SkyPilot Networks Partners With NuTel Broadband Corporation to Build Out Broadband Wi-Fi Mesh Networks Nationwide; NuTel Selects SkyPilot Equipment to Deliver Carrier-Grade Wireless Internet Access, VoIP and VPN Services in Untapped Markets

Business Wire, May 30, 2006

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- SkyPilot Networks, the leading provider of carrier-class broadband wireless mesh networks, today announced it has been selected by NuTel Broadband Corporation, a broadband wireless managed services provider based in Cranbury, NJ, to provide the equipment for Wi-Fi mesh networks that will be built out across more than 200 "Tier 2-5" domestic markets. NuTel is partnering with SkyPilot on this ambitious program to reach under-serviced suburban and rural subscribers and small-to-medium sized businesses in regions where broadband wireless network services have been limited or generally unavailable.

"Our collaboration with SkyPilot will enable us to deliver comprehensive, carrier-grade wireless services to a huge underserved market of Tier 2 consumers and SMBs," said NuTel Broadband Corporation's CEO Joe Fiero. "Because of the advanced mesh network infrastructure provided by SkyPilot, we can replace our target customers' local phone company, long-distance carrier and dial-up Internet service provider as a one-stop service for a fraction of the cost."

NuTel is embarking on an initial 14 state rollout that will go live within the next three months. The company is first targeting the Mississippi Valley from north of St. Louis to the Tennessee border, as well as northeast Arkansas, the Minnesota/Wisconsin borders and areas north of Oklahoma City. Additional regions include west central Ohio north of Dayton, the southern suburbs of Pittsburgh, areas of West Virginia and west Texas reaching eastern New Mexico. And new Wi-Fi networks are being established in the Sacramento, El Dorado, Chico and south San Jose areas of California.

NuTel is delivering broadband Wi-Fi services to suburban and rural areas through a variety of partnerships with local businesses including regional wireless Internet service providers and home services contractors. By combining NuTel's back office management services with SkyPilot's highly scalable and reliable mesh networking gear, these regional WISPs can grow their consumer and small business subscriber base substantially without incurring the expense of back office and support overhead.

"Most wireless broadband services to date have delivered a 'best effort' network that may reach 60 percent of potential subscribers in a given region at best," explains Fiero. "SkyPilot offers several advantages such as their advanced sectorized antenna technology and synchronous mesh networking. By deploying SkyPilot we'll be able to provide guaranteed voice and data service levels that will provide vastly superior coverage, letting us achieve availability as high as 98 percent. That makes all the difference, being able to install nearly every service order we get."

SkyPilot's sophisticated mesh networking is key to NuTel's business strategy to reach and saturate suburban and rural markets with wireless voice and data services. To ensure optimal performance throughout the network, SkyPilot uses a best-path routing technique that considers every link's available capacity and number of hops to the Internet. The system can also dynamically adapt to changes in the network by automatically recalculating best-path routes for optimal performance. In addition, the SkyPilot system can easily increase capacity by simply adding base stations and features failover routing technology to ensure maximum network uptime.

"NuTel's ambitious plans to deliver ubiquitous broadband Wi-Fi services in Tier 2 markets across the country really requires the underlying technology of our carrier-class mesh networks," said SkyPilot Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales Marty Hahnfield. "In order to attract new subscribers and small businesses that have relied on traditional local phone companies, long distance carriers and ISPs, you've got to provide extraordinarily reliable services at breakthrough prices. Our partnership with NuTel will accomplish both."

About NuTel Broadband Corporation

NuTel Broadband is a managed services provider that, through strategic joint ventures with local operators, provides wireless services to consumer, business, enterprise and municipal markets in unserved and underserved (Tier 2-5) markets. Current NuTel Partners include established WISP operators, home service dealers such as satellite television and alarm companies, PBX and telephone vendors as well as established ISP's. NuTel affords it's partners the ability to concentrate on growing the business because they no longer need to be concerned about back office, NOC and administrative functions which are handled by central operations. NuTel provides it's partners with extremely aggressive rates for Internet access and voice services. NuTel will be operating in over 200 markets by year-end 2007. For more information on NuTel, contact them at partnerinfo@nutelbroadband.com.

About SkyPilot Networks

SkyPilot Networks is the leading provider of carrier-class wireless mesh solutions that enable service providers, municipalities, and public safety agencies to rapidly deploy cost-effective broadband access, voice over IP, public and private Wi-Fi access, video surveillance, and other wireless applications. The SkyPilot solution utilizes a patent-pending synchronous mesh architecture with high-speed switched directional antenna arrays that extends reach, mitigates interference, and maximizes spectral reuse. The result is a highly scalable, reliable, and deterministic mesh network that simplifies design, increases deployment flexibility, and dramatically reduces equipment and operating costs. SkyPilot has proven scalability and reliability with over 200 customers in more than 40 countries. SkyPilot is a principal member of the WiMAX Forum(TM) and a privately held company based in Santa Clara, California. For more information on SkyPilot and its solutions, visit http://www.skypilot.com