Who is Trilliant?
Trilliant is a 24-year-old private company that provides communications technologies to utilities and is based in Redwood City, California with offices in Granby, Quebec and Concord, Ontario. With sales of more than $90MM in 2008, Trilliant has been growing quickly from the rapid expansion of the smart grid market in North America. Trilliant's current product lines include wireless mesh networking technologies for electricity and gas meters, consumer energy efficiency products, and network management software for managing large-scale networks.

Why did Trilliant acquire SkyPilot?
Trilliant acquired SkyPilot to provide a more comprehensive network offering for utilities. The SkyPilot technologies will be a key element of Trilliant's smart grid network architecture and we expect utilities both large and small to adopt these technologies to provide high-bandwidth, low-latency communications for critical devices in the utility distribution network, such as substations, switches, controllers, capacitor banks, and Smart Metering data collection units.

What is happening to the SkyPilot name?
SkyPilot will be fully integrated into Trilliant, and the SkyPilot brand name will continue to be maintained for continuity in the internet service provider market. For all utility markets, the SkyPilot products will be branded under the Trilliant SecureMesh™ brand and will be called SecureMesh WAN (Wide Area Network).

Will Trilliant continue to support SkyPilot customers and resellers?
Yes – the SkyPilot customers and resellers are a key part of Trilliant's acquisition strategy. Trilliant is committed to supporting SkyPilot partners to pursue business with internet service providers and taking advantage of the rapidly-growing utility market. Trilliant will work with these partners to expand their reach into smaller utilities, coops, and selected global markets where Trilliant would not otherwise be able to target and will work to educate, train, and support partners with materials to help them better target utilities and other customers where the solution provides a uniquely differentiated capability.

Will SkyPilot products continue to be available?
Yes. All existing SkyPilot products will continue to be available as before. Hardware products include the SkyExtender Plus (including DualBand and TriBand products), the SkyAccess DualBand, the SkyConnector Mini, and the SkyConnector Pro. Software products include the embedded SyncMesh firmware, the SyncMesh Client, the SkyControl element management system, and the SkyGateway Conversion Kit.

Will SkyPilot products continue to be supported?
Yes. Trilliant has hired SkyPilot's support staff, who are now sitting at Trilliant's office in Redwood City.

I have orders that have not been delayed – how will the acquisition affect lead times?
As a larger company, Trilliant will be able to streamline and fund ongoing business operations. Immediately after the acquisition Trilliant is focused on shipping the backlog of orders that have been building up for SkyPilot, and will work diligently to reduce order lead times.

How should I work with Trilliant?
Trilliant has hired key SkyPilot personnel to support distributors, and will be dedicating additional resource to ensure continued channel support. The table below identifies the key points of contact for Trilliant.

The US federal government's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is allocating $7.2B for broadband initiatives designed to benefit underserved and rural markets. Funding will be administered and distributed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Rural Utilities Service (RUS). The NTIA will oversee $4.7B and RUS will oversee $2.5B.

Applications for the first round have begun and will continue through August 14, 2009. If you'd like to learn more about how to apply for stimulus funds, the American Public Power Associated (APPA) is providing a seminar focusing on this specific topic.

We are aware that the acquisition of SkyPilot by Trilliant has resulted in some confusion, so we would like to help reduce some of the concerns by offering a promotion to provide free SkyGateway Conversion Kits throughout this quarter. The promotion is simple – every purchase of two new SkyExtenders qualifies for a free SkyGateway Conversion Kit. All SkyExtenders qualify, including the enhanced “Plus” versions announced late last year. Trilliant wants to ensure that SkyPilot customers understand our commitment to the SkyPilot product line. We want to continue helping our customers build broadband wireless networks and hope this promotion provides an incentive to continue network expansion.

For more information, check out the online promotion page.