CeBIT 2004 - "Innovation of the Year" goes to Airdata for PortableDSL

Hanover, Germany - March 18, 2004 - The Stuttgart company Airdata has received the distinguished "Innovation of the Year" award for the Internet section from the publication PC-Professionell at the 2004 CeBIT conference.

PC-Professionell, an umbrella company of the worldwide publishing and media company VNU that has been one of the leading German PC test magazines for the last ten years, awards the prize only once a year. Airdata was honored by the publication as "the start-up of the first wide-area network designed for fast, wireless Internet access." Christian Irmler, head of Airdata, received the prize in front of more than a thousand guests at the PC-Professionell party at CeBIT in Hanover.

PC-Professionell closely watched the technical abilities Airdata's PortableDSL wireless Internet access since the service's launch in Stuttgart last October, and the fast upload and download speeds won the publication over. (A review of the service can be read in the December 2003 issue of PC-Professionell.) But the decision to award Airdata with the "Innovation of the Year" rested not only on these good test results.

PortableDSL's success story is unparalleled. With PortableDSL, Aidata offers anyone an affordable choice for broadband Internet access. Since the launch of UMTS services this January, it has become evident that, despite of its good coverage, UMTS will not be able to compete with PortableDSL in the foreseeable future. UMTS's high usage charges discourage potential users - in fact, initial UMTS offerings have significantly higher one-time costs than PortableDSL. In addition to the monthly base price, UMTS services charge a usage or volume fee whereas regardless of time spent on the Internet or the volume of data used, PortableDSL users do not pay a cent more than their flat monthly rate.

Since the start of PortableDSL in October of last year, the service has won many users in Stuttgart who welcomed the product offering. Until recently PortableDSL was exclusively sold by partner company Next Generation Internet (NGI), but is now sold by several other resellers in Stuttgart. According to Irmler, the service will now be launched in 30 additional urban areas in Germany, and "the planning for the network build-out is already in advanced stages. Conversations with further, interested business partners for the nationwide build-out are underway. Those who want to use PortableDSL should simply contact their local Internet service provider."

The Airdata radio network is based on the TDD variant of the 3G standard, which is the variant optimized for voice and data. The network is secure and clearly exceeds the range of today's WLAN hotspots. Using a modem that is connected to a notebook PC, the user connects to the network and can then work online at home, in a café, or on the road with a bandwidth of up to 768 Kbps.

About AIRDATA AG
AIRDATA AG, a communications infrastructure provider, was founded in Stuttgart in 1998 to build and operate an independent telecommunication infrastructure (for voice and data) that connects enterprises as well as households. AIRDATA specializes in using RF technologies to bridge the last mile by using its licensed spectrum in the 2.6 GHz band to operate a RF network.

For further press information contact:

AIRDATA AG
Sieglinde Hahn
+49 711 96 438 200
presse@airdata.ag


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