US : Kristin Rinne, Chief Technology Officer for Cingular Wireless, is the newly elected 2005 Chairperson of the 3G Americas' Board of Governors. Rinne succeeds Rod Nelson, CTO of AT&T Wireless, who served as 3G Americas' Chairman for the past two years.

"Under the direction and vision of our organization's Board of Governors, 3G Americas has taken on numerous efforts each year to accomplish projects that further the development of 3G in the region," said Chris Pearson, President of 3G Americas. "We are excited to have Kris Rinne lead our organization to achieve our plans for this coming year."

Kris Rinne added, "It's going to be a year of continued momentum for the GSM evolution to 3G through EDGE, UMTS and HSDPA. I welcome the opportunity to lead an important industry association like 3G Americas and the members of its Board of Governors as we continue to progress these technologies and bring the GSM family of technologies to customers throughout North and Latin America."

A professional in the telecommunications industry for more than 25 years, Rinne is responsible as CTO for industry standards development, long range technology planning, and the network and device planning for new products and services at Cingular. Prior to serving as CTO, she was the company's Vice President -- Technology and Product Realization. Rinne served as VicePresident -- Technology Strategy for SBC Wireless and also worked as Managing Director -- Operations of Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems prior to her tenure with Cingular.

About 3G Americas: Unifying the Americas through Wireless Technology The mission of 3G Americas is to promote and facilitate the seamless deployment of GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS (WCDMA) and HSDPA throughout the Americas for the benefit of consumers. The organization fully supports the Third Generation technology migration strategy to EDGE and UMTS/HSDPA adopted by many operators in the Americas that is expected to account for up to 85% of next-generation customers worldwide. 3G Americas is headquartered in Bellevue, WA with an office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Dallas, TX.