iPass Teams with Portal to Offer Global Internet Roaming with Infranet; Internet Service Providers Will Gain Instant Access to World's Largest Roaming Network Through Portal's Customer Management and Billing Platform

Business Wire, August 19, 1997

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 19, 1997--Portal Information Network Inc., the leading software platform provider for Internet service businesses, and iPass Inc., the leading provider of Internet-based global remote access solutions, today announced a strategic relationship that will make the world's largest roaming network easily available through Portal's customer management and billing system, Infranet.

Internet service providers (ISPs) will be able to register with iPass to offer subscribers local-call Internet access in more than 1,100 locations in 150 countries and use Portal's Infranet software to seamlessly manage the billing.

Portal and iPass are working together to take advantage of Infranet's open architecture, designed to enable easy integration of value-added premium services. Infranet's well-documented application programming interfaces (APIs) allow new services, like iPass roaming, to be seamlessly integrated with the rest of the system. With Infranet, Internet service businesses can use a single customer management and billing system to centrally manage a wide range of enhanced services and content along with basic access services. Internet businesses can develop services in house, or easily add services through agreements with third-party providers such as iPass.

"The rapid adoption of the Portal Infranet platform and the iPass True Global Internet Roaming service by leading ISPs worldwide reflects the ongoing movement in Internet service provision from commodity access-only services to differentiated value-added service offerings," said Chris Moore, president and CEO of iPass. "Portal's Infranet is a perfect solution for leading ISPs that want to offer premium enhanced Internet services and rapidly grow their businesses. Infranet is also proven to scale to accommodate rapid subscriber growth while still providing the reliability and high availability that customers demand."

"The iPass technology, combined with the Infranet platform, means ISPs will be able to rapidly introduce one of the key value-added services available today: convenient and low-cost Internet access from virtually anywhere through the largest roaming network in the world," said John Little, founder and CEO of Portal. "This is important because it is becoming increasingly difficult for ISPs to maintain a competitive edge and to meet the growing demands of their customers. They must provide value-added services, such as iPass, that enable them to enjoy healthy profit margins and retain customers."

The Portal Infranet Platform

Infranet is the leading customer management and billing system for businesses offering Internet access and online services. Designed specifically for the Internet, it unifies the management of all core business operations of any Internet service business including the ability to register, track, manage, and bill subscribers. Based on an open, extensible architecture, Infranet is designed to let service providers easily integrate premium-priced, valued-added services and content.

Infranet's competitive advantages include: -0-

-- Massively scalable architecture with proven support for millions of subscribers

-- Access to fully auditable, up-to-the-minute account information for quality customer service and efficient customer self-service

-- Access to services based on real-time account usage makes Infranet the only billing system to actively prevent fraud and maintain consistent credit policy enforcement

-- The industry's most powerful and flexible pricing tool to allow easy roll out of pricing and promotions across any group of services

-- A powerful security model to protect credit card numbers and other vital information

-- Multiple paths to stored data for high reliability

-- Ability to integrate easily with legacy billing systems

iPass True Global Internet Roaming

iPass provides the largest Internet access network in the world through relationships with selected top-tier ISPs, carriers and data networks. The iPass service allows Internet users traveling in a region not covered by their own ISP to access the Internet with a local phone call through a third-party local ISP. iPass provides secure user authentication and settlement between participating ISPs and offers the following advantages: -0-

-- Largest access network in the world with more than 1,100 POPs in more than 150 countries

-- Multiple access points in major business centers worldwide ensure network availability

-- Encryption of user names and passwords so they are not seen by iPass, the remote ISP or other third parties

-- Support for open standards and almost all ISP Internet authentication platforms and protocols

-- Powerful, redundant, secure and scaleable network architecture

-- Easy-to-implement solution with no start-up, software licensing or support fees

-- Trusted third-party settlement and guarantee of payment for authorized use of the service

-- Flexibility to ISPs to price the service in the way that best suits their business needs