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The founder of MCI, AirFone, FTD, and a host of other firms talks in this podcast: I interviewed Jack Goeken because he neatly bookmarks the history of radiotelephone service, which effectively moves into history with the recent conclusion of the FCC auction that moves the reserved spectrum's use from narrowband, analog air-to-ground telephone calls to broadband network and Internet access.
Goeken and his colleagues more or less came up with the idea of commercial radiotelephony, made it work, obtained a coast-to-coast experimental license from the FCC, battled terrestrial phone companies, and eventually sold the whole thing to GTE--which failed to implement his ahead-of-their-time ideas, like gaming and news coming through the phones. He later founded In-Flight Phone Corporation, which used digital air-to-ground communications, sold it to MCI, which shut it down in six months.
Goeken has a lot to say about the crushing of the entrepreneurial spirit, especially in telecommunications. As a pioneer who left the field--but is still running an enterprise with many innovative products--he has some timely advice and insight.
This is the first of a series of podcasts I'm launching in two weeks. The audio quality will be better in future podcasts. You can download the MP3 file at the link above, or, if you're using software like iTunes that allows you to retrieve podcasts directly, you should use the syndication feeds at left to subscribe to our general RSS or Atom feed.
On a related note, I was interviewed last night on my local public radio station KUOW-FM about the future of using VoIP and cell phones to make phone calls in-flight.
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