ARESCOM presents a Hospitality Industry 1st: Video on Demand to Laptops in a High Speed Internet Access environment.

ARESCOM’s online access to hundreds of DVD-quality movies acts as magnet for the 74% of business travelers who bring laptops on the road; 24-hour pay-per-day access to a record number of movies with pause, rewind, fast-forward features now just one click away for guests

FREMONT, CALIF. — DEC. 20, 2002 — It’s Christmas time for U.S. hotel guests, who now can receive a hospitality-industry first: Video on Demand (VoD) direct to laptops for the 74 percent of business travelers who the National Business Travel Association says take their laptops on the road.

Fremont-based ARESCOM, INC., which has agreements in place to install its wired and wireless High Speed Internet Access (HSIA) solutions free of charge at hundreds of hotels this year and next, including major business hotel chains, is now coupling this hot new amenity with true in-room VoD-to-laptop entertainment.

ARESCOM recently partnered with a leading movie distributor, to help properties create unique stays for strengthened guest loyalty, while tapping into a significant new risk-free revenue stream.

The first alliance of its kind in the hospitality industry, this partnership allows hotels to receive both HSIA and VoD free of installation or maintenance charges, or common related billing and support headaches. The rapidly growing ARESCOM Hospitality Network (AHN) will couple its popular free-to-property wired and wireless HSIA offerings, backed by Automatic Guest Billing and 24/7/365 professional phone support, with VoD technology and the latest movies.

Now Playing…Cinemagic VoD
Guests will be able to access a wide range of content from ARESCOMS’s diverse film library through the ARESCOM Cinemagic Video on Demand service, providing users instant access and a larger selection of titles than traditional hotel-based VoD services. All films will be available in streaming formats and will be delivered directly from local hotel servers, thus ensuring an optimal user experience.

“For years, the industry has failed to deliver on guests repeated requests for more in-room movie options, both new film releases and classics, as well as the ability to pay a single fee for 24-hour unlimited viewing,” said Herman Lin, General Partner of the Holiday Inn, Miramar. “Another seemingly unattainable item high up on guests’ in-room entertainment wish list was the ability to pause, rewind and fast forward films. Now, thanks to ARESCOM’s HSIA and unique VoD-to-laptop solutions, we’re able to provide our valued customers all of these longstanding demands all at once — and at zero cost to our hotel.”

“Talk about huge hits, what hotel can afford to ignore this dynamic duo of competitive differentiators — HSIA and VoD — which represents an excellent revenue opportunity with very little risk for our property?” Lin said. “Just as enticing, every time a guest pays for HSIA, we get a share of the revenue pie, and when they add ARESCOM’s Cinemagic VoD service, we share in that as well. All these dollars-per-day really add up, and they go directly to our bottom line.”

“ARESCOM’s Cinemagic VoD is proven to bolster guest satisfaction, loyalty, repeat business and referrals, in addition to providing steady new income through revenue sharing — and the only cost to our hotel was a little time to make a call and work with ARESCOM to fully leverage these two amenities, High Speed Internet Access and Video On Demand, for the benefit of our guests and ourselves,” Lin said.

HSIA + VoD = Instant ROI
Dave Egan, vice president of marketing for Fremont-based ARESCOM, said VoD goes hand in hand with the wired and wireless HSIA offerings of the ARESCOM Hospitality Network.

“Providing a VoD service for the hotel traveler is a natural complement to our High Speed Internet Access offerings, particularly when one considers that nearly three-quarters of all business travelers tote their laptops, which empowered by our HSIA can deliver more crisp movie viewings,” Egan said.

“We have maintained all along that AHN aims to put hospitality back in HSIA, and this unique alliance goes a long way toward accomplishing that,” Egan said. “We know of no other HSIA provider that can and will deploy both wired and wireless High Speed Internet Access AND cutting-edge VoD solutions — absolutely free to hotels. Because of the unique value proposition delivered by these complementary offerings, we expect a major ‘two thumbs up’ from hotels and guests alike.”

Egan said it’s all about giving hotels more ways to differentiate themselves and draw and keep guests, as well as add two additional revenue streams in today’s fiercely competitive business climate.

“More in-room movie options — movies that were released in the past year as well as classics — have been atop hotel guests’ wish lists for years,” Egan said. “More ways to stand out and boost occupancy and revenues has been the goal of hotels and franchisees since even before tragedy struck on 9/11.

“Now, by giving lodging properties free of charge both our Cinemagic VoD-to-laptop offering and proven wired and wireless High Speed Internet Access solutions, we can play Santa Claus to hotels and their guests,” he said. “It’s a magical time of year … a perfect time for hotels to reward their loyal guests with our Cinemagic VoD offering which caters directly to today’s millions of laptop-toting travelers.”

About ARESCOM
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 and wireless High Speed Internet Access solutions for the booming worldwide hospitality market, to state-of-the-art DSL and wireless solutions for homes and small businesses. Currently, ARESCOM’s DSL broadband access equipment is widely deployed by major telecommunication carriers, REITs, Hotels, ISPs and SOHOs throughout the U.S., Asia and Europe. The ARESCOM Hospitality Network plans to deploy ARESCOM’s wired and wireless HSIA, and Cinemagic Video on Demand-to-laptop amenity (targeting the 74 percent of business travelers who the National Business Travel Association says take their laptops on the road), as well as Voice over Internet Protocol solutions, in more than 1,000 business-class hotels across the nation by the close of 2003. A recent study found that 92 percent of business travelers base their lodging choices on fast and easy Internet access. While 73 percent of hotels said they plan to install HSIA, less than 10 percent have done so to date — largely due to business models requiring hotels to invest tens of thousands of dollars and some vendors’ poor technical support. Because ARESCOM alone designs and manufactures its own HSIA equipment and installs and supports it 24/7/365 free to hotel owner/operators, the company is fast becoming the HSIA supplier of choice in hospitality.

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