Craig McCaw (b. August 11, 1949 in Centralia, Washington), is a Seattle-area billionaire who made his fortune as a pioneer in the cellular phone industry. He is the founder of McCaw Cellular (now part of Cingular) and the chairman of Teledesic.

Youth and the cable TV industry

McCaw's father J. Elroy was a broadcasting magnate, in the business of buying and selling TV and radio stations which brought in wealth, but also incurred significant debts. In the 1960s, Elroy McCaw had entered the cable television realm, and his four sons worked as linemen and door-to-door salesmen.

When McCaw's father died, the only company not sold to repay the debt was the small Centralia cable company (est. 2-4K subscribers), which was in trust. After his senior year at Stanford, Craig took the helm of the cable company and set out to rebuild his family name. Craig McCaw used the cash flows from his growing cable company to purchase other remote cable companies, and turned the resulting conglomerate profitable. By the 1980s, McCaw Cable Vision was the 20th largest cable carrier in the United States.

Cellular telephone industry

When the FCC lotteried off cellular licenses in the early 1980s, many ordinary Americans got rich by winning the right to establish cellular systems in cities across America. In addition to entering the lottery himself, McCaw approached many other lottery winners and bought their cellular rights, which were already considered to be undervalued. Using the same tactic he'd used in cable TV, McCaw financed an aggressive cellular expansion by borrowing against and selling shares in the cable operation. Through continued borrowing and smart management of only the most useful licenses, this wireless land grab put McCaw's operation in the position of a competitive nationwide cellular carrier before the incumbent landline telephone industry took serious notice in the field.

After acquiring MCI's cellular wing in 1986, the McCaw brothers sold the cable company to Cooke Cablevision (now part of Comcast). The combined cellular operation was a significant player in the field. In 1990, McCaw was the highest paid CEO in the United States.

In 1994, the McCaw brothers sold McCaw Cellular to AT&T for over $13 billion. The company was renamed AT&T Wireless. AT&T Wireless was sold to Cingular in 2004 to become the nation's largest wireless carrier.

Later ventures

Later that same year, the McCaw brothers founded NEXTLINK Communications, planning to enter the broadband and internet service provider market. In 2000, the company merged with Concentric Communications and was renamed XO Communications. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2002.

Also in 1994, McCaw and Bill Gates teamed up to form Teledesic, with an ambitious plan to form a broadband satellite communications system with nearly 300 low earth orbit satellites. In 2002, Teledesic halted satellite production; and in 2003, it sold its spectrum licenses. The company has since severely scaled back its plans. McCaw serves as Teledesic's chairman. He also heads wireless ISP Clearwire.

As owner of Eagle River Holdings, Inc. McCaw has major stakes in Nextel Communications and ICO Communications.