Speech of Chairman William E. Kennard
                         CTIA Convention
                         New Orleans, LA
                         February 9, 1999
               "Crossing Into The Wireless Century"
                     As Prepared for Delivery
  
  
  Thank you, Tom, for that kind introduction.  
  
  As Lyndon Johnson was fond of saying, that was an introduction that my father would
  have been proud of, and my mother would have believed.  I especially want to thank you
  for the spirit of cooperation and mutual respect that has characterized our relationship
  over the past year.  You are a great advocate for your industry and for competition.  
  
  Before I begin, I want to introduce you to Tom Sugrue, the new chief of the Wireless
  Telecommunications Bureau at the FCC. I have known Tom for many years now.  A few
  years ago,  Tom tried to convince me to leave private law  practice and come work for
  him in government at the Department of Commerce.  Well, the timing was bad, so I
  declined. 
  
  This year, the tables were turned, and I was able to convince Tom to leave private law
  practice and come serve his country at the FCC.
  
  I couldn't be happier about this. Tom is a very well respected lawyer and policymaker with
  many years of experience both in government and in the private sector.
  
  I am happy to have him on board.
  
  Standing here looking out at this crowd, I can't help but remember how people have
  underestimated your industry . . . even from the very beginning.
  
  In 1907, Frank Fayant, a muckraking journalist for Success magazine wrote an in-depth
  investigation entitled, "The Wireless Telegraph Bubble." 
  
  To let you know his take on the nascent wireless industry, I should tell you that this was a
  two-part  installment in his series, "Fools and Their Money." 
  
  "Wireless has been a bad investment," he wrote. "Millions of dollars of wireless stock
  manufactured in the past eight years is today worth no more than the paper on which it is
  printed." Fayant predicted, for example, that there would never be a wireless connection
  between New York and  San Francisco.  
  
  But even after your industry proved that wireless could connect the Nation, people still
  underestimated what you could do.  There is that now-infamous McKinsey report 
  of the early 1980s, which predicted that by the year 2000, nine hundred thousand
  Americans would be cellular subscribers. 
  
  Well, now there are over 68 million Americans who own a mobile phone. Last year, they
  made calls on a service that cost 40 percent less than it did three years ago. And over the
  next five years, some say that the price will drop yet another 40 percent. 
  
  Last year's wireless revenues were $30 billion. You have invested a total of $50 billion in
  infrastructure that have added 100,000 American jobs in the past