McCaw's stream of consciousness
Craig McCaw, considered the pioneer of cellular, likes to talk about real world events and somehow related them to his industry. Now in his next venture Clearwire, a wireless broadband provider that plans to roll-out a WiMax network by 2006, McCaw is going after poor countries and the hinterland.
Case in point: today at the CTIA conference in San Francisco, McCaw showed slides from his ventures in northern Canada. They showed tiny, boxy houses huddled together in a snow-covered tundra with a satellite dish on the perimeter. Broadband for the forgotten. McCaw later mentioned that he sold equipment to the same faction leader who staged a military junta in the Ivory Coast.
McCaw seems interested in worldly places and people of all stripes and colors. He loves China, claiming the country's smallest cellular operator is larger than all U.S. carriers combined. His investment in WiMax may be a leading indicator and a test to whether lightning strikes twice.
