35-Year Hotel Industry Icon Donald J. Landry Jumps Aboard the ARESCOM Broadband Wagon

Former vice chairman & CEO of Sunburst Hospitality emphatically states ARESCOM Hospitality Network has the proven wired and wireless High Speed Internet Access (HSIA) and Video on Demand (VoD) broadband solutions and risk-free revenue-share model needed to help mid-market hotel operators protect and grow market-share

FREMONT, CALIF. — JAN. 22, 2004 — ARESCOM, INC. — A Fremont-based firm that recently installed its 25,000th guestroom with wireless High Speed Internet Access and has agreements in place to install its wired and wireless HSIA and Video on Demand (VoD) solutions at hundreds of other hotels — is pleased to announce the appointment of Donald J. Landry to the company’s Board of Directors.

A former president and chief operating officer of Choice Hotels International (NYSE: CHH) and former vice chairman & CEO of Sunburst Hospitality Corp., Landry currently serves as president of Top 10, a hospitality industry consultancy based in Slidell, La. Landry founded Top 10 shortly after Sunburst was sold in 2001. A Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA), Landry also serves on the Board of Directors of Cumberland, Pa.-based Hersha Hospitality Trust (ASE: HT), and on the Advisory Boards of Dallas-based UniFocus; Towson, Md.-based RevPar; and New Orleans-based Campo Architects. In his 35-year tenure in hospitality, Landry also has served as president of two of the largest U.S. management companies, Richfield and MHM.

Attracting the best
Landry said several factors attracted him to ARESCOM, including:
• In 2003, ARESCOM was lodging’s fastest-growing wireless HSIA provider, having deployed its solutions across more than 25,000 guestrooms less than 18 months after officially launching the ARESCOM Hospitality Network.
• The company has agreements in place that put it on pace to double to triple this record wireless HSIA install rate in 2004 and beyond.
• Only ARESCOM designs, manufactures, installs, integrates and supports 24x7x365 both wired and wireless HSIA and VoD broadband solutions.
• Only ARESCOM and its CineMagicTM VoD offering can deliver hundreds of DVD-quality new film releases and classics direct to guestroom TVs AND guests’ laptops — all with rare pause, rewind and fast-forward capabilities.
• Only ARESCOM can and will provide wired and wireless HSIA and VoD broadband solutions via a proven, risk-free revenue-share model in which hotels need not pay exorbitant fees for HSIA/VoD equipment, installation/integration and maintenance/support.
• ARESCOM’s revenue-share model gives franchisors and owner/operators the option to convert to owned systems should they so desire.

“ Only ARESCOM offers a bundled broadband solutions package with HSIA and VoD in-room amenities delivered at zero cost to the hotelier,” Landry said. “ARESCOM’s products, pricing and people are proven to help hotels of all sizes and types in markets across the globe increase their guest satisfaction, repeat business and referrals, while giving operators two significant new revenue streams.

“ There’s no doubt that hotels of all types and sizes need High Speed Internet Access TODAY just to compete,” he said. “The problem has been that while HSIA has become relatively commonplace at upscale properties because their rates can more easily support the investment, it is the mid-market segment that has the most guests demanding HSIA.

“ The Catch 22 has been that while most mid-market hotels can’t afford HSIA equipment nevertheless the monthly support costs, they also cannot afford to go without HSIA in this fiercely competitive climate,” Landry said. “ARESCOM’s proven revenue-share model solves this paradox and adds VoD to the broadband package — giving guests what they have been asking for for years: 24-hour access to a much greater selection of in-room movies with pause, rewind and fast-forward capabilities.”

Helping direct growth
Landry said ARESCOM’s solid growth is “just the tip of the iceberg.” Now that HSIA has become commonplace in homes and businesses, guests no longer are willing to wait for dial-up modems or for independent hotels and national brands to give them the HSIA comforts they’re accustomed to.

“ There’s a real ‘need for speed’ and this time it’s being driven by the guests and properties themselves, not by HSIA suppliers,” Landry said. “Consider this: According to a recent Nielsen/NetRatings report, nearly 49.5 million Americans, or 38 percent of all home Internet users in the United States, now use a broadband connection to go online. The number of Americans accessing the Internet via broadband is doubling every two years.

Landry said hotels without HSIA will lose precious market-share as business and leisure travelers demand the same broadband connections they have in their homes and workplaces.

“ For years, industry observers have projected that HSIA demand would ripple down the segment ladder,” he said. “Now, thanks to ARESCOM’s revenue-share model, supply can meet demand, and mid-market hotel owners can meet the growing broadband demands of guests and meeting planners without having to shoulder all of the risk and spend tens of thousands of dollars per property.”

ARESCOM president & CEO Max Lu said the company’s continued success is largely attributable to its ability to attract hospitality’s best and the brightest, and that Landry most certainly is no exception.

“ We’re honored to welcome someone the caliber of Don to our ARESCOM Hospitality Network family,” Lu said. “Don has a proven track record of directing strategic growth at a wide array of hospitality companies for more than 35 years.

“ Our Board of Directors and growing team of associates are extremely eager to tap his keen insight and networking abilities to continue to improve our broadband solutions model based first and foremost on consistently exceeding the expectations of hoteliers and their guests,” Lu said. “Don was our first choice for this director position, and we’re pleased that we are his and hospitality’s first choice in HSIA.

About ARESCOM INC.
Founded in the Silicon Valley in 1996, ARESCOM designs, manufactures and markets a comprehensive line of broadband access solutions, ranging from the most sophisticated turnkey wired, 802.11 wireless, and fixed wireless High Speed Internet Access solutions for the booming worldwide hospitality market, to state-of-the-art DSL, wireless and fixed wireless solutions for wide area networks, enterprises, homes and small businesses. ARESCOM’s broadband access equipment is widely deployed by hundreds of hotels, as well as major telecommunication carriers, REITs, ISPs and SOHOs throughout the U.S., Asia and Europe. Because ARESCOM alone designs and manufactures its own HSIA equipment and installs and supports it 24/7/365 for hotel owner/operators, the company is fast becoming hospitality’s HSIA supplier of choice. The ARESCOM Hospitality Network (AHN) is on pace with its goal of deploying ARESCOM’s proven plug-and-play wired and secure wireless HSIA — as well as its Wireless Digital GatewayTM and CineMagicTM Video on Demand solutions showing DVD-quality movies on laptops and TV sets with pause, rewind and fast-forward capabilities — in 1,000 hotels across the nation by the close of 2005. For more information on the company, please visit www.arescom.com.

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