[April 07, 2004] Industry Veteran Reed Hundt Joins Tropos Networks Board; Former FCC Chairman Joins Forces with the Industry's Leading Metro-Scale Wi-Fi Equipment Maker SAN MATEO, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- April 7, 2004 -- Tropos Networks, a leading supplier of equipment used to build metro-scale Wi-Fi networks, today announced that Reed E. Hundt has joined its Board of Directors. Mr. Hundt is currently an advisor on information industries to McKinsey and Company, and serves on the board of Intel Corporation as well as with a number of innovative telecommunications startups. The products developed by Tropos have the potential to accelerate the deployment of true mobile wireless broadband access, said Mr. Hundt. The use of Wi-Fi and future open-standard radio technologies, along with patented mesh protocols, makes the Tropos solution fast, low cost and simple to deploy and to use. I look forward to working with this outstanding management team to deliver on the promise of wireless broadband everywhere. We are very fortunate to have a person of Reed's experience and stature on our board, said Ron Sege, Tropos Networks President and CEO. His extensive background in telecommunications and technology will help the Tropos team achieve our goal of wireless broadband access anywhere, any time. As Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 1993 to 1997, Mr. Hundt was pivotal in negotiating the World Trade Organization Telecommunications agreement, eliminating barriers to open competition in 69 countries worldwide. In addition, Hundt championed the Snowe-Rockefeller program, which dedicates over $2 billion annually to the effort to connect every classroom in America to the Internet. Tropos products can deliver city-wide mobile broadband access via a scalable, reliable and secure Wi-Fi infrastructure. The heart of the Tropos solution is a new class of product called a Wi-Fi cell, which layers patented routing intelligence on top of 802.11 standard Wi-Fi cells to form an economical, self-configuring and self-healing wireless broadband data network that forwards client data through a mesh along the highest throughput path to a wired network. The result is a high performance, large scale Wi-Fi deployment that doesn't require wired backhaul to each access point, installer truck rolls nor expensive and complex client devices and software. A Tropos system can be deployed at a multi-square-mile scale in a matter of days, providing an outdoor mobile broadband experience that is indistinguishable from indoor wireless and wired experiences. In addition to his role at Tropos and his other Board roles, Mr. Hundt is a special advisor to Blackstone Group, a private equity firm based in New York. Mr. Hundt also teaches a seminar at the Yale Law School and the Yale School of Management, where he serves as a member of the advisory committee. Mr. Hundt is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree with Exceptional Distinction in History; he is a graduate of Yale Law School, where he was a member of the executive board of the Yale Law Journal. About Tropos Networks, Inc. Tropos Networks, Inc. is a leading supplier of systems used to build metro-scale, outdoor Wi-Fi networks. Tropos unique Wi-Fi cells, along with the first element manager to control large Wi-Fi networks, enable public agencies and service providers to deliver ubiquitous, city-wide mobile broadband to users in any locale. These carrier-class IP networks are low cost and easy to install and scale. The Tropos cellular mesh architecture and use of optimized open-standard radios dramatically reduce the need for wired backhaul while eliminating expensive proprietary clients and complex software. Using the patented Predictive Wireless Routing Protocol(TM), Tropos solutions deliver maximum bandwidth to the user regardless of conditions, at unprecedented Wi-Fi network scale. Tropos Networks is headquartered in San Mateo, California. For more information, please visit www.tropos.com, call 650-286-4250 or write to [email protected]. Tropos Networks and Tropos are trademarks of Tropos Networks, Inc. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holder(s). [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]