Bridgewater Systems, a provider of dynamic IP and data service fulfillment and assurance solutions, today announced support for EAP/SIM so that carriers can offer SIM-based Wi-Fi authentication solutions for their GSM wireless networks.

The company said it is partnering with leading SS7 gateway vendors to provide complete solutions that enable GSM carriers to offer 802.11 wireless LAN (WLAN) services to their corporate and consumer customers.

Bridgewater Systems? solutions provide end users with the ability to use laptops and PDAs to access the Internet at broadband speeds via WLANs -- while authentication and billing occur on their existing GSM carrier cellular accounts. Corporate customers of GSM carriers can obtain managed Wi-Fi services both in the enterprise and in carriers? public Wi-Fi or GPRS locations. These services use a single authentication system and bill.

Bridgewater Systems offers 802.11 authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA), revenue collection and formatting (mediation) capabilities for GSM carriers offering Wi-Fi services. Its EAP/SIM GSM offering will be compliant with relevant IETF draft RFCs and 3GPP? technical standards.

?In today?s mobile society, people need secure and simple Internet access (single authentication and bill) from public locations such as airports, restaurants and hotel lobbies,? said Doug Somers, executive vice president, business development and alliances, Bridgewater Systems. ?Our Wi-Fi experience and existing GSM product offerings makes for a powerful and reliable system to enable Internet access in the busiest of hot spot areas.?

Bridgewater Systems products help carriers address complex 802.11 service and usage-sensitive billing challenges through the following offerings, which are available for CDMA 1X and GSM environments:

 AAA Service Controller provides AAA for users across multiple access technologies, including 1x, dial, DSL and now 802.11. A user can have different credentials for each access type and may authenticate using different protocols, including EAP (MDS, LEAP, PEAP, SIM) in the case of 802.11. Usage is always correctly attributed to the user regardless of the credentials and protocols used to gain access  Revenue Collector and Formatter collect and aggregate usage detail records into session records. They then filter, format and stream the session records to the appropriate billing and settlement systems.

Bridgewater Systems? GSM solutions are available immediately with additional support for EAP/SIM to follow in the third quarter of 2003.

About Bridgewater Systems (www.bridgewatersystems.com)

Bridgewater Systems provides dynamic IP and data service fulfillment and assurance solutions that enable service providers to generate profits from their networks while enhancing customer loyalty. The modular Bridgewater Systems product suite extracts greater value from existing operations support systems (OSS), business support systems (BSS) and network assets to enable service providers to realize new revenue sources. Unlike traditional OSS vendors, Bridgewater Systems' proven products deliver on-demand dynamic IP and data services, offer extensive revenue capture capabilities, provide out-of-the-box value and can be deployed in weeks -- instead of months.

Bridgewater Systems products are currently deployed by top-tier global service providers such as Bell Mobility, ICG Communications, Covad and Telia. Founded in 1997, Bridgewater Systems is a privately held company.