Corpus Christi, Texas, to Deploy Tropos Networks Metro-Scale Wi-Fi to Increase Productivity, Lower Costs.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- First phase of 147 square mile project for automated meter reading, public works, police and fire use

Tropos Networks, the leading supplier of equipment used to build metro-scale Wi-Fi networks, today announced that the City of Corpus Christi, Texas, will deploy the Tropos Wi-Fi system for use by the city-owned water and gas utilities, public works departments, and public safety agencies. The city anticipates significant cost savings and increased effectiveness in the mobile workforce as a result of the wireless broadband network. After successful deployment of the 18.5 square mile first phase, the city plans a complete build-out of the entire 147 square miles of Corpus Christi by March of 2005.

The most immediate cost savings will be seen as a result of the automated gas and water meter reading that will utilize the Tropos metro-scale Wi-Fi system to relay automatically generated usage information twice per day from all meters in the coverage area. By eliminating the need for utility personnel to visit each meter and manually record customer consumption, the city can more quickly and accurately provide up-to-date billing information to their service recipients. Additionally, utility customers have immediate, real-time usage data available to them through a Web-based billing and information system run by the city and automatically updated with each wireless meter polling.

"We saw an exciting opportunity to simultaneously increase our customer service standards while reducing operating costs," said George "Skip" Noe, Corpus Christi's City Manager. "The Tropos system is very quick and easy to deploy, and allows us to implement a plethora of communications tools across many city departments. I think we've only scratched the surface of the applications that this system will enable."

In refining the scope of the Wi-Fi deployment, and conducting detailed research for the bid process, the City of Corpus Christi worked closely with Public Technology, Inc. (PTI), a national non-profit technology research and development organization based in Washington, DC, representing local governments nationwide. PTI's mission is to bring the benefits of technology to local governments.

"The Corpus Christi wireless project is a perfect example of how technology, when properly applied, can make local government more efficient and effective," said Brian Anderson, Chief Information Officer for PTI. "Once the scope of the project was established, it became clear that an open-standards solution from Tropos was the simplest and most economical way to achieve the City's goals."

In addition to the utility applications, the network will be available for use by city public works crews, as well as the Corpus Christi Police and Fire Departments. The public safety agencies, with more than 315 police, fire, and EMS vehicles in their collective fleet, will use VPN authenticated access to all of the applications currently available only in their offices. The city also plans to operate GPS-based asset and vehicle tracking applications over the Wi-Fi network, increasing both officer and community safety.

The pilot network will utilize approximately 300 Tropos 5110 Wi-Fi cells, an outdoor-optimized and ruggedized wireless mesh router based on the 802.11 standard. The Tropos 5110 quickly and economically uses the intelligent Tropos Predictive Wireless Routing Protocol (PWRP) to provide pervasive coverage over 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. To further minimize costs, Corpus Christi will use existing city fiber for its minimal required wired backhaul connections. 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 [e-mail].

Tropos Networks, Tropos and PWRP are trademarks of Tropos Networks, Inc. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holder(s).

About Public Technology, Inc.

Public Technology, Inc. (PTI) is a national non-profit technology research and development organization based in Washington, DC., representing local governments. Our mission is to bring the benefits of technology to local governments. Membership in PTI is open to all local governments.

PTI offers a variety of technology products and services to assist local governments in addressing their technology needs. Through research, focus groups, online discussions, publications, conferences, pilots and demonstrations, and other information sharing vehicles, PTI's local government and industry members work together to develop and apply technology to the challenges facing communities of all sizes.