Currently, Stephouse has covered five square miles of Portland's downtown area and two square miles of North Portland's St. Johns area with both Wi-Fi and WiMAX service. Stephouse's use of Proxim equipment allows the ISP to provide T1, T3 and fiber-grade wireless broadband services to businesses or individuals within the service area. Utilizing a combination of Proxim's Tsunami MP.11 WiMAX products for backhaul and Proxim's ORiNOCO AP-4000LR dual-radio Wi-Fi access points deployed in mesh mode for connectivity, Stephouse is able to provide high-performance broadband wireless as a fixed-line replacement for a fraction of the cost.

With the recent cancellation of MetroFi's citywide Wi-Fi network, Stephouse's service offerings provide a higher-performance alternative for Portland residents looking to remain wirelessly connected. Stephouse utilizes Proxim to provide Portland enterprises with a wide range of broadband connection options (visit http://www.stephouse.net/Enterprise for more details), and it also provides individual users with unlimited Wi-Fi connectivity within the service areas for just $20 per month. For casual use, Stephouse also provides every user one free hour of connectivity per day, up to 10 hours per month.

"As we've seen, the free municipal Wi-Fi business model just doesn't work. But as a local company, we love to give back to our community," said Tyler Booth, President of Stephouse Networks. "Often times users just need to connect for a few minutes per day -- to find a map on their iPhone, to locate a local business, read the news on their lunch break, etc. -- so we give everyone one free hour per day, up to 10 hours per month, to do whatever they need to do. And for users who need more than that, we offer a very reasonable monthly rate."

In addition to Stephouse's coverage in downtown Portland, it has also deployed Proxim's WiMAX and Wi-Fi mesh equipment to provide broadband wireless connectivity to the St. John's area in North Portland. Until now, the cable company has been the only option for broadband service to the residents of St. John's. With Proxim, Stephouse is able to provide a much needed, high-performance broadband wireless alternative for the area.

"Wireless connectivity is something that the people of Portland have come to expect, and we are glad that, through Stephouse Networks, we are able to play a part in providing broadband wireless services as an alternative to the now defunct citywide Wi-Fi network," said Geoffrey Smith, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Proxim Wireless.

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