Wireless Nation: The Frenzied Launch of the Cellular Revolution Book

The idea of a Wireless Nation would have been unthinkable just a few years ago when only an elite few could even hope to obtain a mobile phone--and the service they got, if they were fortunate enough to get any, was both technically mediocre and inordinately expensive. That all changed in the 1980s, of course, when cellular technology began moving from experimental to ubiquitous and those clunky early car phones went the way of the telephone operator. The subsequent rush to wireless has been one of the most dynamic business stories of our time, and James B Murray, Jr does a fine job of running it down and sorting it out in Wireless Nation. The negotiator of some of the US industry's biggest deals as chairman and managing director of Columbia Capital, Murray has had first-hand access to most of the major players in the ongoing saga and his book benefits tremendously from the insider's perspective that these connections helped forge. It also benefits greatly from his novelist's eye, which virtually puts readers into the centre of the action with big-time participants like McCaw Cellular's Craig McCaw as well as "regular folks" like a middle-aged truck driver named Bob Pelissier who snagged one of the country's first cellular licenses. Moving effortlessly from Newfoundland to New York and Washington state to Washington DC, Murray deftly chronicles the emergence of the cell phone as a worldwide business and societal phenomenon. He also offers informed speculation as to its future, as emergent wireless Internet connections promise to make current technology and consumer penetration look as quaint as a black-dial telephone. --Howard RothmanRead More