IPASS NETWORK GROWS TO 13 MILLION HOTSPOTS ACROSS 120 COUNTRIES

REDWOOD SHORES, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 09/05/14 -- iPass Inc. (NASDAQ: IPAS), providing cost-effective Wi-Fi accessaround the world for enterprises, telecom service providers and other strategic partners, today announced that it has expanded its global Wi-Fi network to 13 million hotspots. The rapid growth has been fuelled in large part by the proliferation of home hubs and community hotspots, which are increasingly handling commercial traffic.

Over the last 12 months, iPass has seen partners make significant investments in building out their Wi-Fi networks, which in turn has enabled iPass to substantially increase its Wi-Fi footprint. The iPass global network currently covers 120 countries and territories and has a footprint 13 times larger than its nearest competitor. Over 700 global companies use this network to keep their business travellers connected.

"We are proud to have innovative partners likes Comcast, China Mobile and Orange who have invested in building out premium Wi-Fi networks globally. Their investments in community hotspots and home hubs have increased the iPass network substantially," said Evan Kaplan, president and CEO of iPass. "The pace of Wi-Fi hotspot proliferation is not abating and a roamable, global alternative network of 100 million hotspots will become a reality in the foreseeable future."

Globally the growth of hotspots has been fuelled by iPass network partners investing in expanding the availability of Wi-Fi due to the increase in innovative monetization models including advertising and location based services, as well as the continued growth of innovative devices which, in many cases depend solely on Wi-Fi networks for connectivity. As a result iPass network usage is also on the increase, with tablet and smartphone users logging onto the network twice as many times as laptop users.

"iPass sits at the hub of the Wi-Fi ecosystem and we are seeing increasing diversity in our network partners. Organizations ranging from platform players to independent coffee shops see strong business opportunities in making Wi-Fi available to customers, while major telecoms operators are investing heavily in their Wi-Fi rollouts," says Marcio Avillez, Vice President of network services. "The proliferation of devices, especially tablets, the majority of which are Wi-Fi only, has increased users' appetites for Wi-Fi. These devices are being used way beyond typical business travel locations like hotels and airports. We've watched this trend flourish and have responded by working with partners to broaden our footprint in places such as urban outdoor areas, trains and airplanes."

iPass continues to provide the most comprehensive in-flight Wi-Fi service in the world, with Wi-Fi access on more than 20 airlines up from 9 airlines just one year ago, including Delta, United, American Airlines, Lufthansa, Etihad and Singapore Airlines. iPass also provides on-board Wi-Fi connectivity on over 800 passenger trains, such as ICE in Germany, DSB in Denmark, Virgin Trains in the UK and many other rail brands throughout Europe and Japan.

Over 180 Wi-Fi network operators are connected to the iPass global network. iPass has over 74,000 hotspots in hotel and convention centres worldwide and provides seamless access to business travellers to premium Wi-Fi services at many hotel hotspots including access at select Hilton, Sheraton, Crowne Plaza, Hyatt, Radisson Blu, Regal and Novotel properties. Other business venues offering access to the iPass Mobile Network include Starbucks and McDonald's. iPass subscribers can access hundreds of different networks and more than 13 million hotspots using a single, secure login based on the user's existing corporate credentials.

For more information about iPass Network coverage, click here.

About iPass Inc.iPass enables business travelers to stay connected by providing them with cost-effective and convenient global Wi-Fi access across smartphones, tablets and laptops. Founded in 1996, iPass (NASDAQ: IPAS) is the world's largest Wi-Fi network, covering over 120 countries and territories and selling to over 700 large corporations, telecom service providers and other strategic partners around the world. Through its cloud-based delivery model, iPass connects business travelers to over 13 million Wi-Fi hotspots in airports, airplanes, hotels and public areas. With the growing need for fast, high bandwidth connectivity, iPass lets business travelers stay close to what matters most while on the road including access to video, unified communications, web conferencing and other cloud based apps.

iPass® is a registered trademark of iPass Inc. Wi-Fi® is a registered trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners.

NATO Summit: UK offers up troops to counter Russian advances

The UK Prime Minister has pledged some 1,000 British troops in support of a quick reaction “spearhead force” that would be stationed in eastern Europe to protect against Russian advancements, should the implementation details be finalised at the NATO summit in Newport on 5 September.

During his opening remarks on the second day of the summit, David Cameron said the alliance is negotiating establishing a rapid reaction force that could deploy in two to five days, in response to the actions of Russia in its advancement into Ukrainian territory. Such a force would preposition equipment in eastern Europe in anticipation of a conflict, and would be headquartered out of Poland. The UK has also pledged that 3,500 British troops will partake in joint training exercises with NATO to prepare for potential conflicts over the next two years.

“To support our eastern European members we must be able to act more swiftly,” Cameron says.

Rex Features

This would have to be a quick-reaction force, because under a treaty that NATO signed with the Russian government after the Cold War, it promised that it would not have a permanent basing out of any of the former Warsaw Pact states.

Cameron’s declaration came as part of a three-part pledge which also included the UK extending partnerships across the alliance as well as calling on members to earmark 2% of their GDPs to defence, including spending 20% of that on equipment.

“This issue of equipment is as important as the amount of money spent,” Cameron notes.

Prior to the summit, on 3 September, UK defence minister Michael Fallon communicated the same message to the Royal United Services Institute in London, but said that research should also count within the proposed 20% equipment spend.

“We’re urging all allies to spend 20% of their defence budgets on new equipment, research and development of capabilities,” he said.

OPINION: Why aerospace firms must tackle titanium cheats

When Pratt & Whitney accused a supplier in late August of furnishing defective titanium for the F135 engine on the Lockheed Martin F-35, it was easy – but not entirely correct – to connect the problem to a string of component reliability failures and supplier management miscues already connected to the programme.

Although the F-35 has earned a reputation over a prolonged development period, that focus may conceal a deeper problem inside the US domestic titanium supply base that goes well beyond the single-engined stealth fighter.

P&W has sued A&P Alloys for allegedly supplying titanium sourced from Russia – the world’s largest titanium producer – and for concerns about the quality of the lightweight, high-strength metal delivered for the F135. According to P&W, the suspect titanium forced the company to suspend engine deliveries for several weeks.

A&P is not the first company to supply suspect titanium to the Department of Defense. Indeed, court documents show that faulty titanium products have triggered a 15-year-long string of aircraft groundings and lawsuits, affecting the Bell Boeing V-22, Boeing C-17, Boeing F-15, Lockheed F-22 and now the F-35.

In response, the Department of Defense convened a task force in 2009 dedicated to examining the problem of suspect titanium in the US military aircraft supply base. Based on their findings, last AprilNASA published a handbook for government acquisition managers to identify defective shipments of finished titanium.

The published reports make it clear that the fault does not lie with the producers of raw titanium bar and plate, such as TIMET, ATI and RTI.

The culprits are the distributors that take the raw material and do the finishing work. The NASA handbook identifies two kinds of titanium cheaters. Some take raw titanium plate and forge the finished component even though the specification calls for using a more complex rolling process. Others cheat by simply cutting down a raw titanium billet into the final shape, rather than using a forging or rolling process as required in the contract.

Both forms of cheating result in a metal that superficially looks right, but lacks the minimum strength or fatigue characteristics demanded by the aircraft’s designer.

The latest P&W lawsuit shows that defence contractors are still vulnerable to the problem, despite all of the government’s efforts over the past five years to identify the cheaters.

It also comes at a time when concern grows about access to Russian stocks of titanium, and the possibility that US commercial aircraft will have to depend on Western sources of supply.

Bombardier to resume CSeries flights in September

Bombardier has announced that CSeries flight testing will resume in September and reaffirmed that first delivery will occur in the second half of 2015.

The company’s update on 5 September narrows Bombardier’s window for lifting the three-month-old grounding of the CSeries fleet.

An oil system malfunction caused an explosion in the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G engine on FTV-1 during a ground test in Mirabel, Canada, on 29 May.

P&W proposed an initial fix to Bombardier in mid-July, but the airframer continued to pose questions to the supplier through mid-August.

"We are pleased to confirm that Pratt has now completed the first set of modified engines with full flight clearance approval from the relevant authorities including Transport Canada," says Bombardier CSeries programme manager Rob Dewar in a statement.

A photo of FTV-2 appeared online on 5 September, showing the aircraft in taxi tests with a pair of engines recently flown in from P&W’s factory in Hartford, Connecticut.

Bombardier now as a 11- to 15-month window for completing certification testing of the CSeries fleet, with roughly 300 hours of a 2,400 flight test programme completed as of 29 May.

HondaJet engine clears FAA certification milestone

GE Honda Aero Engines has cleared the long-awaited airworthiness milestone for the HF120 turbofan, allowing aircraft maker Honda Aircraft to accelerate efforts to certificate the HA-420 HondaJet and enter operational service next year.

The US Federal Aviation Administration awarded Part 33 certification to the 2,095lb-thrust HF120 programme, according to the joint venture between GE Aviation and HondaJet.

The award follows several years of testing that revealed problems with the original design, especially for how the engine handles ice ingestion. Design changes finally met the FAA’s standards after a testing programme that involved 13 engines and 14,000 cycles on 9,000h of testing.

“This is just the beginning for our team, which has worked tirelessly to demonstrate the technologies in our engine,” says Terry Sharp, president of GE Honda.

The next step for the HondaJet programme is for the manufacturer to receive from the FAA a type inspection authorization, which establishes a baseline of performance to receive airworthiness certification.

HondaJet plans enter service with the first production HA-420 in late-2014, or roughly a year after engine certification.

The HA-420 will compete in the same market segment as the Phenom 100 and the Cessna M2. The entry-level jet market remains severely depressed from pre-2009 levels, before the global economic crash reduced financing options for small businesses and private owners.

HondaJet believes the HA-420 can be competitive by offering a 5% improvement in fuel burn with novel features, including a natural laminar flow airfoil, over-the-wing engine mounts and the unique design of the HF120 engine.

GE Honda designed the HF120 with a front fan blisk and an unusual, reverse-flow combustor with a single-stage, air-blast fuel nozzles.

Assembly of the HF120 has started at a GE facility in Lynn, Massachusetts, but will transition to a joint venture-owned site in Burlington, North Carolina.

HondaJet assembles the HA-420 in nearby Greensboro, North Carolina, inside a cavernous new factory.

Shelling has been reported in Ukraine's eastern city of Mariupol despite a day-old ceasefire, as Moscow warned it "will react" if the EU imposes new sanctions.

PICTURE: Cessna delivers first TTx to international owner

Cessna has clinched an order from Russian pilot training provider ViraZH for 79 Skyhawks. The order comes on top of another deal in 2011 for the eleven of the four-seat, piston-engined types.

Cessna is scheduled to deliver all 79 aircraft from the latest order during the fourth quarter of 2014. Upon delivery of the final aircraft, the Moscow-based company will become one of the world’s largest operators of the high-wing type.

The Textron Lycoming IO-360-L2A-powered Skyhawk will be incorporated into ViraZH’s flight school network situated throughout western Russia.

Meanwhile. A Thai businessman has become the first international owner of the piston-engined TTx.

Cessna

The four-seat aircraft – touted by Cessna as the “world’s fastest commercially produced and certified fixed-gear single-engine aircraft” – was handed over to Kiatichai Monsereenusorn, managing director of Kiattana Transport, based in Nonthaburi, Thailand.

The $734,000 TTx was certificated in July, and is the first aircraft to be equipped with Garmin G2000 avionics. The cockpit features two 14in high definition displays and touchscreen controls.

The all-composite aircraft has an operating ceiling of 25,000ft (7,620m) and a 1,250nm (2,311km) range, allowing it to fly non-stop from Los Angeles to Houston or Bangkok, Thailand to Kolkata, India, says Cessna.

The Continental Motors TSIO-550-powered TTx also has an optional flight into known icing system, “enabling pilots to file flight plans for varying weather conditions”, the airframer adds.