SAN FRANCISCO, CA – (September 11, 2017) – Over 250 wireless industry executives, including 11 previous Wireless Hall of Fame inductees, celebrated at the 2017 Wireless Hall of Fame Awards Dinner in San Francisco on Monday night.
Held on the eve of the inaugural “Mobile World Congress Americas, in Partnership with CTIA” (MWCA), the Dinner program included welcoming remarks from GSMA Director General Mats Granryd and CTIA CEO Meredith Attwell Baker.
The 2017 inductees into the Wireless Hall of Fame are Robert S. Foosaner, whose roles with the FCC, private law practice and wireless operating companies helped create the foundation of the modern commercial wireless industry; Friedhelm “Fred” Hillebrand, who led working groups that established the GSM standard, including Short Message Service and was lead implementer of Deutsche Telekom’s GSM network; and Charles C. Townsend, founder of both Atlantic Cellular and Aloha Partners, the largest licensee of 700 MHz spectrum in the initial FCC auction.
John Lauer, CEO and co-founder of Zipwhip; Laura Holloway Carter, Assistant General Counsel of Microsoft Corporation; and Thomas Gutierrez, Partner and CEO of Lukas, LaFuria, Gutierrez & Sachs, LLP introduced the inductees, representing the new generation of the wireless industry whose successes in the marketplace today were built upon the innovations pioneered by this year’s inductees.
“It really is the best night in wireless,” said David S. Diggs, President and CEO of the Wireless History Foundation. “Our dinner guests represented a ‘Who’s Who’ of our industry and included global operator executives serving on the GSMA Board of Directors, key wireless industry veterans, the investment community, and today’s headline-making innovators. It’s the perfect kick-off for the Mobile World Congress Americas conference.”
The 2017 Wireless Hall of Fame Awards Dinner enjoyed strong sponsorship support. Platinum sponsors were AT&T, Eagle River, BlueWater Wireless and Verizon. Gold sponsors were Assurant Solutions, CTIA, NextNav and Zipwhip. Silver sponsors included DYNA LLC, Ericsson, Matt & Nellie Foosaner, Mosaik, Perkins Coie, Sprint, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Vertical Bridge and Vodafone Americas Foundation. Patrons of the event were 151 Advisors, Asurion, Blue Field Strategies, CallFire, Consensus Corp, Crown Castle, Trey Hanbury/Hogan Lovells, HYLA Mobile, Khosla Ventures, Lawler, Metzger, Keeney & Logan LLC, Lumia Capital, Lois and Larry Movshin, National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE), Wiley Rein LLP, and Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP.
About the Wireless History Foundation
Founded in October 2008 on the 25th 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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