Tapping into Wireless : The Savvy Investor's Guide to Profiting From the Wireless Wave [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

by Tom Taulli (Author), Dave Mock (Author) "We've all heard stories like this one about a company in some industry, if not wireless..." (more)
Key Phrases: wireless stocks, wireless network operators, wireless space, United States, Western Union, Wall Street (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Where and how to invest in wireless­­today's most promising "next big thing"

Wireless technologies are among today's major growth industries. By 2003, more than 500 million people will be using wireless devices. Yet, avid investors can be frustrated with complex terminology and confusing market factors. Tapping into Wireless provides the knowledge and strategies investors need to take advantage of wireless opportunities. It gives readers the ins and outs of the hardware, software, services, and technologies, along with the best opportunities for investing in this fledgling but well-entrenched industry. From understanding the basics of the industry to targeting market leaders, investing in pre-IPO companies, and even recognizing red flags in otherwise promising opportunities, Tapping into Wireless is the single best guidebook for making the smartest choices among today's wireless opportunities.

From the Back Cover
Everything You Need to Know to Invest in Wireless­­Today, Next Year, and for the Long Run

Wireless technologies­­with their global appeal and unlimited potential for further growth­­are going to make a lot of investors rich. But they won't make every investor rich, only those who know enough to spot the true high-flyers. As a potential wireless investor, how can you know which company is poised to soar while, at the same time, you unmask and avoid those that won't ever leave the runway?

Tapping into Wireless takes an inside look at the wireless revolution from the standpoint of the investor. This all-in-one reference delivers detailed coverage of the hardware, software, services, and technologies that are driving wireless growth as it provides:

• Tools for identifying the opportunities and risks in wireless stocks
• Explanations of wireless market segments: network operators, equipment providers, the enterprise segment, and more
• Examples and case studies of companies on the way up

Ten years from now, investors will look at certain wireless companies and say, "If I'd only known then..." Tapping into Wireless is a step-by-step primer on what you need to know­­now­­to get in on the ground floor of one of history's most exciting investment opportunities.

"The rapid growth of wireless communications around the world has only set up the next phase of this exciting market. With billions of people now familiar with the concept of mobile communications, new ideas and creative uses of wireless devices are coming around every day. For investors, advances in wireless technology translate into new opportunities for profit..."­­From the Introduction

Did you know enough to invest in Microsoft in 1988, when the personal computer industry was firmly established but still in its infancy? Chances are you didn't ... But what would your current portfolio look like if you had?

Tapping into Wireless provides insider details on today's wireless industry, a fledgling but well-entrenched industry with the potential for virtually limitless investment growth. Providing you with the foundation you need to understand wireless­­its driving forces, different sectors, emerging technologies, and more­­this timely book provides specifics instead of generalities and targets the strategies you need to know to invest successfully in today's #1 growth opportunity.

Tom Taulli and Dave Mock have helped thousands of investors understand what is important and what isn't in the world of wireless, and Tapping into Wireless is the first book to assemble their combined technical and investment knowledge into one accessible resource. Look here to learn more about:

• The big players, as well as those newcomers who seem destined to join them at the top
• The ins and outs of wireless network operators, component suppliers, enterprise solutions, and more
• Techniques for investing in promising wireless companies at the pre-IPO stage
• Common metrics and language of the wireless industry
• Top wireless mutual funds, along with proven rules for foreign investing and private equity investing

For more than a century, since the pioneering work of Marconi, wireless technologies have teased investors with their potential for runaway profits. The wireless era has finally arrived. Let Tapping into Wireless give you the inside details on what is really happening in wireless today, and show you which companies and technologies are poised to become leaders. It will give you the knowledge you need to uncover wireless companies that are poised to reach the top­­and the trading savvy you need to catch them on their way up.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071384197
• ISBN-13: 978-0071384193
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,232,341 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid Book For Investors and Entrepreneurs, September 17, 2002

By	Peter Hupalo (MN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Tapping Into Wireless" is written for those who want to invest in the high-growth area of wireless telecommunications. Entrepreneurs entering the wireless industry and people interested in learning more about the world of wireless will also benefit by reading this book.

The book begins with a chapter about the history of wireless technology. Taulli and Mock say we can understand the how's and why's of the industry by learning a bit about the history of wireless. This will help us make better investment decisions today.

After telling us about the advent of the telegraph and the early adventures to lay transatlantic cable to allow continent-to-continent communication, Taulli and Mock discuss Gugielmo Marconi's development of the radio and the growth of amateur radio.

Surprisingly, nearly 100 years ago, many people imagined that wireless would become the dominant personal communication device. Because of the ability of waves travelling through air to reach any location and the expense of laying cable from every point to every point, it seemed logical that person-to-person communication would be radio-based, not cable-based.

Yet, only recently have wireless personal communications become a consumer reality. Taulli and Mock explain that the wireless future had to wait until electronic advances allowed compact and reliable wireless devices.

That didn't stop early promoters of wireless from starting companies promising a bright future and guaranteeing huge investment returns. Taulli and Mock discuss the wireless telegraph investment bubble of the early 1900's.

Taulli and Mock write: "Unscrupulous stock promoters exaggerated this theoretical advantage of radio way beyond reason at the time....it demonstrates what can happen when a revolutionary technology emerges in a capitalist society. Truly, there was a very real and promising industry in wireless telegraphy and telephony; it only needed more time to develop. The problems with stock scams at this time actually had more to do with corrupt financiers than with the radio industry...."

Taulli and Mock explain a successful investor in technology must distinguish hype from reality. This doesn't imply the need to have an engineer's level of understanding of wireless technology.

Taulli and Mock write: "...knowledge of wireless technology may not be a significant advantage for the investor. The technology buffs who have the inside scoop on how all this stuff works often make no better investment choices than those who are clueless in this area."

The authors explain that too many other factors affect wireless investments, including government regulation, politics, communication standards adoptions, buy-in from industry leaders, intellectual property management, and consumer taste.

For example, Taulli and Mock tell us that, as radio grew in America, the U.S. government felt a foreign corporation shouldn't control the airwaves, so the U.S. government put pressure on Marconi to sell its U.S. radio interests to an American-based company. Overnight, G.E. and RCA became the dominant radio companies in America. By this example, the authors alert wireless investors to the politics and regulations affecting their investments.

We also learn about the formation of the Federal Communications Commission to manage the frequencies available to radio. Because unregulated use of the airwaves led to overlapping signals as multiple users tried to communicate on the same frequency, the government decided it should regulate the spectrum of available frequencies. The FCC decided it would own the air frequencies and auction off the rights to broadcast on various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum in various geographical regions.

Taulli and Mock tell us that, in 2001, the FCC earned nearly $17 billion from spectrum auctions. Further, the authors say the U.S. government will earn even more through such auctions in the future. (I've heard of entrepreneurs and investors buying auctioned airwave rights and reselling them for a huge profit. Some people have literally become very rich by legally buying and reselling thin air!)

In a chapter about investing in wireless network operators (i.e., the companies that provide access to wireless communication), Taulli and Mock tell us that spectrum licenses are an important investment metric (POPs).

Taulli and Mock write: "Licensed POP's include the population covered by spectrum licenses. If a service provider has a license to 10 MHz of spectrum in Atlanta, Georgia, then the population of this area is included in its figure for licensed POPs... . The owning of rights to spectrum is basically wireless real estate... ."

Taulli and Mock cover many other important investment measurements when evaluating wireless network providers, such as revenue per user, customer turnover, and the average cost to add a new customer.

Wireless network providers aren't the only way to profit by investing in wireless. Other chapters of "Tapping Into Wireless" discuss wireless IPO's, investing in wireless equipment and component manufacturers, mutual funds that invest in telecommunications, ways to invest in foreign wireless companies, and knowing when to sell a telecommunications stock. Angel investors will find the chapter about investing in smaller, private, wireless companies valuable.

Entrepreneurs will especially enjoy the chapter about wireless enterprise solutions. Basically, "enterprise solutions" involve helping companies use technology to become more efficient or to do things in new ways. Such enterprise-solution companies usually don't provide wireless network access nor manufacture components. Rather, they usually develop database systems and computer code allowing a company to use wireless devices in a productive way.

Taulli and Mock point out that wireless access to the Internet will create huge opportunities for entrepreneurs and those who provide wireless enterprise solutions.

Taulli and Mock write: "The combination of wireless capabilities with the resources available on the Internet has every entrepreneur chomping at the bit to develop something hundreds of millions of cellular phone owners would pay to have....The merging of the Internet and wireless communications has tremendous potential to change the lives and cultures of people around the globe... Not only do we have a global network that stores vast amounts of information at various nodes, we also have the capability to access one of those nodes from virtually anywhere on the planet."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mobile Wireless Telephony Basics and Investing, June 13, 2002

By	"incards" (Newark, DE USA) - See all my reviews

As a former wireless professional and long time investor in wireless companies, I am frequently asked by fellow investors to recommend a good basic book on wireless. "Tapping into Wireless" fills the bill! The book is highly literate and well organized and covers wireless history, the wireless regulatory environment, the role of wireless service providers, the various warless technologies, and the evolution of wireless standards, and it does so without getting bogged down in technical detail. Better yet, it covers both wireless basics and investing in wireless companies. Not only does the book not favor a particular wireless technology, it cautions against getting emotionally involved with a particular technology. For those that are not intimately familiar with the industry, this is a great place to start.