Craig McCaw (b. 1949) was an early investor in cellular technology. McCaw's father owned a cable TV company in Centralia which Craig and his brothers inherited and ran together under Craig's leadership. In 1981, McCaw began buying cellular licenses in cities across the US, and in 1987 he sold the cable TV business and fully transitioned the company to cellular communications. McCaw wanted to establish a cellular network across the entire US, which he did in 1990 with the launch of Cellular One. By that time, McCaw Cellular Communications was the country’s largest cellular service. McCaw Cellular Communications developed links with AT&T in the early 1990s and the two companies merged in 1994. After selling the company to AT&T, Craig McCaw remained involved in wireless technology. He invested in Nextel and later founded wireless internet company Clearwire.
This image shows Craig McCaw holding a cell phone in September 1986. At that time, McCaw spoke about his high hopes for the cellular market around Seattle. He mentioned the floating bridges and long commute times as factors pushing people towards using cellular phones.
Caption information source: “McCaw/AT&T History,” Rutgers University WINLAB, retrieved from https://www.winlab.rutgers.edu/~narayan/Course/Wireless_Revolution/LL24-%20McCaw-ATT.pdf Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.
