Tatara, Wayport Team on WiFi

ACTON, Mass. -- Tatara Systems and Wayport today announced that the two companies will work together in a six-month trial program to give service providers an easy and cost-effective point of entry into the Wi-Fi marketplace. Through the trial, carriers interested in offering Wi-Fi services using their own brand and delivered across Wayport’s existing nationwide public Wi-Fi network can now quickly set up real-world trials by accessing a hosted version of Tatara’s Wi-Fi Service Delivery Platform – which is already integrated with the Wayport network.

The Tatara Wi-Fi Service Delivery Platform enables service providers such as mobile operators, wireline carriers, aggregators, ISPs and cable operators to support advanced functions critical to roaming. By certifying the integration of Tatara’s Wi-Fi Service Delivery Platform with Wayport’s nationwide hotspot network, Wayport and Tatara are lowering the barriers to entry into the Wi-Fi market for service providers through this trial. Best yet, Tatara will make available to select tier one service providers a hosted trial version of the Tatara Wi-Fi Service Delivery Platform that is connected to the live Wayport network. Through this offer, select providers will be able to test the delivery of public Wi-Fi service offerings to end users in airports, hotels and select McDonald’s locations in the Bay Area that are part of the Wayport network.

Using Tatara’s presence and location-aware platform, service providers maintain the ability to communicate securely with their Wi-Fi subscribers and to deliver enhanced services to them – even while the subscribers are roaming on other operators’ physical Wi-Fi networks or hotspots and even after a VPN connection has been initiated. The platform thereby allows service providers to separate Wi-Fi network ownership from customer ownership and to work effectively with an evolving landscape of partners. Retail service providers – those that maintain direct end user relationships – can quickly secure cost-effective and broad Wi-Fi coverage while never losing control of the end customer relationship. Wayport’s network of public Wi-Fi hotspots is the largest in North America that is open for roaming – and includes more than 650 locations including airports, hotels and retail venues.

“The new relationship with Wayport is an ideal fit, given the two companies’ complementary goals. Wayport has been a leader in establishing worldwide standards for service delivery and roaming on Wi-Fi networks and in enabling the separation of retail customer ownership from wholesale network ownership in the public Wi-Fi space. This separation has created the opportunity for a new business approach to the public Wi-Fi market that can quickly deliver profitability for all participants. Tatara’s platform has been purposely designed to enable service providers to succeed in exactly this roaming-centric model,” said Steve Nicolle, president and CEO of Tatara Systems. “We look forward to working with Wayport to continue to drive public Wi-Fi usage by making it easier than ever for tier one service providers to both test our platform and to enter the Wi-Fi market as Wayport partners.”

“In the past year, Wayport has accelerated its efforts to establish roaming agreements with other service providers, which in turn has led to a better experience for Wi-Fi users and increased usage of our existing hotspot locations,” said Dan Lowden, vice president of marketing for Wayport. “By certifying Tatara’s platform against our roaming standards and integrating it with our nationwide network in this trial, we open a new avenue for our roaming partners to overcome some critical challenges that they may face. The more tier one service providers are able to increase the value of public Wi-Fi services to end users – through enhanced security, the delivery of advanced services, a consistent user experience or other means – the more this market will grow. Our partnership with Tatara makes it even easier for service providers to experience the benefits of becoming a Wayport partner.”

Service providers interested in further information on trial opportunities should contact Tatara Systems directly. Service providers can register for trial opportunities online at www.tatarasystems.com/trialoffer.

Tatara Systems Inc.

Wayport Inc.