Aruba Networks Selected for Wi-Fi Alliance® Passpoint™ Test Bed

Aruba Networks (NASDAQ:ARUN) today announced that its wireless LAN products have been selected by the Wi-Fi Alliance® for the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Passpoint™ test bed.

The new capabilities in Passpoint include a streamlined process for establishing new user accounts, the ability to provision devices with appropriate security credentials, and support for operator-specific subscriber and network access policies. The new capabilities increase opportunities for operators to expand their subscriber base and drive greater value from Wi-Fi deployments in public venues.

“Wi-Fi Alliance congratulates Aruba for their participation in the expanded test bed, and for supporting new features that will further enhance the Passpoint certification program,” said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO of Wi-Fi Alliance. “New enhancements to Passpoint will enable operators to extract even more value from their Wi-Fi deployments.”

The second largest mobile operator in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Mobily, is collaborating with Aruba for a live Passpoint network deployment. Using Aruba Wi-Fi to power thousands of public hotspots, Mobily has augmented their cellular broadband infrastructure – which has more than 22 million subscribers – to deliver high quality broadband access in public venues including cafes, hotels, hospitals and other outdoor venues. The result of this carefully augmented Wi-Fi network is an enhanced subscriber experience that simultaneously reduces the load on the cellular network.

“Marrying Aruba’s Passpoint-certified Wi-Fi network equipment with our cellular network enables our subscribers to automatically discover and securely connect to Wi-Fi networks when needed,” said Mohammed Osman Alserier, Executive Manager Network Planning Support, Mobily. “This added connectivity offers several distinct benefits. It provides Mobily with the ability to offload subscriber data when in dense environments and offers subscribers a seamless mobile experience with ultrafast connectivity, while offering businesses a new opportunity to market to their customers.”

“The newly expanded features in Passpoint represent major milestones and further our common industry goal of ensuring seamless, secure connectivity for hotspot users,” said Keerti Melkote, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), for Aruba Networks. “We are pleased to play a role in the important initiatives led by organizations like Wi-Fi Alliance and the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) that will streamline the process of connecting to and roaming across Wi-Fi networks easily and securely. Wi-Fi is not only the primary means of network access within enterprises and homes, but thanks to Passpoint and the underlying technology, it will be the primary means of connectivity in public venues as well.”

Aruba Networks products used in the Wi-Fi Alliance Passpoint test bed include the 3600 Mobility Controllers, AP-105 Access Points (APs) and the Online Sign-Up (OSU) policy server based on ClearPass Policy Manager.

About Aruba Networks, Inc.

Aruba Networks is a leading provider of next-generation network access solutions for the mobile enterprise. The company designs and delivers Mobility-Defined Networks that empower IT departments and #GenMobile, a new generation of tech-savvy users who rely on their mobile devices for every aspect of work and personal communication. To create a mobility experience that #GenMobile and IT can rely upon, Aruba Mobility-Defined Networks™ automate infrastructure-wide performance optimization and trigger security actions that used to require manual IT intervention. The results are dramatically improved productivity and lower operational costs.

Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com. For real-time news updates follow Aruba on Twitter and Facebook, and for the latest technical discussions on mobility and Aruba products visit Airheads Social at http://community.arubanetworks.com.

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