i3 - November/December 2017 - 40

Arlene Harris
FOUNDER PUBLISHER,
OF GREATCALL;
TWICE
"FIRST
MAGAZINE
LADY OF(1947
WIRELESS"
-0000) (1948 - )

erial entrepreneur
Arlene Harris was literally
born into the wireless
business. So, after inventing
numerous innovations, it's no
surprise that she is known as the
"First Lady of Wireless."
Harris was born in rural Los
Angeles on June 6, 1948. In the
early 1950s, her parents started
ICS in South Central Los Angeles,
a business that provided car
radiophone service. At 12 years
old, Harris became a mobile
operator and worked during her
junior and high school years.
With an undiagnosed
reading disorder that eliminated
college possibilities, Harris
worked for Air Canada at 18,
and then joined Continental's
Military Air Transport during the
Vietnam War and Air Micronesia
in Honolulu.
Back in L.A. in 1969,
Harris helped Continental plan,
test and train agents, and also
implemented the first data
bases for IBM's automated
ticketing and Direct Reference
systems for the new wide-body
Boeing 747s and McDonnell
Douglas DC-10s. In 1972, Harris
returned to ICS, where she
participated in the introduction
of the first high-capacity wireless
business based on the Motorola
Pageboy II beeper, developed
by Marty Cooper (CTA Hall
Of Fame, 2008). Harris later
married Cooper.

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40

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017

Arlene Harris launched
GreatCall in 2006, and the
multiple-award winning Jitterbug
phones. By 2017, GreatCall
had nearly a million subscribers
and was sold to a private
equity company.

Using her automated
management systems, Harris
and her family built the largest
single-city paging operation in
the world. ICS developed the
first resale business, a concept
mandated by the FCC in its
1982 cellular rules, as well as the
first provisioning and self-help
systems. In 1981, ICS developed
Life Page, the first wireless health
application. The Harris's sold ICS,
which is now USA Mobile.
In 1983, Harris and Cooper
co-founded Cellular Business
Systems Inc., which provided
cellular billing and management
services (CBSI, sold in 1986, now

Netcracker). Harris served on
the FCC/EIA committee that
developed the Cellular InterCarrier Billing Exchange Record
(CIBER) that enabled payment
for roaming services. Between
1983 and 1986, Harris founded
Subscriber Computing Inc. (SCI),
Cellular Pay Phone Inc. (CPPI)
and, with Cooper, their incubator,
Dyna LLC.
SCI built the first networked
automated provisioning systems
now used by nearly all cellular
retail channels, as well as a theft
abatement system. She worked
with OKI Electric and Motorola
on the first mobile "app" - an

over-the-air cellular phone billing
and system, The Cellular Pay
Phone. Her two patents on this
product were the first of many
that are licensed to Verizon,
Qualcomm and others. At SCI in
1991, Harris enabled the global
prepaid concept when she
developed the first-ever cellular
prepayment system. SCI is now
part of Verisign.
In 1994, Harris introduced
SOS Wireless, a "safety phone"
service. The combination of
SOS and innovations such as
the first over-the-air website
phone management evolved into
GreatCall Inc.
Then, Harris bought a carrier
that gave her access to a national
roaming footprint and that
enabled local phone numbers.
In 2004, Samsung agreed to
make two custom phones for
Harris and, in 2006, she launched
GreatCall and the multiple-award
winning Jitterbug phones. By
2017, GreatCall had nearly a
million subscribers and was sold
to a private equity company.
Harris serves on the board
of overseers for the Illinois Tech
Stuart School of Business and
the board of advisors for the IIT
Institute of Design. In 2007, she
was inducted into the Wireless
Hall of Fame and named by
Fierce Wireless as one of the
10 Top U.S. Wireless Innovators
of All Time. Today she's working
on the next big plan.

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