Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mr. Murray's account of the birth of the cellular telephone industry is remarkable. This is a subject I had little to no knowledge of (or interest in) and yet I found myself unable to put this book down. The story is truly incredible. The insider perspective he provides gives the reader a view into the birth of an entire industry.

Time and again he details the steps, and more often mis-steps, that led to the wireless world we live in today. As interesting as the stories of the visionaries who "got it" from the begining are, the tales of those who guessed wrong are even more incredible. Huge corporations, respected "experts," and the US government all made one wrong decision after the other, while a handful of players who figured out just how big this industry could be took incredible gambles to succeed. At the same time, every day individuals from widows to plumbers had a chance to participate, and make millions in what was essentially a government run lottery.

A riveting first hand account of the creation of an industry where billions were made and lost, and continue to be today.

This book is a must-read for anyone involved in the cellular industry, and should be very interesting (and entertaining) for anyone interested in entrepreneurialism or emerging industries.

I work in the cellular industry and often hear, from those who worked in the industry in the mid-eighties, references to the "old days." While the current success of the cellular industry makes it seem as if its success was a "no-brainer," Murray makes clear that this was not the case--he does an excellent job of describing the free-wheeling, if not chaotic, beginnings of the industry, the fateful steps and mis-steps of some of the early players, and the vast uncertainty of whether the industry would ever be viable. Most memorably, he provides interesting profiles of some of the pioneers, cowboys, and charlatans that participated in the creation of America's cell-phone sector.

James B. Murray, Jr. tells a fascinating true-tale of the wacky, wonderful world of wireless technology. As an insider, and an early investory, Murray has access to some of the yarns of the early cellular cowboys like Craig McGraw and John Kluge. Today, almost 120 million Americans use cell phones and more are swapping wireless for their landlines every day. This is a great primer if you're in any aspect of communications. Wireless promises to touch every aspect of our lives from work to play to education to entertainment. Murray's book gives us a birds-eye view to the past and a preview to the new spectrum of the future. He includes just enough tech info and countless stories, anecdotes and personal asides to make it a quick read yet, a valuable reference tool. No one else captures the excitement of the lotteries and wireless land rush. In his acknowledgements, Murray thanks Lisa Dickey who evidently was his collaborator on the book. He says she brought to live a dry narrative. And yes, the tome is easy to read but I yearn to dial my cell phone and talk directly to Murray whose voice on the era may just be much more colorful than polished prose can reveal. If you buy just one book on the history of wireless, you should start with this one. A great complement to any office bookshelf. Joyce Schwarz, JCOM, www.joycecom.com author, "Cutting the Cord: Guide to Going Wireless", fall, 2001

Very well written book! Jim Murray does a very good job of making an interesting story as he narrates how FCC distributed valuable cellular licenses in the US in the 1980s. Also, talkes about how McCaw built his empire. I highly recommend this for somebody who loves the world of telecom. However, this book is not for somebody looking for new business ideas or trends in the industry today.

Murray has written an immensely entertaining view of the development
of cellular telephone, the wrangling over FCC spectrum, the con artists
and hucksters, the visionary businessmen, the unprecedented methods
of haggling used to settle license ownership. My own background gives
me familiarity with the Internet revolution; it was quite interesting
to compare and contrast the cellular revolution with it. Those who
studied the cellular revolution were probably better able to understand

what was going to happen with the Internet than those who didn't.

So much has been written about the internet industry in the 90's. But almost as important in the same period was the wireless industry. Very little has been written about wireless. This book does a good job of telling the fascinating story of how cellular got started in the US. The stories of how the government gave away the sprectrum and entrepeneurs (and hucksters) came up with ways to get rich off it are great. I only wished the book covered a longer period. Maybe the author will do a follow up on the PCS industry, where the government auctioned frequencies instead of using lotteries.

OK, so I gave away the "big surprise", but it's true. This book does an amazing job of detailing the early days of the FCC "dispensation" of the cellular phone spectrum, the companies and individuals involved, and how everything played out.

Sure, it's like watching sausages being made. The good guys who played by the rules often got chumped. The guys who bent the rules got away with a lot of things that they shouldn't have. The real sleazeballs sometimes went to jail, but sometimes just made a lot of people angry and still got to keep a lot of money. In short, it's just like America: Under the table wheeling and dealing with lawyers smoking cigars.

If you care at all about how so many people made so much money at cellular than this book is for you. I loved it. If you are expecting a nice antiseptic chronology of cellular from beginning to today you'll have to read about the personal foibles of McCaw, Yampol, and others to get it, but it's there.

This book provides useful insight for me in terms of assessing which markets and current players will play a significant role in the future. For people who wanted to aspire in making their own mark in this industry, let this book inspire you as stories on how the current cellular magnates were able to achieve their dreams and rise from the many challenges confronting them.

A very well written, fast-paced, and captivating read about how a regulated scarce asset (spectrum) was captured by smart entrepreneurs. The author, Jim Murray, had a rare inside track as a participant in the industry. He maintains the reader's interest by describing (and perhaps, creating) larger-than-life & memorable characters.

A thoroughly enjoyable read! Murray takes a series of broadly related threads culled from the rise of the US cellular industry and weaves them together to create a very interesting and informative narrative. It reads like a suspense novel complete with heroes, villains, intrigue, deceit, and a trillion dollar treasure. I completely expected a bland, tedious, historical documentary, but I found instead a gripping, page-turner that I had a hard time putting down.