extending to the areas where sensors need to sit — loading docks, mechanical rooms, basements. The failure mode is facility IT: a gateway that depends on the client’s network is at the mercy of that network’s uptime, password rotations, and firewall rules, none of which the pest control operator controls.
Where Cellular Is Worth the Extra Cost
Cellular gateways cost more per month but remove the dependency on facility IT entirely, which matters most in exactly the locations where sensors are needed — basements, loading docks, and mechanical spaces that often have poor cellular signal to begin with, let alone Wi-Fi coverage. Cellular is generally the safer default for any site where the operator doesn’t have a direct relationship with the client’s IT team, since a Wi-Fi outage or credential change can silently take a gateway offline for days before anyone notices.
The connectivity decision is worth a five-minute site walk with a signal check before quoting an account, not an assumption made from the office.