Cellular mobile telephone

This paper details the emergence of the cellular telephone industry in the United States and illustrates the long time horizons and huge investments necessary for innovation in large services businesses. In the cellular telephone industry, the government’s regulation of telephone service providers and its allocation of the frequency spectrum dramatically shaped the development of the industry. The paper reveals the way in which regulation, necessary for orderly allocation of the frequency spectrum, can add another layer of complexity and decision making to innovative processes slowing and fundamentally changing technological introductions.