'Anytime, Anywhere' chronicles the evolution of AirTouch Sep 5, 2002 – By WR Staff Writer
From the launch of mom-and-pop paging businesses in the 1940s, to the
creation of global wireless oligopolies in the 1990s, the wireless industry
has stunned the world with phenomenal growth.
At first, individual entrepreneurs led these enterprises, using technological
innovation and sheer will to challenge monopolistic phone companies.
Later, telephone company managers, comfortable with rigid wireline business
practices, applied them to building and operating wireless networks in a
highly regulated duopoly environment.
However, as cellular technology developed and the pace of telecommunications
deregulation quickened worldwide, market conditions demanded a new type of
wireless company leader-a visionary who could recognize the amazing
opportunities ahead and drive a major corporation to capitalize on them.
In this new landscape, it was important to adopt the risk-taking attitude of
entrepreneurs, but retain the administrative and technical discipline of the
phone companies. With no roadmap, how were executives to achieve this radical
transformation?
"Anytime, Anywhere - Entrepreneurship and the Creation of a Wireless World,"
(Cambridge University Press, $29.00) answers that question by examining the
experiences of AirTouch Communications, Inc. of San Francisco - and its
chairman, Sam Ginn.
The book traces AirTouch from its roots in 1980s diversification efforts
after the Bell System breakup through its 1999 merger with Britain's
Vodafone, a deal that created the world's largest wireless communications
company. A few months later, Vodafone AirTouch Plc and Bell Atlantic combined
their U.S. wireless assets to create Verizon Wireless, fueling development of
today's national brands.
Along the way, Ginn-raised in a blue-collar Alabama family and steeped in
management methods learned in 32 years with the old AT&T-made significant
personal and organizational changes. He loosened his formal management style,
gave employees a stake in the business and decentralized operations to speed
decision-making in a fluid market.
Historians Louis Galambos and Eric John Abrahamson have written an absorbing
account of the development of AirTouch that places this story in the context
of the dramatic changes taking place in the global economy.
Anytime, Anywhere is also a textbook for industry entrepreneurs and managers
planning to profit from the next generation of wireless. Although
entrepreneurial opportunities have shifted away from building national voice
networks and toward developing data products and services for global markets,
many of the problems AirTouch faced and overcame still exist-intense
competition, spectrum and capital constraints, rapidly evolving technologies,
state and federal regulatory issues and operational challenges.
In 1983 Ginn told the Pacific Telesis board of directors that cellular
telephony was "the opportunity of the century." Under a federal wireline
license, his team rushed to build the first cellular network in Los Angeles
in time for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. Customer orders poured in,
convincing Ginn to pursue major acquisitions in the United States and abroad.
With wireless industry demand for capital surging, Ginn proposed the Topaz
Solution-a bold plan to free the cellular unit from its wireline parent,
creating a pure-play wireless company. Persuading hesitant executives in his
inner circle, Ginn forged ahead, but only after a major battle with the
California Public Utilities Commission that foreshadowed the challenges of
deregulation in industries ranging from telecommunications to electricity. A
dizzying, multi-continent road show culminated in a $1.57 billion initial
public offering-then the third largest in U.S. history.
Like all U.S. wireless companies, AirTouch took a major turn with the 1994
U.S. spectrum auctions. The auctions accelerated consolidation in the
industry by increasing the drive for broader networks and national brands. As
governments around the globe followed the FCC's lead, cashing in on the value
of spectrum, international strategic partnerships proliferated. Wireless
became the leading edge for a new style of globalization based on joint
ventures. AirTouch agreed to merge with Vodafone, a firm with entrepreneurial
beginnings that share a belief in the pure-play strategy for wireless. The
$62 billion stock and cash deal created a global powerhouse with a combined
market capitalization of nearly $110 billion.
Wall Street was overjoyed and so were AirTouch employees: many became
millionaires as a result of the employee stock ownership program that Ginn
had championed. As it turned out, they sold at just the right moment. The
telecommunications industry has struggled over the last two years in a sea of
debt and history becomes a prologue for the future of the industry.
Anytime, Anywhere includes fascinating vignettes about these major industry
developments and the personalities behind them, including billionaire Craig
McCaw (who was both a business partner and competitor to Ginn), Vodafone
visionary and CEO Chris Gent, former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, AT & T
Wireless Mobility Services President Mohan Gyani, AirTouch Chief Operating
Officer and key strategist Arun Sarin, GSM bad-boy and evangelist George
Schmitt, CDMA proponent Craig Farrill, Verizon Communications President and
CEO Ivan Seidenberg, WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers and many others.
The book is a must-read for wireless industry professionals and for anyone
seeking to understand the global role of wireless communications.
About the Authors:
Louis Galambos is Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University. He has
written numerous books and articles on entrepreneurship, innovation and
regulation, including Networks of Innovation and The Rise of the Corporate
Commonwealth. Galambos is President of the Business History Group.
Eric John Abrahamson is Principal Historian with The Prologue Group. He has
written extensively on telecommunications, banking and regulation in
California.
In Brief:
Title: Anytime, Anywhere: Entrepreneurship and the Creation of a Wireless
World
'Anytime, Anywhere' chronicles the evolution of AirTouch
