WARWICK, R.I., Feb. 25, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- ICOA, Inc., (OTCBB:ICOA), today announced an agreement with Bread Partners, Inc. to bring Wi-Fi high-speed wireless Internet access to its Au Bon Pain locations (www.aubonpain.com/location.html) throughout Miami, FL. Bread Partners operates all eleven Au Bon Pain locations in the Miami area.
Today there are over 230 Au Bon Pain (www.aubonpain.com) bakery cafes operating in the United States, South America and Asia. Bread Partners was one of Au Bon Pain's first US franchisees in 1997. Au Bon Pain is a subsidiary of Compass Group PLC, (LSE:CPG.L) the world's largest contract food service company with operations in more than 90 countries, over 425,000 associates and revenues of $18 billion.
Georgi ZacZac, Jr., owner of Au Bon Pain franchisee, Bread Partners, commented on the agreement with ICOA. "We are delighted to be able to offer Wi-Fi Internet access to our customers in Miami. We have selected QGO and its parent company ICOA, as our supplier, because of their excellent track record in deploying and supporting quality Wi-Fi services nationwide."
George Strouthopoulos, CEO and President of ICOA, Inc. added, "Bread Partners' Au Bon Pain bakery cafes are a welcome addition to the growing number of Wi-Fi locations under ICOA management." "Bread Partners' locations are in premium high traffic urban locations and we are excited about launching Wi-Fi service in the Miami market with such a well established partner," he elaborated.
The agreement between Bread Partners and ICOA covers all of the franchisee's Au Bon Pain locations in Miami. The first operational Wi-Fi service will be at the cafe bakery in the Miami Merchandise Mart. Other locations will be operational over the following six months.
About Bread Partners
Bread Partners Inc. owns and operates eleven Au Bon Pain restaurant locations in some of Dade and Broward counties busiest locations, including the Merchandise Mart, the Wachovia Financial Center in Downtown Miami, several other office towers, Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami Children's Hospital and the Memorial Healthcare hospitals in Broward County, as well as sub-franchises at the Miami International airport.
About ICOA
ICOA, Inc., (www.icoacorp.com) located in Warwick, RI, is a provider of Public Broadband Internet Access. The company owns, operates and manages private networks of Wi-Fi Hot Spots, Internet Terminals (WebCenter3000TM), and distributed broadband systems nationwide. ICOA operates in over 210 of the most sought after public locations -- airports, hotels, marinas, transportation, and conference centers. The Company provides fully managed broadband Internet connectivity, transactions processing, Internet services, and location based content and advertising. ICOA currently operates installations at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO), the Greater Baton Rouge, Louisiana Airport (BTR), Sacramento International Airport (SMF), Rhode Island's Newport Harbor 'Hot Zone', 140+ Panera Bread (Nasdaq:PNRA) (www.panerabread.com) locations, Chicago's McCormick Place Convention Center and several prestigious hotels.
'Safe Harbor'
The foregoing contains "forward-looking statements" which are based on management's beliefs as well as on a number of assumptions concerning future events and information currently available to management. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside ICOA's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. For a more detailed description of the factors that could cause such a difference, please see ICOA's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. ICOA disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This information is presented solely to provide additional information to further understand the results of ICOA.