Aptilo Enters the North American Markets
First Deal in the Bag and New Office Set Up
STOCKHOLM — Aptilo Networks has signed its first deal in the US with a Wireless Internet operator. The operator, who wishes to remain anonymous at this stage for reasons of competitiveness, has about ten installations in the southeastern US using Aptilo’s solution for public wireless Internet access. The deal is the first demonstrable result following Aptilo’s decision last spring to enter the North American markets. Aptilo is also opening an office in Dallas and has recruited a US product market manager.
The Wireless Internet operator has installed Aptilo’s hotspot solution in ten different vacation destinations and the company has aggressive expansion plans in North America. Several other large telecommunications operators, wireless ISPs and venue owners have shown interest and are currently evaluating Aptilo’s solution.
“The US came out with public WLAN and wireless surf zones early on. Things are expanding quickly and we felt that it was now time to get into the North American Markets after our successes in Europe and Asia. We’ve decided to expand carefully and are opening an office in Dallas only now that we’ve signed agreements with American clients,” says Torbjörn Wård, CEO of Aptilo Networks.
Aptilo’s office is located in the Dallas area, which is a hub for the US telecommunications industry, where all the big players are represented. Aptilo hopes to grow quickly, keeping pace with its new clients, and has recruited Prasanna Satarasinghe as its US product market manager. Prasanna Satarasinghe has over 16 years of industry experience and, among others, has worked for Cisco, Nortel in the US and Vodafone and Optus in Australia.
“Aptilo’s solution has created a great deal of interest and has a good reputation and many successful installations which has led to a lot of interest. Our cooperation with HP has also helped us get off to a good start here in the US,” says Prasanna Satarasinghe, Director of Product Marketing, Aptilo Networks.
“Entering the US market is a purposeful focus and a strategic step that we announced back in April, and which was made possible when Skanditek and Nordstjernan joined the company as silent partners,” says Wård.
About Aptilo Networks
Aptilo Networks develops and provides Hotspot solutions for wired or wireless unlicensed networks, such as WLAN (802.11) and Bluetooth, and provides Hotspot based solutions and services to operators and venue owners. Aptilo’s solutions and services offer operators of Hotspots a convenient and effective way to integrate access points in an advanced public hotspot environments. It enables payment via service subscription, hotel bill, credit cards, by integration with mobile operators to pay with mobile phone subscriptions and also other payment enablers such as iPASS/GRIC and other customer bases. The company is based in Stockholm, Sweden, with a regional office for Asia-Pacific in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Aptilo was 2002 aWårded the “Newcomer of the Year” for its system solution that according to the aWårded jury’s motivation is “A solution that makes it possible to quickly and easy use the Mobile Internet. Exactly what is needed to increase usage of more advanced mobile services.” More information about Aptilo Networks can be found at www.aptilo.com.
Media Contact:
Jan Sjönell, Vice President Sales
Aptilo Networks AB
P: + 46 733-682 682
[email protected]