NICHOLAS NEGROPONTE JOINS BOARD OF WIRELESS NETWORK JOLTAGE
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 2002--
Chairman of MIT Media Lab Invests In Groundbreaking Venture To Develop International High Speed Wireless Network
Joltage Networks, the new wireless company building a distributed, worldwide network of thousands of individual wireless locations, announced today that Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder and chairman of the MIT Media Laboratory and author of the best seller "Being Digital", has made a significant investment in the company, joined its Board of Directors, and will assemble and chair its international Advisory Board.
Joltage Networks is an early-stage wireless ASP developing the world's largest network of public access, broadband wireless data hotspots based on the burgeoning 802.11 standard for Wireless Local Area Networks ("WLANs"). Joltage provides a simple-to-use, freely downloadable software application, which seamlessly integrates with a comprehensive suite of back-end services. Together, they enable anyone to launch and manage an unlimited number of wireless hotspots as a business franchise or a free site, as part of a global network. For mobile wireless users, Joltage provides inexpensive monthly or hourly pricing for seamless, high-speed access in locations around the world.
Professor Negroponte has been described by the Sunday Business Post as something of a "technological evangelist." The MIT Media Lab, which he co-founded over twenty years ago, is an interdisciplinary, multi million-dollar research center of unparalleled intellectual and technological resources, focused on the study, invention, and creative use of digital technologies. It is currently supported by nearly 140 corporations worldwide, and has led in the development of now-familiar areas such as digital video and multimedia.
In the private sector, Professor Negroponte serves on the Board of Directors for Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), and as general partner in a venture capital firm specializing in digital technologies for information and entertainment. He has also personally provided start-up funds for many breakthrough companies in the high technology arena, including WiReD magazine.
"We are delighted that Professor Negroponte has invested in Joltage and will be playing a significant role in the company's future" said Andrew Weinreich, Founder and Chairman of Joltage Networks. "His digital worldview and international stature will be key components as Joltage forms partnerships with many of the leading players around the world in the wireless broadband arena."
"Joltage Networks is the direct instantiation of a vision that I have been talking about for almost a decade," said Professor Negroponte. "The Joltage approach is the kind of 'out-of-the-box' thinking that has the potential to ignite an explosive growth in collaborative communication. I was a founding investor in WiReD magazine a decade ago, and in the new millennium it is only fitting that I'm now investing in the UN-wired future!"
Joltage Networks is developing the world's largest network for ultra-high speed wireless Internet access through WiFi "hot spots" worldwide using the 802.11 technical standard for Wireless Local Area Networks ("WLANs"). The company was founded by Chairman Andrew Weinreich, who was previously Founder and CEO of the youth-oriented networking site sixdegrees, and funded by wireless industry pioneer and technology investor David S. Rose, described by Red Herring magazine as the "patriarch of Silicon Alley", who serves as Vice Chairman of Joltage Networks. |
