Wireless Nation is two stories in one: it's the first definitive account of how the American cell phone industry evolved, and it's the inside story of the greatest government boondoggle in American history.

Written by industry insider James B. Murray, Jr., Wireless Nation details the biggest, most misguided federal giveaway since the Oklahoma Land Rush. In the 1980s, the U.S. government handed out exclusive licenses to run new cell phone systems across the country. At first, the bureaucrats tried to distribute these licenses to qualified recipients, requiring companies to prove they could build and run a cell phone system. But then they changed the rules, leading to comically disastrous results.

From 1985 on, the government essentially ran a casino, awarding these invaluable licenses by lottery. Anyone could win, regardless of whether they'd ever run a business - or even seen a cell phone - before. Hucksters peddled applications to anyone who would buy, and all over America random people decided to try their luck. When the lottery drum stopped twirling, truck drivers, nurses, deep-sea divers and preachers suddenly found themselves newly minted cell phone entrepreneurs. Trouble was, they had no idea how to run a business.

Many of the random winners ended up selling their licenses to true operators - companies like McCaw Cellular, Metromedia, and the Bell phone companies, which were forced to scramble around doling out cash for these "free" licenses. The scattering of licenses among hundreds of lottery winners delayed the industry's development, and the giveaway robbed U.S. taxpayers of the billions of dollars that auctioning off the licenses would have brought.

Wireless Nation is the colorful, engaging account of the American cell phone industry's strange history. Despite the government's ham-handed policies, the wireless industry has flourished, forever changing the nature of communications in the U.S. Wireless Nation is the first book to tell the whole story of the hottest industry of the last two decades.

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