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ARESCOM Hospitality Network (AHN)
celebrates 25,000th guestroom installed with wireless High Speed
Internet Access
Hundreds of hotels embrace AHN's revenue-share
business model for wired and wireless HSIA and unmatched Video on
Demand (VoD)
FREMONT, CALIF. — DEC 1, 2003 — Fremont-based
ARESCOM, INC. is pleased and proud to announce the 25,000th guestroom
installation of its wireless High Speed Internet Access (HSIA) solutions.
“Having entered the hospitality market less than 14 months ago with the
introduction of the ARESCOM Hospitality Network (AHN), ARESCOM is one of the
fastest growing suppliers of wireless HSIA to guestrooms — if not the fastest
growing,” said Dave Egan, ARESCOM VP of Marketing.
“ Our goal is to install AHN’s wired and wireless HSIA and Video
on Demand (VoD) broadband solutions at 1,000 hotels across the nation by the
close of 2005,” Egan said. “Because we alone design, manufacture,
integrate and support our own broadband solutions, as well as provide them at
no upfront cost to hotel owners, operators and franchisors, it’s no wonder
ARESCOM is fast becoming the supplier of choice in this market.”
While Egan said AHN’s recent 25,000th guestroom installation of wireless
HSIA marks a major milestone for both the company and the hospitality industry
as a whole, the executive underlined that ARESCOM focuses more on the bottom-line
benefits provided its hotel partners than its impressive wireless HSIA guestroom
install numbers.
Filling niche needs
“ We have taken great care to build our solid reputation and growing customer
base and usage rates by exceeding expectations one client, one guest request
at a time,” Egan said. “At ARESCOM, we’re working 24/7/365
to put ‘hospitality’ back in HSIA, heads in beds and monies in operators’ pockets.”
Before entering hospitality, ARESCOM conducted feasibility studies that underlined
the bottom line:
- The demand for HSIA in hospitality is real: Nearly 90% of business
travelers said availability of the amenity affected their hotel selection
and more than half of these travelers said they were willing to pay
for properties’ ability to fill their need for speed.
- Hotel properties of all sizes and types want HSIA, but few can
afford the common exorbitant equipment, installation, connection,
maintenance and support fees. They demand a revenue-share partner
with proven technology and a workable business model.
- To break the old, failed revenue-share model, industry and technology
consultants underline that revenue-sharing HSIA suppliers need to
have a substantial competitive advantage in their sourcing and support
of broadband equipment and must possess a proven track record of
integrating and servicing HSIA technology with world-class people.
Having been a manufacturer and service supplier of broadband solutions
to a number of other markets for years, we already had the world-class
people and low-cost proven HSIA products in place when we entered hospitality,” Egan
said. “All we needed was a workable revenue-share model that truly
partnered hotels and AHN, and ongoing marketing and support programs,
and we were off and surfing.”
Completely satisfied with the products, support and new revenue stream promised
and delivered by AHN’s wired and wireless HSIA solutions deployed in guestrooms,
meeting rooms, lobbies and other public spaces, more and more hotels soon asked
ARESCOM when it would branch into broadband in-room entertainment solutions.
Making a career out of anticipating marketplace needs and continuously developing
broadband solutions to tackle growing voice/data convergence demands, AHN late
last year introduced its increasingly popular CinemagicTM Video on Demand (VoD)
solution.
Included as an option in revenue-share plans with hotels, ARESCOM’s broadband
VoD solution gives participating guests access to hundreds of DVD-quality classic
and new film releases. The flicks are transmitted from an on-site server (with
AHN handling all support and billing) directly to travelers’ laptops or
guestroom TVs equipped with AHN’s Set Top Box (STB) system. All films purchased
by guests can be viewed any number of times during a 24-hour period, and come
with unique pause, rewind and fast forward capabilities. When coupled together,
AHN’s HSIA and VoD solutions are proven to help hotels bolster revenues,
occupancies, guest satisfaction and related brand recognition, repeat business
and referrals — all without capital investment or risk to hoteliers or
franchisors.
The bottom line
Following are just a few of the basic bottom-line benefits of AHN’s broadband
business model:
- Save Upfront & Ongoing — Most vendors charge hundreds of dollars
per guestroom for HSIA ports, and this does not include reoccurring monthly
charges for connectivity, maintenance and support that can cost average-size
properties an additional tens of thousands of dollars every year.
- Reduced Risks — Wired and wireless HSIA standards change every few
years, if not every few months. The few hotel properties and companies that
have the cash for non revenue-share HSIA deployment don’t want to lock
themselves into technology that could be extinct tomorrow. AHN’s revenue-share
model includes continual upgrades to the latest HSIA technology, and ARESCOM
is constantly moving rapidly toward the latest wireless technology for its
hotel partners.
- Guest Satisfaction — AHN’s experience proves that not only
are guests willing to pay for HSIA, but most believe “there’s
no such thing as a free lunch” — that if you provide the service
and don’t have a pay-per-use/revenue-share model, it’s automatically
built into rates, unfairly penalizing non-users. Our take rates match or
exceed our non revenue-sharing competitors because guests say our user-friendly
technology and around-the-clock support is worth it.
- Franchisor/Franchisee Friendly — Midmarket and upscale hotel chains,
particularly those catering to business travelers, know they need HSIA. Yet
few brand franchisors have the flexibility in their franchise agreements
to demand such a standard, unless a revenue-share plan is offered.
- Bundled Broadband Solutions — It’s only natural, with this
new HSIA pipeline that hotels look to fill a guest request that’s been
on the books for years: More movie options coupled with pause, rewind and
fast-forward capabilities. The dynamic duo of HSIA/VoD revenue-share opportunities,
offered only by ARESCOM, is proven to pay big dividends to hotels, franchisors
and guests alike.
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 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. ARESCOM’s DSL 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 to deploy 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.
This press release may contain "forward-looking" statements
as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995 and similar expressions that reflect ARESCOM's and
iPass’ current expectations about future performance, and
are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could
cause the companies’ actual performance to differ materially
from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements.
Media Contacts:
| Dave Egan |
| VP of Marketing,ARESCOM |
| degan@arescom.com |
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© Copyright 2003 ARESCOM Inc. ARESCOM is a trademark of ARESCOM Inc. All
other referenced product names are trademarks of their respective companies
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