Metro

Tropos promotes Ayers to president and CEO

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:59:54 -0500

Mesh networking company Tropos Networks announced the appointment of veteran sales executive Tom Ayers as president and CEO. Ayers will take the helm from Ron Sege who will continue to serve as an adviser.

On behalf of Tropos' Board of Directors, Chairman Dave Hanna said, "I want to take this opportunity to thank Ron for his vision, evangelism and tireless commitment to Tropos and the whole metro WiFi industry. "He built a great foundation here at Tropos and I look forward to working with him in his future endeavors."

Ayers has worked in the industry for 30 years including his most recent position as SVP of field operations at Blue Coat Systems and a prior post at McAfee.

For more on Tropos' new CEO:
- read this press release

On the Hot Seat with MetroPCS President Thomas Keys Page 2

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:29:59 -0400

FierceWireless: A recent LA Times article about the MetroPCS launch focuses on the gaps in MetroPCS's coverage. How are you educating new users about these gaps when they sign up for the service?

Keys: Thanks for bringing that up--honesty of coverage. We have to discern what's not covered, which is actually more important than what is covered. We deliver maps once a week to our distribution partners, who were lining up in droves to join us. We tell the consumer that if they live, work and play in the areas that are covered.We absolutely ask them to join. If they do not, then we ask them to hold off on their purchase. If by chance, they've made a bad purchase decision because they were too aggressive in their choice, we offer a money-back guarantee called "Metro Promise" that in the first 30 days of purchase or 60 minutes of use, you can bring the phone back to get a full refund. We absolutely believe in honesty and coverage for consumers, it's the thing we pride ourselves on. In every one of our launches there have been gaps. It is a phased build with phased launches, there is no other way to cover a city.

FierceWireless: So, the Northeast Corridor is the next area for deployments from MetroPCS?

Keys: Well, actually in Q2 of 2008 we will be launching in Las Vegas.

FierceWireless: Any update on the proposed deal with Leap Wireless?

Keys: You know there is nothing there right now. What's out is out and at this point we don't have any other comment on that deal right now.

FierceWireless: Next year you have plans for a lot more expansion in the Northeast-what percentage would that expand your footprint next year?

Keys: We believe we will cover 30 million to 33 million POPs with the deployment [in the Northeast Corridor, which includes New York City, Boston and Philadelphia].

< Previous Page

AT&T rolls out its first metro WiFi deployment

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 06:59:56 -0400

AT&T announced the first commercial launch of its AT&T Metro Wi-Fi solution across 3 square miles of Riverside, California. The area includes downtown Riverside, Hunter Technology Park and Adams Auto Center. The mesh-based deployment includes both a municipal public safety network as well as a consumer and business solution. Users can log in for a $7.99 a day (24 hours) fee or buy a weekly pass for $15.99.

Riverside is testing the service to run video to and from police patrol cars, to monitor traffic and to keep an eye on problem areas for graffiti, illegal dumping and building security.

For more on AT&T's deployment:
- read the press release