Panera Bread Operating Largest Free Hotspot Network in U.S. Operates 325 Wi-Fi Equipped Locations and Commits to 500 Within Twelve Months ST. LOUIS, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Panera Bread Company (NASDAQ:PNRA), the company that has led the nationwide trends of artisan bread and quick casual/specialty foods, announced today it has equipped 325 locations in 27 states with free high-speed broadband wireless Internet access (Wi-Fi). "Panera Bread is now the largest provider of free Wi-Fi Internet access in the United States," said Ron Shaich, Panera Bread chairman and chief executive officer. "We are firmly committed to providing free broadband wireless Internet access as a convenient and reliable service to all customers in existing and emerging markets and remain on an aggressive build-out schedule of 375 locations by calendar year-end and 500 locations in the coming twelve months." As of April 17, 2004, Panera Bread operated 637 bakery-cafes. The company continues to grow expecting to open a total of 140 to 150 locations this year and incorporating free Wi-Fi in those expansion plans. The Wi-Fi service allows customers with a Wi-Fi-enabled laptop or PDA to securely access the Internet, check their email, connect to a corporate server or browse the web while within the comfort of a Panera Bread bakery-cafe. Instruction cards are displayed at Wi-Fi enabled locations, and customer support is available 12-hours a day, every day of the week. A regularly updated list of Wi-Fi locations is available at http://www.panerabread.com/wifi . "Customer response to the convenience and reliability of our free Wi-Fi Internet access has greatly exceeded our expectations and we believe it is positively impacting our business," said Shaich. "Offering free Wi-Fi Internet access is keeping our customers in our stores longer -- primarily during off-peak hours -- and bringing them back more often, enhancing their experience of Panera Bread's quick casual environment." According to company research, the average total online time per bakery/cafe has increased three-fold over the last twelve months. Internal research indicates that of the hundreds of thousands of customer accesses over the last year, the average connect time is one hour. The Wi-Fi networking equipment is furnished, operated and managed for Panera Bread by ICOA (OTC:ICOA) (BULLETIN BOARD: ICOA) , a leading provider of wireless broadband access in public locations. Panera Bread Company owns and franchises bakery-cafes under the Panera Bread and Saint Louis Bread Co. names. The Company is a leader in the emerging specialty bread/cafe category due to its unique bread combined with a quick, casual dining experience. Additional information is available on the Company's website, http://www.panerabread.com/ . ICOA, Inc., (OTCBB:ICOA < http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=icoa.ob&d=t >) located in Warwick, RI, is a provider of neutral host wireless and wired broadband Internet networks and managed services in over 400 public locations. ICOA, Inc. provides design, installation, operations, maintenance and management of neutral, common-use 802.11x standard WLAN Wi-Fi Hot Spot and Hot Zone infrastructure throughout airport facilities, quick service restaurants, marinas and hospitality locations as well as High Speed Internet Terminals (WebCenter3000(TM)). For additional information, please visit http://www.icoacorp.com/ . DATASOURCE: Panera Bread Company CONTACT: Julie Somers of Panera Bread Company, +1-314-633-7210 Web site: http://www.panerabread.com/wifi http://www.icoacorp.com/ http://www.panerabread.com/

Copyright