Statoil offers secure wireless access to clients in 300 service stations in Norway

The wireless access solution is already in place in 80 Statoil stations throughout Norway. By year-end 300 Statoil stations throughout the country will offer secure wireless access to its customers. Statoil has teamed up with Telenor in order to unwire its service stations. The solution used is based on software technology from Birdstep Technology, a Norwegian software development company specializing in software for secure access and mobility. The deployment is one of Europes largest Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) rollouts and Statoil is the first major gas station chain to offer its customers wireless access. The solution, based on industry-standard WLAN technology (Wireless Local Area Network), allows business and private users to access E-mail and Internet Services from Statoil Petrol Stations all over Norway. - Statoils goal is to be the preferred stopover while on the road. The new service gives our customers the opportunity to both fill up their cars and their PCs when visiting one of our stations. This is a solution for the future and solid proof of Statoils innovations. We are continuously seeking new services that make life easier for our customers, says Knut Hansen, Head of Information, Statoil Norway. Just a few weeks after the launch, Statoil has signed up more than 800 subscribers and is adding new subscribers at a rate of 20-30 per day. Clearly there is a large demand for a gas station-based hotspot service in Norway. The new service, called Wireless Zone, gives Statoil a competitive advantage over the other service station chains. It is designed to realize a substantial productivity gain for customers by allowing them to maintain a high-speed wireless data connection on laptop PCs and PDAs while visiting a Statoil gas station. - We strongly believe that corporations will view wireless networks as a natural prerequisite for doing business. - Birdstep Technology is a supplier of innovative technology, known to be ahead of the development in its field. As part of Telenors strategy of taking a more holistic view to the Norwegian home market customer base, it is possible to roam between existing Telenor Wi-Fi spots and the new Statoil installations. That means that existing Telenor mobile and ADSL customers can utilise the new Statoils service and Statoil customers can use Telenors existing installations, thus broadening the coverage of Wi-Fi access even further.