The man credited with helping Craig McCaw build a nationwide cellular network has retired from AT&T Wireless Services Inc.
“I actually had [retirement] in mind for some time, and they kept asking me to stay,” said Nick Kauser, former executive president and chief technology officer with AT&T Wireless.
Kauser, 58, plans to keep an affiliation with AT&T, however, and will work with AT&T Labs President David Nagel to develop technology strategy. He now has time to travel, primarily on his boat. He wants to sail from his home in Washington to Alaska.
“When you have a whole bunch of people reporting to you, it’s just not possible” to travel, joked Kauser.
Kauser worked for AT&T Wireless since the merger between the company and McCaw Cellular Communications in 1994. He was recruited by McCaw Cellular in 1990 to spearhead the company’s effort to create a seamless network out of the disparate cellular properties McCaw Cellular rapidly acquired across the country. Kauser helped build the world’s first nationwide cellular network in Canada with Cantel.
“Quite frankly, I’m proudest of the team we were able to assemble at McCaw,” said Kauser. “A charter was given by Craig [McCaw] to formulate a strategy to make his networks into a cohesive network. It took a lot of people to think and act alike. Connecting switches over high-speed networks was difficult.”
In 1990, Kauser and his team at McCaw Cellular formulated a strategy for part of the Signaling System 7 process and offered it up to the industry for all companies to use.
“It’s an integrated system where you no longer have to think about roaming. The roaming port is gone,” said Kauser.
Kauser also convinced AT&T Wireless to commit to digital technology early on and push ahead with Time Division Multiple Access technology.
“Nick has been one of the strongest and earliest supporters of TDMA technology,” said Leo Nikkari, vice president, programs and strategy with the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium-an interest group that backs Time Division Multiple Access technology.
Kauser also headed up AT&T Wireless’ fixed wireless efforts. Project Angel-a proprietary Craig McCaw project that uses beam-forming techniques drawn from U.S. military technology to provide fixed wireless service-is now being tested by AT&T Wireless. The system will snip into the home telephone wiring system, allowing a last-mile connection to the home and giving AT&T the opportunity to avoid paying interconnection fees.
Kauser recently received an award for achievement in managing information technology from American Management Systems and Carnegie Mellon University’s Graduate School of Industrial Administration for his involvement with fixed wireless technology.
Kauser began his engineering career 35 years ago installing switches and other landline telephone equipment in Venezuela, where his family immigrated to from Hungary during World War II. Cantel recruited him in 1984.
