Denver, CO— June 30, 2022– The Wireless History Foundation (WHF) will induct four honorees into the prestigious Wireless Hall of Fame during the Foundation’s Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C. on October 20th. This year’s inductees are:
- 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.
“Wireless technology has transformed the world and these individuals have played key roles in that transformation,” said WHF Executive Director Jenifer Snyder. “The Class of 2022 has made important contributions to the trajectory of the wireless industry and we are thrilled to welcome them into the Wireless Hall of Fame.”
The WHF is pleased to host this year’s Wireless Hall of Fame awards dinner at the Mandarin Oriental, Washington D.C. on Thursday, October 20th. Additional information on the Hall of Fame is available on the WHF web site at www.wirelesshistoryfoundation.org. For information about the dinner, including sponsorships and invitations please contact Jenifer Snyder at Jen@wirelesshistoryfoundation.org.
The Wireless History Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization formed to preserve and promote the history of the wireless industry. www.wirelesshistoryfoundation.org