Hopling Technologies finalizes mesh network projects on 20 major stations and
completes Hotspot coverage of 50 stations for Dutch Rail

• 5GHz mesh routers on 20 stations provide maximum throughput, range, security and stability of wireless links for access points.

• Gateway’s and access points for Hotspots on 50 stations throughout The Netherlands.

Almere, February 27, 2006 - Hopling Technologies, a global leader in wireless networking equipment for enterprises, operators and service providers, announced today the finalization of the mesh network projects on 20 major train stations and Hotspot coverage of 50 train stations throughout the Netherlands managed by KPN for the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), the National Dutch Rail Authority.

The wireless mesh network in each of the 20 major train stations provides seamless coverage for KPN HotSpots wirelessly enabled customers and NS employees equipped with context based handheld devices. Hopling Technologies mesh network solutions are self-healing, centrally managed and controlled, and use a unique wireless mesh routing architecture based on the Hopling Mesh Protocol (HMP). This architecture allows easy and cost effective expansion of the wireless network without the need to pull any cables.

The 20 seamless working mesh networks each deployed with Hopling 5GHz mesh routers equipped with next-generation features such as the enhanced virtual gateway (VGW) VLAN technology and the WPAM secure transit technology, which interconnects seamlessly with Hopling gateways and access points, wired third-party access points, third-party switches and Dutch Rail wirelessly enabled equipment.

The 50 public- and private-access Hotspots are deployed with multiple Hopling gateways and access points equipped with the standard virtual gateway (VGW) technology allowing these Hotspots to be segmented into multiple Hotspots. The Hotspots are operational on train stations throughout the Netherlands and use a variety of Hopling gateways and access points, managed and operated by KPN HotSpots, providing Internet, surf, email, chat and connection to a company network with broadband speed.

To fulfill security requirements and in accordance to WiFi standards, KPN HotSpots and Hopling Technologies implemented and deployed a complete public- and private-access end-to-end solution for Dutch Rail, which contains user authentication and secure transit of data traffic. These measures however, do not imply any added complexity to the end-user access experience. In fact customers and NS employees will still enjoy user friendly access when using these Hotspots.

"KPN HotSpots is well underway to deploy a major public-access wireless broadband infrastructure in the Netherlands,” said Martijn de Kinkelder, Director Operations & Technology of KPN HotSpots. “Hopling Technologies proved again to be a great help in the challenges we faced implementing our Hotspot solution in the train stations and we are very satisfied to have them as our leading supplier."

“We are always pleased to be working together with KPN HotSpots, which in this case resulted in a combination of state-of-the-art seamless working mesh network solutions and Hotspot solutions in more then 60 train stations for Dutch Rail; to meet their broadband Internet needs,” said Frank Koopman, CEO of Hopling Technologies.