3G Americas Elects AT&T Wireless CTO Rod Nelson as Chairman

Rod Nelson, Chief Technology Officer for AT&T Wireless, will begin serving as the Chairman of the Board of Governors for 3G Americas beginning January 2003. 3G Americas is a wireless industry organization dedicated to unifying the Americas through the GSM evolution to EDGE and UMTS. Nelson will succeed Bill Clift, Chief Technical Officer of Cingular Wireless, who served as chairman since the organization's inception in March 2002. Clift will now serve as Chairman Emeritus for 3G Americas.

Chris Pearson, Executive Vice President of 3G Americas commented, "Under Bill Clift's tenure, our organization accomplished many of the goals we established in our first year. We look forward to Rod Nelson's leadership to continue the development of initiatives that will lead the GSM evolution of next-generation wireless services in the Americas."

"3G Americas is an important trade association benefiting many key stakeholders throughout the entire wireless industry," said Rod Nelson. "I am excited to have the opportunity to lead the distinguished representatives on its Board of Governors as we continue to successfully progress the GSM/GPRS, EDGE and UMTS technologies in the Americas."

Rod Nelson leads the AT&T Wireless Technology Development Group, where he is responsible for defining the future wireless network architecture and technology direction. Currently, the major emphasis of this work is on planning for high-speed wireless IP data and the introduction of Third Generation Wireless network technology.