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Wireless Nation
The
Frenzied Launch of the Cellular Revolution in America
By James B. Murray
Perseus Publishing, 2001
Reviewed by Mark Eaker
For the past 15 years, venture capital and
entrepreneurship courses have been the hottest ones in MBA programs. Many students left programs early or turned down prestigious
jobs to work at dot coms in the late 1990’s.
Yet in James B. Murray’s book, Wireless Nation,
which chronicles the history of wireless telephone over the
past 20 years, not a single participant in what might be the
greatest entrepreneurial boom in history, is described as having an
MBA degree.
Although Murray does not address that issue,
the paucity of MBAs in the book can be directly tied to two points
that are the focus of Murray’s story.
First, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and a
series of blunders on its part, set the gold rush in wireless in
motion as it distributed valuable spectrum licenses.
As a consequence, many of the participants are lawyers and
engineers, people capable of maneuvering through and manipulating
the FCC procedures as the lotteries for licenses progressed.
The second point is that this gold rush was for
an asset of unknown value. Murray
relates how with one casual decision, AT&T walked away from
wireless only to find itself spending billions of dollars to buy its
way back in. Those that got in early and prospered were dreamers convinced
beyond reasonable calculations that fortunes were to be made and an
industry built.
Along with those dreamers were schemers, people
one step removed from con men, who pitched the opportunities
available from the great government giveaway.
The irony is that no matter how extravagant the claims made
by the pitchmen, including former talk show host Mike Douglas, the
reality turned out to be better.
Murray, a lawyer and dreamer
was an insider.
He participated in the development of wireless as an
entrepreneur, broker, and venture capitalist.
As a consequence, the story he tells benefits from his
knowledge of the industry and the various players.
At times, Murray’s descriptions of those players make you
wonder how many of them are still speaking with the author.
He pulls no punches identifying the schemers from the
dreamers, separating this book from many dry discussions of
business.
For Virginians, Murray’s book has an added
dimension. One of his
partners and an early participant in wireless was Mark Warner, the
governor-elect. Unfortunately, Murray does not provide much detail to his own
or Warner’s role but the sketch of Warner that emerges from the
books should be reassuring to Virginia voters.
Warner is described as a man of great energy and great charm,
capable of finding solutions to complex problems.
Given the condition of Virginia’s economy and the
overwhelmingly Republican legislature, the Democratic Warner will
need all his charm and energy to succeed as Governor.
Comments?
Contact Mark
Eaker
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