news / press room

TUCSON, Ariz., Nov. 15 (LocalBusiness.com) -- Get2Net 2000 is calling on an old ally as it tries to get 1,000 new Internet access kiosks in place in the next 12 months.

The Denver company has signed a deal with Ephibian Inc. to help with the rollout. Ephibian is a Tucson-based, e-business development company.

Get2Net has 260 kiosks in airports, convention centers, "and other places where business travelers can be found," President Tammy Shriner said.

Ephibian designed and has upgraded the Get2Net system. Get2Net was founded three years ago.

This deal expands on that contract. Ephibian will upgrade the system to handle the increased load that will come from the new kiosks.

"We get much heavier use on our kiosks than the pay-for-use competition," Shriner said. "We get as many as 70 users per kiosk per day."

It's free to use Get2Net kiosks. Users can register by going to the Get2Net Website, or they can register at the kiosks themselves.

Once signed on, people can use the kiosks to retrieve e-mail on any account they have, or Web surf as they would on any other computer.

"We try to collect the e-mail accounts, although we won't do it without a user's permission, so we can send out promotions," Shriner said. The company said it has 200,000 registered users.

This contract is a straight fee-for-service deal. But Ephibian often will take partial payment in the form of equity.

Get2Net's revenue comes from advertising.

Based in Englewood, Colo., Get2Net is wholly owned by a private company whose name Shriner would not disclose.

Ephibian is a wholly owned subsidiary of X-Source Corp., a New York-based holding company.