Austrian metronet Expands WLAN 
Roaming to 1,200 Wi-Fi Hotspots in 12 Countries

In addition to 300 hotspots in Austria, 1,200 hotspots operated by Telia, Sonera, megabeam, 
Kubiwireless and VEX become available Roaming via 2,000 hotspots planned by the end of the year

    metronet, the Austrian WLAN pioneer and largest hotspot operator in Austria, now offers its customers wireless broadband Internet access via 1,200 hotspots in 12 countries. In Austria, metronet already operates 300 hotspots. After the successful implementation of roaming services in cooperation with TeliaHomerun (Sweden and seven other countries) in July, metronet now enters four new bilateral roaming agreements with SoneraHomerun (Finland), megabeam (Italy), Kubiwirless (Spain) and VEX (Argentina). From now on, metronet customers can access the complete range of hotspots with their usual user ID. Billing of the Megabytes used abroad is done through the monthly metronet bill. All hotspots of the roaming partners can be found on the metronet website. By the end of this year, some 2,000 hotspots are planned to be set up abroad through further roaming agreements. Its cooperation with five international roaming partners has made metronet the worldwide leading player in WLAN roaming.

    "With the quick conclusion of bilateral international roaming agreements, we satisfy the legitimate demand of our customers for simple and cost-effective use of the international WLAN standard 802.11b also outside Austria", says Mike McGinn, CEO of metronet, commenting on the agreements realised in record time.

    Unlike indirect agreements via 'Hotspot Brokers,' direct agreements with other WLAN providers make the utilization of hotspots easier and cheaper. The login at hotspots of roaming partners is simply done by entering the usual metronet user ID adding the extension @metronet.at (e.g. userid@metronet.at). The Megabytes consumed abroad are itemized on the monthly metronet bill, and customers can monitor their consumption with the real-time online reporting tool on the metronet website (under 'My Account').

    The service provided by metronet outside Austria is only available to customers with a contract. The charge for data transfer abroad is 70 Cents per Megabyte for metronet.business, metronet.student and metronet.home, and 1 Euro for metronet.surfer. (1 MB equals the transmission of about 500 e-mails or 20 minutes of Internet surfing.)

    Secure WLAN with metronet¹s VPN server also outside Austria

    As the worldwide first Wireless Internet Service Provider, metronet offers its customers a unique possibility to securely connect via a radio interface also outside Austria: A dedicated VPN Server based on the PPTP protocol is available under vpn.metronet.at. The server guarantees that data are protected while being sent via e-mail or during Internet browsing over the WLAN radio transmission path. No additional software needs to be installed by the users. The one-time setup of the metronet VPN server provides permanent protection of all hotspots of metronet and its roaming partners.

    Simple, fast & secure

    For wireless Internet access at hotspots, users only need a notebook or PDA equipped with a WLAN card or pre-installed WLAN chip. The use of metronet services does not require any special configuration of notebooks or PDAs. When opening the browser, the metronet login page appears automatically on the screen, where the user enters his/her password and user name or uses a pre-configured VPN connection. The WLAN technology used by metronet for data transmission at broadband speed provides comfortable, ultra-fast, and low-cost e-mail communication, Internet surfing and access to data on the corporate network secured by a VPN. Data transfer is up to 60 times faster than via GPRS and up to 30 times faster than via UMTS. metronet's hotspot network also supports the sending and receiving of encrypted e-mails. Already today roaming agreements with international partners provide wireless access outside Austria.

By Robert Hoskins

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