On Tuesday, The Wireless History Foundation (WHF) – a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization – announced the names of four new inductees to the Wireless Hall of Fame.
The individuals will be honored and inducted during the Foundation’s October 8th, 2012 dinner in San Diego, California.
“These are accomplished individuals who have made major contributions to the development of the wireless industry,” said WHF Board member Charlie Townsend, CEO of Aloha Partners, and chairman of the 2012 selection committee. “We are honored to induct them into the Wireless Hall of Fame.”
If you’re near a set of drums, you may want to start a drum roll as we run down the list of inductees for 2012:
- Wayne Perry: Service Provider Honoree. Started wireless career at McCaw Communications in 1976 and became President in 1985. After overseeing McCaw’s merger with AT&T Wireless Services in 1994, Perry served as Vice Chairman of AT&T Wireless Services. He joined NEXTLINK Communications as Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman before co-founding Edge Wireless in 1999. In addition to his business leadership, Perry was instrumental in forming the wireless industry’s trade group (CTIA) and was CTIA’s Chairman from 1993 to 1994.
- Richard Lynch: Technology Honoree. Former Executive Vice President for enterprise-wide strategic technology initiatives at Verizon Communications, Inc. Lynch began his career in 1972 and held a variety of positions in planning, operations, and engineering with New England Telephone and Bell of Pennsylvania. He joined Bell Atlantic Mobile in 1990 as chief technical officer, and built one of the largest early wireless data networks in the country based on CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data) technology. Lynch played a key role in the industry’s transition from analog to digital technology, and pushed the boundaries of wireless data capabilities.
- Raj Singh: Industry Associate Honoree. Founded LCC International in 1983 and provided engineering designs for many of the early cellular phone networks in the United States and more than 30 other countries. Singh also held cellular licenses in Latin America and India and brought wireless service to those markets. In addition, he co-founded Appex, one of the first wireless roaming clearinghouses in the United States, which was subsequently sold to Electronic Data Systems (EDS).
- Amos Joel: (posthumously)—Pioneer Honoree. AT&T Bell Labs engineer and inventor who designed and patented automated mobile switching that revolutionized mobile communications and made cellular telephone service possible. He received the National Technology Medal of Honor in 1993 and was named to the National Inventors’ Hall of Fame in 2008. Joel is known as the “father of switching” and was granted more than 70 patents in his lifetime.
To learn more about the organization and the Hall of Fame, click here.
