Pioneers of ALOHAnet and Cellular Technology Pass Away

The tech world mourns the loss of two influential figures who shaped modern connectivity. Franklin “Frank” Kuo, a key developer of ALOHAnet, passed away at 91. His work at the University of Hawaii in the early 1970s pioneered wireless packet data networks, laying the foundation for Ethernet and modern Wi-Fi. Kuo later contributed significantly to the development of China’s internet infrastructure. Additionally, the industry remembers Muhammad Rezaul Karim, who died at 86. A distinguished researcher at Bell Labs, Karim was instrumental in creating the logic and hardware for the first cellular networks, including the Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) deployed in Chicago in the late 1970s. Both men were central to the evolution of global communications, with their innovations directly enabling the high-speed, interconnected digital world we rely on today.