ASX ANNOUNCEMENT
19 April 2018
Norwood partners with Fon to expand their World Wi-Fi service, using Fon’s global Wi-Fi footprint
Highlights:
• Agreement will provide Norwood’s World Wi-Fi users with affordably priced access to more than 11 million premium and carrier residential Wi-Fi hotspots around the world
• Aligns Norwood’s unique World Wi-Fi user experience with a premium subscription-based commercialisation strategy, as well as secures access to the world’s largest Wi-Fi community network
‘Sharing Economy’ and ‘Communications as a Service’ pioneer Norwood Systems Ltd (Norwood or the Company) (ASX: NOR) is pleased to announce it has finalised a signed agreement with Fon, the global Wi-Fi network, for the provisioning of premium Wi-Fi services within Norwood’s World Wi-Fi product.
Under the agreement, Fon will provide unlimited monthly access to their premium and carrier Wi-Fi networks around the world, by integrating these networks into Norwood’s World Wi-Fi platform. Fon’s global Wi-Fi footprint forms a highly complementary access layer to Norwood’s existing offer of public Wi-Fi locations.
Norwood will have access to Fon’s carrier residential networks, covering countries such as the United Kingdom, France and Japan. Additionally, Norwood will have access to Fon’s premium networks in prime locations such as airports, hotels, convention centres, shopping malls, train stations and restaurant chains across the world, which users would normally pay to access on a per megabyte basis.
The provisioning of Wi-Fi access has been made possible by Fon’s unique SDK technology. Through a one-time integration with Norwood’s World Wi-Fi app, both Android and iPhone users will be able to connect automatically to Fon’s Wi-Fi hotspots, even when the app’s closed, as well as remain seamlessly connected to Wi-Fi, as long as they are in range of a hotspot.
With Fon providing access to their extensive global Wi-Fi network, Norwood will on-sell retail access to this premium Wi-Fi network as a new “Premium & Carrier” subscription, available for purchase within the World WiFi App. World Wi-Fi customers who subscribe to this “Premium & Carrier” option can expect higher average speeds, improved security and reliability of connections compared to regular, public Wi-Fi access points. World Wi-Fi also offers standard and free access pricing and service tiers within the product.
The World Wi-Fi App allows users to find and securely access millions of Wi-Fi hotspots around the globe, and is currently available for iPhone, with an Android version coming soon. World Wi-Fi features an innovative Augmented Reality (AR) interface to help users quickly find nearby Wi-Fi hotspots, with an intuitive map to give users a clear understanding of their local coverage at a glance. The map service and AR interface are available for subscribers “offline”, which helps travellers get online without incurring steep cellular roaming charges. Connection to available Wi-Fi networks is typically accomplished with a few clicks and an on-demand, secure VPN is automatically established, using the same technology as Norwood’s World Secure product.
Alessandro Lambertini, Director of Network Access at Fon, said:
“Together with leading operators around the globe, Fon has built the world’s largest Wi-Fi community network. More recently we have further enhanced our footprint with the addition of premium networks, thanks to agreements with Wi-Fi service provides around the globe.
“We want to go even further to help users connect to Wi-Fi wherever and whenever they need it. Our partnership with Norwood and the inclusion of our networks into their revolutionary World Wi-Fi App means that more people will be able to enjoy a great user experience wherever they connect around the world.”
Paul Ostergaard, CEO and Founder of Norwood Systems said:
“We are delighted to be working with Fon as a strategic Wi-Fi access partner to help our World Wi-Fi users enjoy the benefits of secure, super-fast Wi-Fi access at millions of locations around the world. This new agreement will provide our users with affordably priced “all-you-can-eat” access to premium and carrier Fon networks around the world.
“Our go to market commercialisation strategy for World Wi-Fi is based on a mix of travel and loyalty distribution, alongside premium subscription monetisation.
“This agreement with Fon not only secures our ongoing access to the world’s premier Wi-Fi network and expands considerably the geographic scope and depth of our Wi-Fi network, it aligns our underlying wholesale cost structure to our subscription model, which is based on delivering secure, “all-you-caneat” access to high-quality networks around the world.”
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