** Reproduced from RCR Wireless News February 11, 2002. Original article available in RCR Wireless online and print.

Performance, Transat provide billing solution for connecting 802.11b with cellular network

February 11, 2002

ROCHESTER, N.Y.-Performance Technologies Inc. and Transat Technologies are using existing technology standards to offer mobile businesspeople a 3G-like experience.

The Transat solution allows wireless customers to access the Internet from laptops or Web-enabled wireless devices on 802.11b-powered wireless LANs, then be connected to a GPRS-capable GSM cellular carrier's network for authentication and billing. The solution eliminates complicated billing structures WLANs normally require while offering customers the same high-speed broadband Internet experience.PTI provides the SS7 signaling gateway that receives messages from the WLAN and routes them to the GSM carrier for authentication.

"Cellular operators have lived with this dream that one day 3G will be so good and so fast and so cheap that these problems (interconnectivity) will be solved," said Martin Greenwood, vice president of Transat Technologies, noting that widespread 3G deployment is years down the road. According to Greenwood, the Transat solution can act as either an alternative to 3G technology or as a pre-cursor to the next-generation services.

Transat believes all parties benefit from its solution: end users get high-speed data access with the flexibility, roaming and interconnectivity capabilities that GPRS offers; cellular carriers can offer 3G-like services through WLANs without rolling out expensive equipment; and WLANs gain customer base through the carriers.

Transat and PTI plan to hold live demonstrations of the joint solution at the 3GSM show in Cannes next week and expect the solution to be commercially available in the third quarter.