tropos networks

C&L: Obopay's new CEO

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:59:52 -0400

Obopay hires Gregory Holmes as president of its U.S. business.

Meru Networks names Keith Matasci VP of operations.

Craig Wireless names David Lazzarato as its CEO.

Former Tropos Networks CEO Ron Sege re-joins 3COM as president and COO.

C&L: Tropos names Ayers new CEO

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:59:52 -0500

Medio Systems appoints Eugene Kuerner VP of engineering and Cheryl Scott as VP of carrier deployments.

Tropos Networks appoints Tom Ayers CEO. Former CEO Ron Sege will serve as adviser to the company.

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

VC: Stoke snags $20M from DAG, Sequoia

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 19:01:34 -0500

The last time DAG Ventures invested in telecom was nearly three years ago and in a muni-WiFi company called Tropos Networks. Today, DAG announced that it led the $20 million third round for Stoke, which included return investors Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia. Stoke announced the funding along with the launch of its so-called multi-access carrier-closet box, the Stoke Session Exchange. The device is designed to enable carriers to better manage customers using multiple access technologies, including WiMAX and WiFi handsets. As GigaOM notes, it seems like carrier capex spending is back, as Stoke's VC now totals $50 million. Stoke plans to announce a major OEM partner sometime in the near future, which should help seal some carrier deals.

For more on Stoke's funding and product launch:
- read this article over at GigaOM

wVoIP, dual-mode handset market moves slow

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 19:01:34 -0500

PC Magazine is running an article on Bryan Gardiner's experience at FierceMarkets' wVoIP Executive Summit last week, which is full of great quotes from the show: "Nothing in this dual-mode handset market is going to come quickly," said BridgePort Networks SVP Sanjay Jhawar. "The first million subscribers on dual-mode handsets is still at least six to nine months away. The problem is that carriers are embracing [wireless VoIP], but not all at the same speed. The MVNOs are probably going to be the fastest moving on this front." Tropos Networks' Ed Taulbee probably summed up the state of the market best when he said: "while these handsets are rapidly improving, the reality is that we [the wireless VoIP community] are still where cellular was maybe 10 years ago. It's just going to take some time."

For the full write-up:
- check out this article from PC Magazine
- and take a look at our event's site here

Trend: Cities look for free muni-WiFi

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 20:01:38 -0400

The muni-wireless market is just a few years old, but it looks like municipalities are starting to shake it up by pursuing free wireless service supported solely by advertising. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the deal between muni-WiFi provider MobilePro and the city of Sacramento fell through last year because the city heard about the deals between San Francisco and Google-Earthlink and Portland and MetroFi. These latest waves of muni-WiFi deals offer wireless services to San Francisco and Portland with "expanded free" access for some businesses and residents. MetroFi, Google and Earthlink plan to rely on local advertising embedded in their wireless service instead of the traditional user subscription fee-based model. Some say the new model could put the muni-WiFi pioneers like MobilePro, Strix and Tropos Networks at risk.

For more on the free muni-wireless trend:
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)

Motorola releases HotZone Duo mesh WiFi product

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 20:01:37 -0400

Motorola introduced the HotZone Duo mesh WiFi product that could compete directly with its preferred muni-WiFi partner Tropos Networks. Motorola, which has won several high-profile contracts with Tropos for muni-WiFi networks, serves as the systems integrator for Tropos WiFi access points while using its own Motorola Canopy product to aggregate and route traffic to a backbone Internet network. But Motorola and Tropos have a history of what some call "coopetition," competing in some areas and cooperating in others. However, it's interesting to note that Motorola says the HotZone Due actually improves throughput and coverage for cities using Tropos gear because, unlike Tropos equipment that uses one radio to communicate with other access points, it uses multiple radio systems. Although single-radio systems are simple to deploy and affordable, multi-radio systems more closely match the requirements laid out in recent municipal proposals.

For more about Motorola's HotZone Duo product:
- read this article from CNET news.com

FEATURE: Interference: The Muni-WiFi Bogeyman

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 19:01:32 -0500

Some observers, most recently the Economist, have raised the specter of muni-WiFi network failure due to chaos in the unlicensed spectrum in which they operate. Their concerns include overuse of the frequency band available to WiFi, muni-WiFi networks interfering with home and office WiFi access points and other users of unlicensed spectrum to interfering with muni-WiFi networks.

Interference is more bogeyman than bane. Tropos Networks' experience in more than 300 customer deployments gives us reason to be optimistic that muni-WiFi networks will not be hampered by interference and will not cause significant problems for nearby WiFi networks.

Tragedy of the Commons?
A tragedy of the commons occurs when overuse of a shared resource leads to a reduction in the available quantity of that resource. Some observers have stated that an overabundance of WiFi networks will lead to overuse of the airwaves, resulting in no bandwidth being available for anyone. In other words, they fear that muni WiFi could cause/suffer from a tragedy of the commons.

This fear is unfounded. The WiFi protocol, based on the long-used Ethernet protocol, does not allow overuse to diminish the amount of available bandwidth. This is true for many users sharing the same WiFi network and, importantly, for many WiFi networks sharing the same spectrum. The average amount of available bandwidth per network and user decreases as the number of networks and users increases but the total amount of available bandwidth does not. The WiFi protocol is very efficient at allowing users and networks to share spectrum. WiFi networks don't interfere with one another. By design, they share the airwaves.

Big Stick vs. Little Stick
A more subtle question is what happens when two or more WiFi networks share the same airlink and one of the networks operates at a much higher transmit power than the other(s). In this situation, the lower power access points may be able to hear the higher power mesh routers but not vice versa. In this case, interference could, in theory, occur because the mesh routers could properly listen before talking and still transmit at the same time as lower power network.

Two factors mitigate against this situation. First, most lower-power enterprise and residential WiFi networks are located indoors, while powerful metro-scale WiFi networks are located outdoors. Building walls significantly attenuate WiFi signals. As a result, metro-scale WiFi signals will generally only slightly increase the level of noise that already exists due to other devices that use the 2.4 GHz frequency band.

Second, if the attenuation from walls is low and outdoor signals propagate well to the indoors, then it is likely that signals from indoor networks will likewise make their way outside with little attenuation. Because muni-WiFi routers generally exhibit excellent receive sensitivity, even weak signals from indoor networks will often be received. If this is the case, the indoor network and the metro-scale network will properly participate in the WiFi protocol and interference will be avoided. The enhanced receive sensitivity of muni-WiFi routers helps reduce the potential for interference caused by their higher transmit power.

Non-WiFi Interference
Finally, some commentators fret that interference from other users of the 2.4 GHz band will interfere with metro-scale WiFi networks. A well-designed metro-scale WiFi offers three levels of defense against this possibility.

First, most 2.4 GHz band interference comes from devices such as baby monitors, cordless phones and microwave ovens. Most of these devices are fairly low power and operate indoors. Little interference from them leaks to the outdoors.

Second, most outdoor interference in the 2.4 GHz band comes from point-to-multipoint (P2MP) systems that run along the rooftops of high-rise buildings. Properly installed metro-scale WiFi systems are installed at streetlight level, well below P2MP systems. This spatial separation effectively prevents interference between metro-scale WiFi systems and P2MP systems. In our more than 300 metro-scale WiFi deployments, Tropos Networks generally has seen little interference at streetlight level.

Third, to the extent that there is interference in the 2.4 GHz band at streetlight level, the self-organizing and self-healing properties of mesh networks obviate the problem. As interference crops up, the mesh detects it and automatically routes around it.

These three factors dramatically reduce concerns about non-WiFi interference in metro-scale WiFi networks.

Technology Advances Offer Further Help
Advances in technology will further reduce worries about interference. For example, dynamic channel selection algorithms will allow metro-scale WiFi networks to use the channel(s) with the lowest levels of interference while automatic power control will enable the networks to operate at the lowest possible power levels. Coupled with the existing protections described above, evolving technology will keep the interference bogyman at bay, even as more networks and larger networks are deployed.

Bert Williams is the senior director of marketing with Tropos.

Tropos teams with The Cloud for muni-WiFi in Europe

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 19:01:36 -0500

Tropos Networks and The Cloud, the largest hotspot operator in Europe, announced a collaboration to deliver metro-scale mesh networks to city centers in the U.K. and Europe. The Cloud has its largest networks in Europe--the U.K., Germany and Sweden--with the goal to take its hotspots as a seed and expand the footprint to create city-center markets or metro-WiFi-sized hotspots. Muni-WiFi was largely a U.S. phenomenon last year but is now making large inroads in Europe with The Cloud announcing some ambitious coverage plans in some of Europe's largest cities.

For more information about the deal between The Cloud and Tropos:
- take a look at this press release from Tropos

New Orleans launches first city-owned free WiFi

Mon, 28 Nov 2005 19:01:36 -0500

New Orleans has the dubious distinction today of launching the first city-owned WiFi network that's free for all users. Louisiana law prohibits any locality from offering Internet connection speeds of more than 144 Kbps. New Orleans officials estimate their WiFi service will offer 512 Kbps, but since the city is still under a state of emergency, it gets a pass. The aim of the service, of course, is to attract people and businesses back to the area while also aiding law enforcement and city government workers. The city will own and operate all components of the network, and since most firms donated the necessary equipment, the initial cost to the city is minimal. Tropos Networks and Intel were among those companies that donated the infrastructure. The service is up and running in the central business district and French Quarter and plans to expand to other neighborhoods in the future.

For more on New Orleans' free WiFi:
- read this article from The Washington Post

Tropos, Ruckus Wireless team up on mesh networking

Sun, 13 Nov 2005 19:01:39 -0500

Coinciding with the launch of Cisco's mesh networking solution, Tropos Networks and Ruckus Wireless announced plans to jointly develop and market their solutions for outdoor mesh networking. Outdoor mesh networks include extensions to an enterprise's WLAN and muni-WiFi. The partnership will integrate Ruckus' residential gateways with Tropos' mesh networking infrastructure. Ruckus' offering, called MetroFlex, uses smart antenna technology to choose the best incoming broadband signal from Tropos' MetroMesh network. Tropos currently claims 250 customers and plans to launch a partnership program with 18 other companies. It's also unveiling Tropos Insight, hardware and software that pulls data from the network about inactive links, throughput and packet loss and then displays it graphically. A second addition, Tropos Drive, will allow end users to test how the mesh is working in their specific area.

Analysts see Cisco's entrance into mesh networking as a sign of the market's maturation. Nortel launched its mesh offerings in 2004, the same year Motorola acquired startup Mesh Networks. Strix, BelAir and Tropos launched their mesh offerings even earlier. Cisco's entrance will stiffen competition in the mesh networking space, but the muni-WiFi trend is taking off and Tropos has the experience in this niche.

For more on the Tropos, Ruckus Wireless partnership:
- take a look at this article from networkworld.com

PLUS: Strix Systems secures $12 million in VC. Release

ALSO NOTED: Motorola launches iRadio for mobile handsets; TI, ARM team up for new chip; and much more...

Tue, 04 Oct 2005 20:00:41 -0400

> Motorola launches iRadio for mobile handsets. Article

> TI and ARM partner to develop chip for mobile phones. Article

> Tropos Networks supplies EarthLink's muni-WiFi Philadelphia project. Article

> Windows Treo threatens RIM as middleware maker. Article

> Wireless text is logical basis for emergency information system. Article

And Finally... The US Patent and Trademark Office has an anti-piracy film that depicts a young boy with a pirate on his shoulder encouraging him to download copyrighted music from the Internet--at least until hot, young music pop star "Margot" springs to life from a poster to save the day. Web site

C&L: Tropos appoints Ellen Kirk VP of marketing

Tue, 27 Sep 2005 20:01:32 -0400

Tropos Networks named Ellen Kirk VP of marketing. Kirk previously served as Qualcomm's VP of business development in the CDMA technologies division.

Inrix appointed Kendra VanderMeulen and Roger Eigsti to its board of directors. The company also named Thomas Sexton as vice president of sales.

Mobile content distributer MFORMA appointed David Oppenheimer senior vice president and CFO. Oppenheimer previously served as CFO at Digital Impact.

THQ Wireless named Gary Kanazawa vice president of wireless product development. Kanazawa recently served as vice president of product development at Mobile Digital Media.

Calypso Wireless named Michael Pizzi executive VP and general counsel.

C&L: Last Mile appoints Ron LeMay chairman

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 20:01:32 -0400

Yahoo named Christian Lindholm vice president of global mobile product.

Vodafone appointed Anne Lauvergeon as a non-executive director. Lauvergeon is also the chairman of the executive board of AREVA, a leading French energy company.

Last Mile Connections appointed Ron LeMay as its executive chairman. LeMay previously served as president and COO of Sprint.

I-play appointed Krishna Gidwani to the position of vice president of corporate development for the company's business globally.

Tropos Networks named Saar Gillai as vice president of engineering.

C&D Technologies named William Bachrach as vice president and general manager of the power electronics division. Bachrach previously worked at GE.

ClearOne appointed Craig Peeples as the interim CFO. Peeples most recently served as corporate controller for the company.

WiSpry named Nathan Silberman as its vice president of engineering. Silberman previously was vice president of engineering and co-founder of RFco.

Exar named Oscar Rodriguez as the independent director of the company's board of directors.

Telcontar named Mike Cottle vice president of worldwide sales.

XTen Networks appointed Jason Fischl as CTO. Before joining Xten, Fischl co-founded the consulting firm SIP Edge.

Digeo appointed Byron Springer, Jr. as lead counseld. Springer recently served as vice president and associate general counsel at AT&T Wireless.

MidNet named Simon Dorey as its new CFO.

AirTight Networks appointed Dennis Tsu as its new vice president of marketing.

ALSO NOTED: Siemens invests in Tropos networks;Ruckus Wireless solves last 25-meter problem; and much more...

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 20:00:41 -0400

>Siemens invests in Tropos Networks, developer of metro-wide WiFi mesh networks. Release

>Ruckus Wireless launches a multimedia system that steers wireless signals around sources of interference while intelligently managing triple-play traffic. Release

>Tony Li leaves Cisco again. Article

>Intel's new 65-nanometer wafer-making process could cut back on cell phone battery waste by as much as 1,000 times. Article

>Sequoia is testing a new 3G wireless chip that can handle five wireless standards. Article

And finally... Music on a phone is not 50 percent more valuable. Blog

ALSO NOTED: Google extends sitemaps to mobile phones; HP, Tropos launch Metro WiFi in 2 cities; and much more...

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 20:00:41 -0400

> Google extends its sitemaps service to mobile devices. Article

> Hewlett-Packard, Tropos Networks launch metro WiFi in Franklin, Tennessee, and St. Cloud, Florida. Tropos Networks is a member of the FierceWireless Fierce 15, an annual list of the top emerging wireless companies. Release

> Cingular Wireless and the Communications Workers of America Union make progress in talks. Article

> Victims of Hurricane Katrina use SMS to communicate. Article

> Rumor Mill: The iTunes phone can only carry 25 songs. Article

> IT professionals mobilize to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. Blog

And Finally... From the team at FierceMarkets: Our hearts go out to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. If you have not done so, please think about donating money and/or time to a charity like the American Red Cross. We offer our best wishes to the individuals and businesses in the Gulf Coast region who will be recovering from this disaster in the months to come.

FEATURE: Voice Over Metro-Scale WiFi -- An Open Standard Alternative to Cellular

Thu, 18 Aug 2005 20:01:32 -0400

Voice Over Metro-Scale WiFi -- An Open Standard Alternative to Cellular
Tropos Networks' Ron Sege argues that the combination of municipal WiFi and IP telephony could enable wireless VoIP to compete with traditional cellular technologies.

The adoption of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has accelerated over the past few years as broadband Internet penetration has increased, technical challenges have been surmounted, prices have decreased and regulatory hurdles have been cleared. Stand alone service providers such as Vonage (traditional VoIP using SIP and RTP) and Skype (softphones running on PCs) have initiated service. Vonage now claims more than 700,000 lines in service while Skype claims more than 40 million registered users worldwide. With the entry of the cable companies (MSOs) and other service providers into the business, IDC expects the number of US homes with VoIP service to grow from 3 million in 2005 to 27 million by the end of 2009.

Currently missing from the mix is a mobility component -- the ability to take VoIP out of the home and office. With the rapidly increasing adoption of metro-scale WiFi mesh networks, this will soon change. The combination of VoIP, WiFi handsets, and metro-scale WiFi networks will soon offer a cost-effective, open-standard alternative to traditional closed, proprietary cellular telephones. The effects of this development will be similar to those of other open-standard movements such as those triggered by TCP/IP and Ethernet. It will enable many new entrants into the mobile voice market, increase consumer service options, quickly broaden the range of applications and decrease prices through more competition. It will also enable metro-scale WiFi service providers to improve their ROI by offering additional services on their existing data-only networks.

WiFi handsets and metro-scale WiFi mesh networks will enhance the ability of wireline VoIP providers to compete in the mobile market, enabling VoIP services outside the home and office. The result will be increased ARPU, increased customer stickiness, and decreased MVNO costs. Because metro-scale WiFi requires 67 percent less capital expenditure to install than 3G wireless and requires monthly operating expense per subscriber at least 20 percent lower, these networks will be very competitive. Much of WiFi's cost advantage stems from its use of cost-effective, open standard radio technology rather than expensive, proprietary cellular technology. The simplicity of WiFi mesh networks also lowers barriers to market entry by significantly reducing the specialized technical skills required to install and operate a broadband network. Because metro-scale WiFi roll out is still in its early stages, the most likely scenario is for VoWiFi providers to offer subscribers hybrid WiFi/cellular handsets, connecting to the WiFi network whenever they can and using the cellular network otherwise. This will allow VoIP subscribers to offer coverage in the largest possible footprint, using the most economical service available in each area.

Enabling VoIP service providers to add affordable mobile service to their offering will increase consumer choice. Consumer options will be further increased because the enabling network will be WiFi, which will provide true broadband Internet access (>1 Mbps, symmetrical throughput) to their handsets for higher speed data service than cellular can offer. The increased competition from VoIP providers using low-cost metro-scale WiFi, in both mobile and, via bundling, fixed voice service, will decrease costs to consumers.

While some VoIP providers will build their own metro-scale WiFi mesh networks, others will lease bandwidth from metro-scale WiFi networks operators. These will include both private entities and municipalities. Revenues from VoIP providers will enhance the ROI of these network operators by providing an incremental income stream and by allowing them to better utilize their networks' capacity.

Wide spread use of VoIP service on metro-scale WiFi mesh networks does have hurdles to overcome. Today, cellular's footprint is much larger than that of metro-scale WiFi. WiFi currently lacks standards for Quality of Service (QoS) and fast roaming. Regulatory issues, such as E911 compliance, remain. However, things are changing fast. With metro-scale WiFi mesh networks already installed in more than 200 cities and planned in at least 200 more, city-wide WiFi networks will soon offer service in the US' more populated areas. IEEE standards committees are actively tackling the QoS (802.11e) and fast roaming (802.11r) issues, with standards for both expected in the near future. The regulatory issues are the same as for wireline VoIP and are being worked through by the industry.

In-Stat forecasts that the number of cellular/WiFi subscribers will reach more than 256 million worldwide by 2009, or roughly 12 percent of all cellular subscribers. By 2009, the firm expects that the number of subscribers using WiFi for voice will exceed the number using WiFi for data only. By offering a cost-effective alternative to traditional cellular telephones, enabling new entrants into the mobile voice market, increasing consumer service options while decreasing their costs and enabling metro-scale WiFi service providers to improve their ROI, VoIP services delivered via metro-scale WiFi mesh networks will play a crucial role in making In-Stat's prediction come to fruition.

Ron Sege is President and CEO of Tropos Networks. He is one of many speakers at wVoIP 2005, an exclusive executive summit dedicated to the convergence of wireless and VoIP. To learn more about wVoIP 2005 visit: www.wvoip.com.

SPOTLIGHT: How Much Does Muni WiFi Cost?

Wed, 06 Jul 2005 20:01:25 -0400

According to Jupiter Research, the total cost of a municipal WiFi network comes to $150,000 per square mile over a five-year period. WiFi network vendor Tropos Networks claims the costs are closer to $100,000 per square mile. Cost estimates for Philadelphia's network run somewhere between the two figures. Blog

Editor's Corner

Thu, 30 Jun 2005 20:01:40 -0400

Yesterday's panel at the WCA show, "Should City-Funded, WiFi Consumer Networks Be Boosted or Banned?," was one of the best sessions I have participated in all year. There was real debate and the speakers and audience were, at times, in outright confrontation.

In terms of the debate itself, Diana Neff, CIO of the City of Philadelphia, and Ron Sege of Tropos Networks, argued for municipal networks while Rob Griffen of Verizon Wireless and Dr. Thomas Lenard of the Progress & Freedom Foundation argued against. The most interesting part of the debate was how the two sides framed the issue. The boosters argued for a model of cooperation between the private and public realms. The two speakers opposed to muni wireless, however, kept positioning the issue in terms of a strict dichotomy: Either the private enterprise will provide broadband or municipalities will.

I think the debate itself was largely a draw, though the audience was clearly on the side of municipal WiFi. Dianah did a great job defending her network initiative in Philadelphia as did Ron in backing the position of Tropos. The meta argument for municipal networks, however, was missing. While the anti municipal network argument has some sound logic, it is rooted in some flawed premises, especially the idea that there is a strict divide between private and public. Telecom is a heavily regulated industry and it is disingenuous to imply that the municipal WiFi initiative is some kind of novel form of anti-competition. In many instances, municipal WiFi is brining competition to markets where is too little competition.

I want to thank all the participants for a great panel. And thanks to the WCA for another great show.

As a reminder, FierceWireless will not publish on Monday, July 4, in observance of the Independence Day holiday in the US. Have a great weekend. - Stephen

Editor's Corner

Tue, 28 Jun 2005 20:01:40 -0400

Tomorrow I will moderate a panel at the WCA show here in Washington, DC. The session, entitled "Should City-Funded, WiFi Consumer Networks Be Boosted or Banned?," is scheduled for 3:15pm. In this panel, the speakers and I will step into this year's biggest issue for the wireless industry. Our panelists include Dinah Neff, CIO of the City of Philadelphia; Ron Sege of Tropos Networks; Robert Griffen of Verizon Wireless; and Dr. Thomas Lenard of the Progress and Freedom Foundation. I expect tomorrow's panel to be excited and full of heated debate. If you're at this year's WCA show, I hope to see you tomorrow. - Stephen