Enterprise-level wireless certified at 400 hotels

LOS ANGELES -- STSN, a major provider of wired and wireless high-speed data communications to hotels and conference centers worldwide, has tested and verified the Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) of over 50 major corporations. The company said this assures enterprise-level security for over 280,000 business travelers at more than 400 STSN-installed hotel properties worldwide.

STSN announced during the company's participation in the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) that the corporations' VPNs had been certified. This conference is designed to provide a meeting place for hotel executives, investors, lenders, developers and the professional advisor community in the hotel and tourism industry.

Last week, STSN announced a record quarter for new property sales and guest and conference usage of the STSN high-speed Internet access network during the fourth quarter of 2002. “This unprecedented demand by property owners is being driven, in part, by guest choice of STSN for their on-the-road Internet and Virtual Private Network access,” said David Garrison, president and CEO of STSN. “We saw a doubling of buy rates at our properties during 2002, and STSN is increasingly driving property selection for meeting planners and business guests alike. This increasing guest demand, coupled with the support of industry leaders such as Host Marriott, is evidence of STSN’s clear market leadership.”

Unlike competitors

Garrison says that his company is unlike most of its competitors because STSN owns its network, allowing it to provide a nearly unlimited number of IP addresses to individual on-net hotel properties. The ability to provide each user with a unique static IP address enables a secure “private tunnel” within the public gateway to corporate VPNs via the STSN network, he says. This one-to-one (remote user to corporate VPN) IP mapping secures the transmission of mission-critical information, a necessity for corporate travelers and corporate meeting planners using high-speed Internet access.

“Across our portfolio, our corporate customers are demanding high speed Internet access,” said Ed Walter, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Host Marriott Corporation. “We have found STSN products and services to be a proven and effective solution to the evolving needs of our guests.”

John Bray, vice president of Travel and Hospitality at Sapient, gave his endorsement of STSN's VPN capability. “Sapient’s ClearTravel corporate travel service helps companies achieve the highest level of productivity from their employee self-service initiatives, such as streamlining corporate travel procurement and improving expense management," Bray said. "Because so many of our clients are frequent travelers — who still require trouble-free access to enterprise applications and information — we often recommend STSN’s VPN tunneling to ensure they have secure, high-speed Internet access from a hotel room or conference center.”

STSN supports hardware provided by all major VPN manufacturers, including Cisco 3000 and 5000 series VPN, Nortel Contivity VPN, Checkpoint 3.x and NG, Netscreen Remote VPN and SonicWALL.

Corporate networks

“VPN support over a secure high-speed network is a huge step forward in making the business traveler more productive,” said Brett Molen, CTO of STSN. “By enabling secure access to corporate VPNs, STSN makes the hotel guest room or meeting room appear as an extension of a private corporate data network. No longer do business travelers have to tolerate the frustrations of slow dial-up in order to access their corporate network.”

STSN provides travelers worldwide with secure, high-speed data communications connections in more than 120,000 guestrooms and 4,000 hotel meeting rooms in the US and Western Europe. STSN is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah with additional offices in London and Frankfurt.

Last month, announced significant relationships with key players, including the finalization of an agreement with Host Marriott Corporation to equip and service an additional 14 properties. Also in December, STSN announced funding from the Intel Communications Fund, that will allow STSN to deliver public space and meeting room Wi-Fi (802.11 a and b) coverage at over 400 hotel properties throughout the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, including deployment at select Marriott, Renaissance, Westin, Embassy Suites, Holiday Inn, Sofitel, Radisson and Sheraton hotels. By the end of the year, STSN completed installation of Wi-Fi hotspots at 52 hotel properties, with plans to complete full deployment by early in the second quarter of 2003.