Press Releases

Propel Software and La Curacao Launch Pasito Accelerator to Deliver Fast and Easy Internet Access to Its Customers
Pasito.com Eliminates Fears of Novice Internet Users and Bridges the Affordability Gap in Hispanic Community

BALTIMORE, Md., ISPCON Spring 2006, Booth #205, May 16, 2006 – Propel Software Corporation (www.propel.com), a market leader in Internet acceleration solutions, is powering the dial-up acceleration product offered by Pasito.com (www.pasito.com), a premier Internet service provider owned and operated by La Curacao® serving the Hispanic community in Southern California.

Pasito, which means “baby step” in Spanish, was chosen to represent the company’s promise to remove the intimidating process of getting online for the very first time. It has signed up 70,000 subscribers since its initial launch three years ago.

Powered by Propel, Pasito Accelerator is now part of the ISP’s new premium service combined with a local telephone line and includes a customized bilingual browser with links to content specific to Mexico, Central and South America for $14.95 a month. Other features of the premium service package include complimentary tech-support, parental controls, firewall, Anti-Virus, Anti Spyware, 1GB of online back-up, a Google-powered search tool, a spam blocker, a pop-up blocker, and a mail guard to protect against viruses contained in emails.

Pasito.com is owned by La Curacao, a chain of six department stores in Southern California that averages more than nine million total visitors a year and ranks among the top 60 electronics and appliance retailers in the United States. Each store is more than 100,000 square feet in size and includes a Pasito.com-branded section with 15-20 browsing stations and a dedicated staff to educate customers on how to use the Internet. While Pasito.com is available as a stand-alone service, La Curacao sells computers bundled with Pasito.com and offers in-home installation that includes basic Internet training for first-timers.

Reuven Hayun, sales and marketing manager for the business development group at La Curacao, said the company chose to add an accelerator product to the Pasito.com service because migrating to broadband isn’t the answer for every customer. “We knew that to stay competitive we needed to do something, but the truth is that most of our customers don’t mind using dial-up because they aren’t interested in fancy downloads. What they really want is basic news about what’s going on in their native countries, whether it’s business or politics or sports, and Propel allows us to give it to them at unprecedented speeds, and for a very reasonable price. In addition, we strive to service the under-served Hispanic community that cannot afford the expense of a DSL line combined with the telephone bill. This can reach to a $40-$60 combined telephone bill. With our newly added Pasito Accelerator and the subsidies of California’s utility commission, we can provide a premium product such as Pasito.com for an affordable $14.95/Month which includes the telephone line!”

Propel Accelerator is an award-winning Internet acceleration product that provides an optimized experience for users of dial-up connections, low-speed broadband, wireless mobile data and 802.11 hotspots. It is currently deployed by hundreds of ISPs and other Propel users in more than 75 countries, making available an improved Internet experience to more than 34 million subscribers.

Hayun said he and his team were impressed by Propel’s pledge to make Propel Accelerator work smoothly with Pasito.com’s other technology vendors. “Our business is all about earning customer loyalty and respect, and that’s one of the reasons we chose Propel,” he said. “We were impressed not only by the quality of the Accelerator but also by the commitment of the sales and engineering team to integrate the product into our existing infrastructure. They treated us like a million-dollar account, which we’re not, and we really appreciated that. We’ll definitely be working with Propel again when we further expand our services.”

“Pasito.com has been a joy to work with,” said David Murray, co-founder, president and COO of Propel. “They help people tackle their fear of the tech unknown, which is a rewarding endeavor, and as a result they enjoy their work and do a fantastic job. And they truly value the basic business concept of teamwork to get the job done right. In today’s world that is a refreshing attitude and we look forward to continue working with them.”

About Pasito.com
Created by La Curacao in March 2003, Pasito.com introduces first-time users to the Internet, one step at a time, and brings information, entertainment and services to the Hispanic community throughout the world. In November 2003 Pasito.com combined its ISP with “CuraTel” (La Curacao’s Telecom company) in order to gain a competitive edge by combining plans with local telephone service.

About La Curacao
La Curacao® was established in 1980 in Burbank, Calif. as a consumer-product sales enterprise specializing in door-to-door sales. In an effort to distinguish itself, the company offered home delivery of popular consumer products. Since then it has grown to six retail stores that attract more than nine million visitors a year. In addition to traditional retail products, La Curacao provides a number of services that are of special interest to the Latino community, including CuraTel local and long-distance telephone service, Pasito.com Internet access, travel services, export services, and, through a sister company, Pollo Campero restaurants. More information is available at www.lacuracao.com

About Propel
Propel Software Corporation provides Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with solutions that improve their subscribers’ Internet experience. Acceleration solutions from Propel provide a new source of revenue to ISPs that fuels new customer acquisitions and aids in reducing customer churn. Propel, a privately owned, profitable company was founded in 1999 by world-renowned, successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Kirsch, who also founded Infoseek and Frame Technology. The company is located at 1010 Rincon Circle in San Jose, California, USA, 95131. More information is available at 408-571-6500 or www.propel.com.

Propel® and the Propel logos are registered trademarks and Propel® Accelerator, Propel® Complete, Propel® Self-hosted™ are trademarks of Propel Software Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks shown are the property of their respective owners.
Copyright © 2006 Propel Software Corporation All rights reserved.
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