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Bridgewater Systems Adds Microsoft Windows Version of Wi-Fi Service Manager; Helps Carriers Offer Managed Wireless LAN Services to Enterprises Profitably

Posted on: Wednesday, 25 June 2003, 06:00 CDT

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 25, 2003--

Wi-Fi Service Manager Centrally Monitors and Manages Thousands of

Enterprise Sites

Bridgewater Systems(TM), a provider of dynamic IP and data service fulfillment and assurance solutions, today announced at the 802.11 Planet Conference a Microsoft(R) Windows(R) version of its Wi-Fi Service Manager product, which helps carriers offer managed Wireless LAN (WLAN) services for enterprises in a profitable manner.

Wi-Fi Service Manager enables carriers to centrally monitor and manage thousands of enterprise sites, while providing secure, controlled access to enterprise WLANs for employees and visitors. Wi-Fi Service Manager minimizes on-site visits and service calls through remote configuration and proactive fault management. It integrates with carriers' customer care and billing systems. And it extends self-care capabilities such as user administration to enterprises so they gain a degree of control over their services while further reducing carriers' operational costs.

Small and midsize enterprises typically lack IT resources to deploy and maintain WLANs. In addition, they often experience security problems when opening up WLANs to individuals outside their company. Using Wi-Fi Service Manager, carriers can offer profitable and securely managed WLAN service to enterprises at a reasonable price.

Bridgewater Systems offers both Sun Solaris(TM) and Microsoft Windows "carrier-grade" versions of Wi-Fi Service Manager to meet the diverse needs of carriers and enterprise customers.

"We evaluated moving Wi-Fi Service Manager to several platforms and found that Microsoft Windows was the best choice for enterprise use," said Russ Freen, chief technology officer, Bridgewater Systems. "Microsoft Windows has gained market respect for its low operating costs, high reliability and widespread use. So it is no surprise that we have strong carrier demand for a Microsoft Windows version of Wi-Fi Service Manager to leverage enterprise customers' current technology investments and increase service provider profitability. Moreover, by developing Wi-Fi Service Manager for Windows in conjunction with Microsoft, we are ensuring that we can fully support the product even as Microsoft's technology evolves."

"We are excited to see Bridgewater Systems developing its Wi-Fi Service Manager product on the Microsoft Windows platform," said Richard Cantin, Director of Network Service Providers, Microsoft Canada Co. "As a participant in the Microsoft Empower Program for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), Bridgewater Systems has taken the first step to becoming a Microsoft Certified Partner."

Wi-Fi Service Manager includes the following features:

-- WLAN access for internal employees, partners and visitors.

-- Remote monitoring and management of WLAN network, including

configuration management, fault and performance management,

security management, service level agreement (SLA) monitoring

and reporting.

-- Integration with carrier CRM and billing systems, OSS and

management platforms.

-- Employee and visitor authentication and authorization.

-- Security and bandwidth protection for the private network in

the presence of visitors.

-- Clearing and settlement capabilities, should carriers and

enterprises agree to offer public hotspot service from

enterprise WLANs.

Additional Bridgewater Systems' 802.11 products help carriers address complex 802.11 service and usage-sensitive billing challenges:

-- AAA Service Controller provides authentication, authorization

and accounting (AAA) for users across multiple access

technologies, including 1x, dial, DSL and 802.11. A user can

have different credentials for each access type and may

authenticate using different protocols, including EAP (MDS,

LEAP, PEAP, SIM) in the case of 802.11. Usage is always

attributed to the right account regardless of the credentials

and protocols used to gain access (in support of a single bill

for the user).

-- Revenue Collector and Formatter collect and store usage detail

records across all access technologies. It filters, formats

and streams the session records to the appropriate billing and

settlement systems.

-- User Session Controller prevents 802.11 account sharing--a

necessity for flat-rate billing models.

The Microsoft Windows version of Wi-Fi Service Manager will be available in July.

About Bridgewater Systems (www.bridgewatersystems.com)

Bridgewater Systems provides dynamic IP and data service fulfillment and assurance solutions that enable service providers to generate profits from their networks while enhancing customer loyalty. The modular Bridgewater Systems product suite extracts greater value from existing operations support systems (OSS), business support systems (BSS) and network assets to enable service providers to realize new revenue sources. Unlike traditional OSS vendors, Bridgewater Systems' proven products deliver on-demand dynamic IP and data services, offer extensive revenue capture capabilities, provide out-of-the-box value and can be deployed in weeks -- instead of months.

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

All companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

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