Bridgewater Systems Enables Carriers to Offer 802.11 Wireless LAN Services to Their Customers

Bridgewater Systems, a provider of IP network, service and access control solutions for service providers, today announced that it has extended its product suite to provide 802.11 authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA), revenue collection and formatting capabilities for carriers offering wireless LAN services.

Bridgewater Systems, a provider of IP network, service and access control solutions for service providers, today announced that it has extended its product suite to provide 802.11 authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA), revenue collection and formatting capabilities for carriers offering wireless LAN services.

These capabilities support a variety of business models¡Xthe carrier may deploy its own 802.11 hotspots, may enter into formal agreements with 802.11 facility providers or aggregators, or may offer clearing services for 802.11 access.

By 2007, revenue from hot-spot users is projected to equal $3.518 billion and the number of public WLAN hot spots in North America is expected to grow to 38,834, according to Gartner, Inc.¡¦s ¡§Public Wireless LAN Hot Spots: Market Trends and Forecasts¡¨ report from August 8, 2002.

Analysts expect business users working at home or on the road to use these services. Typically, these users do not want to maintain multiple subscriptions with different 802.11 providers, nor do they want to pay a fee each time they sign on. No one 802.11 facility provider or aggregator is expected in near term to offer a network with enough coverage to satisfy the average business traveler. Thus, clearinghouses will likely aggregate coverage offered by many different industry players.

¡§Our 802.11 wireless LAN features are the first to address the needs of service providers,¡¨ said Derek Smyth, president and CEO of Bridgewater. ¡§These capabilities enable carriers to offer subscribers, including enterprise customers, local services wherever these hotspots are set up. We believe carriers are well positioned to offer their subscribers 802.11-based services. In large part that¡¦s because carriers already have existing relationships with roaming users who have a real need for ubiquitous 802.11 access. We¡¦re in a tremendous position to help carriers, in turn, because of our expertise in 3G network rollouts to these carriers.¡¨

Bridgewater Systems products help carriers address complex 802.11 service and usage-sensitive billing challenges through the following offerings:
„h AAA Service Controller provides AAA for users across multiple access technologies, including 1x, dial, DSL and now 802.11. A user can have different credentials for each access type and may authenticate using different protocols, including EAP/MD5 and EAP/LEAP in the case of 802.11. Usage is always correctly attributed to the user regardless of the credentials and protocols used to gain access.
„h Revenue Collector and Revenue Formatter collect and aggregate usage detail records into session records. They then filter, format and stream the session records to the appropriate billing and settlement systems.
„h User Session Controller prevents 802.11 account sharing¡Xa necessity for flat-rate billing models.

802.11 capabilities from Bridgewater will be available as an add-on module to the AAA Service Controller.

About Bridgewater Systems (www.bridgewatersystems.com)
Bridgewater Systems provides IP network, service and access control solutions that enable service providers to take full advantage of the revenue potential of their networks. Its software enables service providers to differentiate access to wireline and wireless services based on the identity of the user or the application, solving problems such as how to comprehensively account and track for services and prevent unauthorized access. Unlike competitive offerings, Bridgewater's solutions work within any vendor network, regardless of the type of authentication system; offer extensive revenue capture capabilities to complement existing billing engines; and can be rapidly deployed. These differentiators enable customers to reduce network costs, increase revenues and rapidly deploy new customer-focused services.

Bridgewater Systems products are currently deployed by top-tier global service providers such as Bell Mobility, Qwest, Covad, and Telia. Founded in 1997, Bridgewater Systems is a privately held company.