Four Innovators Inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Four individuals joined the 72 wireless industry pioneers and innovators inducted into the prestigious Wireless Hall of Fame. The event, hosted by the Wireless History Foundation (WHF), a nonprofit organization that has honored the hall of fame members for over a decade, celebrated Dan Hesse, Dr. Arogyaswami Paulraj, Neera Singh, and Stuart Subotnick. “We are honored to celebrate the accomplishments of the Hall of Fame Class of 2022,” said Jenifer Snyder, Executive Director of the Wireless History Foundation. “Their contribution to the wireless industry have paved the way for future innovation, transparency and sustainability for all wireless companies. Our existing Hall of Fame members and program sponsors are honored to welcome this amazing group of individuals into the Hall of Fame.”

• Dan Hesse: Mr. Hesse redefined the way wireless services are sold and delivered to customers, in multiple wireless generations and at two of the largest wireless carriers. As CEO of AT&T Wireless in 1998, Mr. Hesse launched the transformative Digital One Rate, a marketing innovation that provided a single ‘bucket’ rate and eliminated separate charges for roaming and long distance. Later in his career, Mr. Hesse joined Sprint as CEO in 2007, and during his tenure the company went from worst to first in JD Power customer satisfaction ratings as a result of greatly simplifying the buying experience for customers transitioning to smartphones and digital services. As an industry leader, Mr. Hesse also championed sustainability and corporate responsibility issues not only at his company, but across the entire industry.

• Dr. Arogyaswami Paulraj: Dr. Paulraj is the inventor of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless technology, which has increased the data capacity of wireless systems exponentially. MIMO technology is now at the core of all WiFi, and 4G /5G Mobile networks. Since his early work on the MIMO concept at Stanford University in 1992, Dr. Paulraj has continued to refine, commercialize and advance MIMO technology. He faced many challenges, not uncommon for new technologies, for at least a decade. The massive footprint of MIMO today (billions of user devices) has required the contributions of thousands of researchers and engineers, many of them eminent. However, Dr. Paulraj clearly stands out as a key enabler of MIMO wireless, who persisted in the face of skepticism and obstacles to nurture a revolutionary technology from inception to global adoption.

• Neera Singh: Ms. Singh was the co-founder of LCC International (LCCI) when the cellular industry was in its infancy and the spectrum that would make it possible was just being released by the FCC. LCCI established itself as the leading wireless engineering firm, whose independence from communications equipment manufacturers allowed it to be objective and efficient. Ms. Singh developed the underlying algorithms and authored LCCI software. She was also in charge of software development as the company expanded. As the industry grew, LCCI was responsible for the design of initial wireless networks across the globe including in the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, India, Mexico and a number of other countries. Ms. Singh’s contributions span engineering, technology, and operations and finance/investments in the wireless industry. She not only served in leadership, oversight and management roles, but she also created software and algorithms used throughout the industry.

• Stuart Subotnick: Mr. Subotnick is a pioneer and was a visionary in establishing the methods by which the still-evolving and scrappy paging industry could participate in the development of the new cellular licenses in competition with the dominant wireline Bell System. Mr. Subotnick orchestrated early player Metromedia’s huge leap of faith in the potential of cellular– bringing capital from new sources to create a world changing industry. He devised Metromedia’s cellular strategy and established the financial engineering to acquire seven of the largest U. S. paging companies and their cellular applications in New York, Los Angeles, Washington/Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas and Boston, making Metromedia one of the largest cellular applicants on the non-wireline side. His financial insight led to a number of strategies that provided the ability for the non-wireline operators to grow in the face of larger well capitalized wireline companies.

In addition, the Foundation was proud to announce two scholars as the first recipients of the Wireless Hall of Fame Scholarship Program which seeks to provide scholarships for students pursuing a course of study in, or related to, the wireless industry, including areas such as law, policy, and engineering.

The Wireless History Foundation and the evening’s honorees paid special thanks to the 2022 event sponsors:

• Bandwidth Level: AT&T, Consumer Cellular, Eagle River Investments, Lawrence D. Garvey Fund, Ookla, PNC

• Spectrum Level: Anterix, Assurant, Boingo Wireless , CTIA, Macquarie Capital, Stuart Subotnick, Telcom Ventures LLC, Trilogy Partnership, Vertical Bridge

• Frequencies Level: Bluewater Wireless, Columbia Capital, Enterprise Wireless Alliance, Fluid Truck, The Foosaner Family, NATE, New York Racing Association, NextNav, NYU WIRELESS, T-Mobile, Trewstar , Wrethinking, The Foundation

• Connections Level: Airspan Networks, Akamai Technologies, Charter Communications, Competitive Carriers Association, Comtech, DISH Network, Goldman Sachs – The Mitzak Family, Helzberg Diamonds, Hogan Lovells, Iridium, Learning Alliance Corporation, Magee Group LLC, Lois & Larry Movshin, Pearl TV, Pat Russo, SBA Communications Corporation, Somos, Lorraine Spurge & Patrick Mitchell, University of Notre Dame, WeLink, Wilkinson Barker Knauer, Wireless Infrastructure Association

For additional information or to participate as a sponsor in future Wireless Hall of Fame awards dinner, please contact Jenifer Snyder at Jen@wirelesshistoryfoundation.org.

About the Wireless History Foundation

Founded in October 2008 on the 25^th anniversary of the first commercial cellular telephone call in the United States, the Wireless History Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established by wireless pioneers seeking to increase public understanding of the wireless industry and its social and economic impacts by chronicling the achievements of individuals, the contributions of numerous organizations, and the evolution of wireless communications. Its signature event is the annual Wireless Hall of Fame Awards Dinner, which provides public recognition of outstanding individuals across all segments of the wireless industry. Learn more about the Wireless History Foundation at www.wirelesshistoryfoundation.org.

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Contacts

Jenifer Snyder

+1 (303) 875-5326

Jen@wirelesshistoryfoundation.org