SALT LAKE CITY, UT— The year 2003 is shaping up to be the breakout period for wireless high-speed Internet services in the hospitality industry. STSN, a wireless and hard wired HSIA service provider to hotels, is unveiling today that Intel’s Communication Fund is investing in the company to help finance the expansion of its footprint of WiFi coverage at more than 400 hotel properties in the U.S., U.K. and Germany. The deal comes less than two weeks after IBM, AT&T and Intel joined forces to create Cometa Networks, a new company aimed at providing, wholesale, broadband, wireless Internet access targeting hotels, retail chains, universities and real estate firms. Included in STSN’s deployment will be select Marriott, Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn, TownePlace Suites, Fairfield Inn and SpringHill Suites hotels, James Voss, director of national accounts at STSN, told HOTEL BUSINESS®. “Intel is an investor in STSN. That is where it starts,” Voss said. “We both have the common goal of increasing the distribution of WiFi in the market as a whole and we happen to have a great relationship with Marriott, and will work together with these two large organizations to meet that common goal,” he said, adding that other hotel companies that STSN does business with will also be involved in the rollout. The STSN wireless deployments will deliver dual band (802.11a and 802.11b) access technology to hotel public areas— such as the hotel lobby, hotel restaurant and bar— as well as to hotel conference and meeting rooms, providing additional access opportunities to a variety of mobile users and revenue streams to hotel partners, Voss said. The deployments are expected to be completed by June 2003, he said. “Going forward, we anticipate to roll out this service in all new installations. This will give those properties a significant competitive differentiator in the market,” Voss said. STSN is anticipating the wireless technology to be used not only for hotel guests, but also internally by the properties as well, Voss said. “There will be a day when Marriott associates check in guests via a Palm Pilot. Marriott will utilize wireless for employee facing applications as well as guest applications,” he said. The $500 million Intel Communications Fund, managed by Intel Capital, was established in September 1999 and focuses on accelerating Intel voice and data communications and wireless networking initiatives. The fund targets companies developing basic communications and semiconductor components and boards, real-time operating systems, software tools and utilities, system level hardware and software, and wireless network services and channels. To date, the Intel Communications Fund has made more than 80 investments in 17 countries.
James Voss