Wireless Nation: The Frenzied Launch of the Cellular Revolution in America - Hardcover

James B. Murray Jr.; John Sidgmore

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0738203912 ISBN 13: 9780738203911

Publisher: Basic Books, 2001

Synopsis

The wireless industry was built by a motley band of characters who, from the beginning, have fought unrelentingly against one another for a cut of the business. It's a surprising history full of winners, losers, and lucky first-time entrepreneurs who made millions.Wireless Nation chronicles the unique genesis of the wireless industry in America and the protagonists who brought it to life. In the mix is the inimitable Seattle entrepreneur Craig McCaw; John Kluge of Metromedia, whose deft trading in cellular properties made him the richest man in America; and also Norma Rea, the unassuming Detroit secretary whose bizarre wireless bid was tainted by scandal and a battle with a powerful newspaper chain. Murray tells the story as only an insider can, detailing the incredible circumstances that shaped and defined the coming century's most promising business. It is a must-read for anyone interested in new technology and the American business landscape.

About this title

About the Author

James B. Murray, Jr. was an early investor in and broker of cellular telephone licenses. In his two decades of involvement in wireless, Mr. Murray has done deals with hundreds of industry players, from the biggest carriers down to the "little people" who won licenses in the FCC lotteries. A co-founder of Columbia Capital Corporation, a venture capital firm now managing assets in excess of $1.5 billion, Mr. Murray currently runs Court Square Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in telecommunications and information technology investments. The father of two children, he lives with his wife of 32 years on a farm near Charlottesville, Virginia.

Reviews

Writing from deep (occasionally too deep) inside the boardroom, Murray who, as chairman and managing director at Columbia Capital, has put together plenty of deals for telecommunications giants like AT&T Wireless and Bell Atlantic charts the rise of the cellular business, for the most part avoiding the canned statements typical of tech histories. In part because he barely offers a snapshot of each man and his company before flashing forward to the next, the book's setting is its most intriguing element. It begins in the early 1980s, when the FCC auctioned the country's cellular phone markets, section by section, to the highest (or, often, simply the most rabid) bidder. Murray treats us to a detailed look at how a ragtag band of media upstarts (and the occasional conglomerate) often risked their futures on a new and mostly unproven technology and established a multibillion dollar industry. While 20/20 hindsight allows us to recognize what a gold mine the cellular business has become, it seemed like anything but a sure thing at the time. Murray's book is most intriguing when he leaves the inner sanctum where the deal making is relayed in detail but without much sense of perspective or drama and shows us how far cellular communications have come (e.g., as recently as 1981, only 24 people in New York could be on their cell phones at one time). Some readers may be disappointed that Murray is more interested in what happened to which company than he is in explaining the societal effects of one of the greatest technological revolutions in history.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

No industry has ever seen more explosive growth than that of cellular communications. Fifteen years ago wireless telephones were a novelty. Today nearly 90 million people subscribe to cellular telephone service. Seattle Times technology reporter O. Casey Corr has already chronicled the industry's rise in Money from Thin Air (2000), a profile of Craig McCaw, whom Corr called "the visionary who invented the cell phone." Murray now tracks the history of cellular communication by focusing on how the Federal Communications Commission originally allotted radio frequencies to would-be service providers. He describes the FCC's lottery system for awarding cellular licenses and the "gold rush" atmosphere it created that pitted nurses, truck drivers, and secretaries against giants like McCaw, MCI, and Metromedia. Murray, a venture capitalist specializing in telecommunications, was awarded several licenses himself, and he ended up going into business brokering licenses. His colorful account recognizes that cellular communication is still in its infancy, and he speculates about the future of telecommunications. David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Murray, chair of Columbia Capital, has witnessed firsthand the development of the wireless industry, brokering deals for many of its major players. Here he traces the growth of the wireless nation from the 1980s to the present. Murray opens with the milestone FCC decision to offer licenses to run cell phone systems in the United States. At first the FCC took applications, then from 1985 on held a lottery system where people from all walks of life would have a chance to become a cell phone entrepreneur. According to the author, over the course of the last two decades, the thousands of licenses given away "ended up in the hands of tens of thousands of owners." Yet the year 2000 saw the wireless phone industry in the hands of just "six mammoth carriers," including McCaw Cellular, Metromedia, and Bell Atlantic. Murray introduces readers to the entrepreneurs who achieved success in this industry and also addresses such problems as current warnings about cell phones and brain cancer and the need for more tower sites in the United States. This book, the first to chronicle the history of wireless technology, is highly recommended for both public and academic library collections. Lucy Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0738203912
• ISBN 13: 9780738203911
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352