Oklahoma City to Deploy Ubiquitous Wi-Fi from Tropos Networks as Communications Backbone of Public Safety Overhaul

Business Wire, Sept 30, 2004

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. -- Please replace the release dated Sept. 28, 2004 with the following corrected version due to multiple revisions.

The corrected release reads:

OKLAHOMA CITY TO DEPLOY UBIQUITOUS WI-FI FROM TROPOS NETWORKS AS COMMUNICATIONS BACKBONE OF PUBLIC SAFETY OVERHAUL

Secure and reliable Metro-Scale Wi-Fi Network to Provide Wireless Broadband to Police and Fire Officers Anywhere Throughout 620 Square Mile Footprint of City

Tropos Networks, the leading supplier of equipment used to build metro-scale Wi-Fi networks, today announced that Oklahoma City has selected Tropos Networks' open-standard metro-scale Wi-Fi mesh architecture to provide secure and reliable mobile broadband to public safety officers throughout the entire 620 square mile footprint of the city. The Wi-Fi network will provide unprecedented bandwidth to field officers, enabling the city to overhaul their entire mission critical data communications system. For the first time, officers in the field will have access to critical applications previously unavailable outside of the precincts and firehouses.

Oklahoma City voters approved a $90 million sales tax to complete the replacement of their existing radio and public safety information systems. The multi-million dollar complete system overhaul, led by consulting firm ACS of Dallas, will establish Oklahoma City as a leader in 21st century public safety systems.

"To support the state-of-the art applications that are central to our redesigned public safety systems, we needed to provide unprecedented broadband connectivity to public safety officers in the field," said Kerry Wagnon, Project Director for Oklahoma City. "The Tropos metro-scale Wi-Fi system is the one solution that allows us to deploy the best communications and investigative tools to the field, at by far the fastest, lowest cost and most reliable way possible."

"We are extremely excited to be leading the revolution in fast, low cost and reliable broadband wireless communications," said Ron Sege, President and CEO of Tropos Networks. "Oklahoma City is the latest example of how Tropos metro-scale Wi-Fi is changing the way communities connect. Wi-Fi technology combined with client-server mesh protocols is perfectly suited for both public and private networks, including state-of-the-art public safety infrastructure systems." It is fast, reliable and low cost to deploy and to use.

The city is deploying an advanced end-to-end communications system incorporating the latest technology in computer aided dispatch, in-field reporting systems, records management, GPS tracking systems, Web-based crime databases and mapping systems. Because of the high bandwidth provided by the Tropos metro-scale Wi-Fi system, these advanced applications will be accessible by field officers anywhere in the city with full roaming and mobility capabilities. For example, police officers in the field will have access to high-resolution photos, incident video feeds, and detailed crime databases through their in-vehicle computer systems. Fire officials will have access to detailed mapping and GPS systems, as well as detailed structure plan databases, in their vehicles and mobile command centers. This field access to critical data is a force-multiplying technology, enabling officers to remain in the field instead of traveling to the precinct to access these applications. As a result, the safety of both the community and the officers is greatly increased.

The Oklahoma City network will utilize a combination of Tropos fixed and newly-announced mobile Wi-Fi cells. The fixed Tropos Wi-Fi cell is an outdoor-optimized and ruggedized wireless mesh router based on the 802.11 standard; the Tropos 4210 mobile Wi-Fi cell, also 802.11 standard, is an in-vehicle mounted wireless mesh router to provide peerless broadband roaming and connectivity. This unique combination of fixed and mobile cells allows the network to be deployed in the quickest and most economical manner on the market today, while providing an always-on broadband connection to each and every public safety officer anywhere in the city.

The Tropos cells quickly and economically use the intelligent Tropos Predictive Wireless Routing Protocol (PWRP) to provide pervasive coverage over very large metro areas. The Tropos PWRP routes traffic wirelessly, eliminating up to 95% of the wired backhaul associated with traditional access point solutions. Tropos Wi-Fi cells form a wireless mesh, dynamically routing traffic along the highest throughput path to a wired gateway. This intelligent routing negates effects of radio frequency (RF) interference, wired backhaul failure and node failure. PWRP also scales to thousands of nodes with the lowest routing overhead in the industry. Network support costs are minimized via the central management capabilities of the Tropos Control Element Manager, a configuration, monitoring and maintenance tool.

About Tropos Networks, Inc.

Tropos Networks, Inc. is the leading supplier of systems used to build metro-scale, outdoor Wi-Fi networks. Tropos' unique Wi-Fi cells, along with the first element manager to control large Wi-Fi networks, enable public agencies and service providers to deliver ubiquitous, city-wide mobile broadband to users in any locale. These carrier-class IP networks are low cost and easy to install and scale. The Tropos cellular mesh architecture and use of optimized open-standard radios dramatically reduce the need for wired backhaul while eliminating expensive proprietary clients and complex software. Using the patented Predictive Wireless Routing Protocol, Tropos solutions deliver maximum bandwidth to the user regardless of conditions, at unprecedented Wi-Fi network scale. Tropos Networks is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, please visit www.tropos.com, call 408-331-6800 or write to info@tropos.com.