California's Center Unified School District Chooses Aperto Networks for Educational Broadband Access; Second-Generation BWA Solution Serves K-12 Network.

Business Editors & Technology Writers

MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 24, 2002

Center Unified School District in Sacramento County, California, has selected and implemented Aperto Networks' second-generation broadband wireless access (BWA) solution to serve its five-site K-12 educational network. The school district uses 5 GHz frequency spectrum, Aperto's PacketWave(R) base station and subscriber units to self-provision up to 8 Mbps (with up and down data rates of up to 20 Mbps) data access per site to over 3,000 students and 267 classrooms, district-wide.

Center Unified had been planning for over one year to upgrade from 2.4 GHz wireless LAN extension to robust, cost-effective, high-speed Internet access and LAN interconnection using 5.8 GHz. "We had to meet very specific goals with new wireless technology," stated Marvin Lord, Center Unified's District Technology Coordinator. "We had to be able to do client-sharing from a single site, with a multi-sector base station. With a new junior high school coming online, we had to add users and locations very inexpensively, and increase the network's overall user-friendliness, speed and responsiveness. Users really notice a significant service improvement since we deployed Aperto's solution -- our performance needs are being met, well within budget limits."

The Federal Communications Commission established the 5 GHz spectrum as an unlicensed band (Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure, or U-NII) to enable the public sector, non-profit agencies and others to have affordable access to spectrum for broadband services. Since then, many new providers, pioneering educational groups and non-profit users have obtained broadband access without the interference problems and noisy transmissions that can result from using frequencies in the 2.4 GHz ISM (Instrument Scientific Medical) band.

"Center Unified has pioneered the use of broadband wireless to serve a public community, fulfilling the FCC's vision of affordable access to public agencies and schools. Aperto has leveraged our rapidly expanding base of enterprise users worldwide to provide extensive field experience for the district's multi-site environment," explained Reza Ahy CEO and Chairman of Aperto Networks. "We worked with Marvin to further enhance ease-of-configuration and legacy network integration, fitting seamlessly into his K-12 network. Center Unified has been an excellent early-adopter in the educational sector, and has further reinforced our belief that wireless can help make broadband access available to all."

"We are one of the first California school districts to use this technology for our entire district," continued Lord. "I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Aperto's systems to others - we have been able to serve more users with high-performance access and with lower CAPEX and OPEX than with any other alternative."

About Aperto Networks

Aperto Networks is a leading provider of multiservice broadband wireless access systems. The company was founded to provide a breakthrough solution to one of today's critical network bottlenecks - last-mile broadband access. With practical, scalable systems and patent-pending technology that supports new wireless builds and complement existing wireline broadband access technology, Aperto addresses service provider needs for rapid network deployment, multiservice scalability, ease of installation and cost-effectiveness. Aperto will dramatically shorten the lengthy provisioning cycles of broadband services by enabling rapid service provisioning across dense urban to suburban locations. Investors in Aperto include Alliance Ventures, Tyco Ventures, Innovacom (France Telecom), DMC Stratex Networks, Oki Electric Industry Company, Mitsubishi International Corporation, Ridgewood Capital, Satwik Ventures and Redwood Ventures. For more information on Aperto Networks, go to www.apertonet.com.