ARESCOM & Boingo ink Wi-Fi network roaming agreement

Users of Boingo roaming system will have High Speed Internet Access at nearly 200 hotels in the ARESCOM Hospitality Network (AHN)

FREMONT, CALIF. / SANTA MONICA, CALIF. — DEC. 18, 2003 — ARESCOM INC. and Boingo Wireless, Inc., have reached an agreement to integrate the Wi-Fi High Speed Internet access in guestrooms and public spaces at nearly 200 hotels in the ARESCOM Hospitality Network (AHN) into the rapidly growing Boingo™ Roaming System.

Headquartered in Santa Monica, Boingo is the largest Wi-Fi network aggregator and is building a network to meet the needs of business travelers. Fremont-based ARESCOM is one of hospitality’s largest and fastest-growing providers of wireless High Speed Internet Access (HSIA) in guestrooms (25,000+ installed and another 20,000 rooms in the pipeline). Also included in ARESCOM’s solutions line-up is CinemagicTM Video on Demand (VoD), another revenue-share service that gives guests access to hundreds of DVD-quality classic and new film releases — with pause, rewind and fast-forward capabilities — via guestroom TVs and laptops.

“ Wi-Fi access in guestrooms and public spaces is quickly evolving from an appreciated upscale amenity for business travelers to a must-have standard feature for hotels of all sizes and types today,” said Colby Goff, Boingo vice president of network strategy. “Our partnership with the ARESCOM Hospitality Network enables both of our companies to stay ahead of hospitality’s demand curve while significantly expanding our Wi-Fi footprint.”

The agreement extends access to AHN networks to Boingo’s Platform Services partners, those Internet, voice and data service providers who wholesale the Boingo Roaming System for their Wi-Fi services. The Boingo Platform Services program offers private-label Wi-Fi software and roaming services to major carriers and ISPs. Boingo’s current partners include EarthLink, Fiberlink, Infonet Services Corp., MCI and T-Mobile for client software.

Dave Egan, ARESCOM Vice President of Marketing, said the partnership is a rare win-win — benefiting the two partners, hundreds of hotels and their guests, subscribers to the Boingo Roaming System and strategic telecom partners.

“ ARESCOM and Boingo each focus on broadband services for business travelers, including secure wireless High Speed Internet Access,” Egan said. “Once integration of the ARESOM Hospitality Network into the Boingo Wi-Fi roaming service is complete, our hotel partners will have captured yet another business- and brand-building service to offer their guests, and Boingo customers will have more choices than ever before regarding where they can access Wi-Fi service.

“ This agreement with Boingo represents one of several completed and planned roaming partnerships that will provide corporations,business and leisure travelers with our secure, plug-and-play wireless High Speed Internet access,” Egan said.

About Boingo Wireless
Boingo Wireless, Inc. is an ultra-high-speed wireless Internet service available in thousands of locations such as hotels, airports, cafes, and other public places. Both directly and through major ISP and carrier partners, Boingo provides business travelers with a wireless broadband Internet connection to improve productivity while on the road. Through its Wi-Fi software, Boingo makes finding and connecting to Wi-Fi networks point-and-click simple and secure. EarthLink founder and chairman Sky Dayton founded Boingo in 2001 and serves as its CEO. More information about Boingo is available at http://www.boingo.com.

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.

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