Novatel Wireless Names New Chief Executive Officer, Former Executive Vice President of QUALCOMM and Motorola

Novatel Wireless Names New Chief Executive Officer, Former Executive Vice President of QUALCOMM and Motorola San Diego, July 26, 2000 -- Novatel Wireless, Inc., a leading provider of wireless Internet solutions, today announced the appointment of John Major as chief executive officer.

Prior to joining Novatel Wireless, Major's corporate positions included serving as president and chief executive officer of WirelessKnowledge, a joint venture between Microsoft Corporation (NasdaqNM: MSFT) and QUALCOMM, Inc. (NasdaqNM: QCOM). He also served as executive vice president of QUALCOMM and president of QUALCOMM's Infrastructure Products Division. Prior to that, from 1977 until 1997, Major held a number of executive positions at Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), ultimately serving as senior vice president and chief technical officer.

John Major joins a number of senior executives who have joined Novatel Wireless in recent months. In February 2000, Melvin Flowers, former vice president and chief financial officer of KNC Software, LLC and chief financial officer and vice president, finance & administration of ACT Networks, was appointed vice president of finance and chief financial officer. Earlier this month, Steve Schlief, former vice president of supply chain management at Celestica, Inc., was appointed vice president of operations.

Major holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Rochester, an M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, an M.B.A. degree, with distinction, from Northwestern University and a Juris Doctor from Loyola University.

Novatel Wireless, Inc. is a leader in wireless Internet solutions, headquartered in San Diego, California. The company develops wireless system solutions for mobile and fixed environments enabling wireless access to personal, corporate and public information through email, corporate LANs and the Internet. Novatel Wireless' product portfolio includes the Minstrel^® family of Wireless Palmtop Modems, Merlin^TM Wireless PC Cards, Sage^® Wireless Serial Modems, Lancer 3W^TM Wireless 3 Watt Modems and Expedite^TM family of Wireless Embedded Modules. Among the emerging technologies that Novatel Wireless will support in 2000 are Metricom's high-speed 128 kbps Ricochet service and the new GSM/GPRS service at 56 kbps. For more information please visit the Novatel Wireless web site: www.novatelwireless.com or call 888-888-9231.

Media Contact: Mona Klausing (858) 320-8803 mona@novatelwireless.com

Investor Contact: Melvin Flowers (858) 812-3415 mflowers@novatelwireless.com