WILLIAM McGOWAN GONE TWENTY YEARS TODAY

THE STAR OF

"LONG DISTANCE WARRIOR"

BILL McGOWAN

December 10, 1927-June 8, 1992

WILLIAM G. McGOWAN

AT HIS DESK AT MCI

Washington, D.C.

Bill McGowan took on AT&T and helped change the face of telephony in the U.S. For a preview of the film that tells the story, LONG DISTANCE WARRIOR, see here. For a history and digital archive of McGowan and MCI when it was in his charge, see here. For more photographs and more of the context and significance, with links to other websites, see here and here.

WILLIAM McGOWAN b. December 10, 1927

WILLIAM G. McGOWAN

December 10, 1927-June 8, 1992

WILLIAM McGOWAN

on the roof of the then MCI Building

Washington, D.C.

Two items in the news this year have particularly brought the late MCI Chair William McGowan back to public attention. One was AT&T's attempt to purchase T-Mobile, and the other was the broadcast of the film about McGowan, LONG DISTANCE WARRIOR. MCI took on the telephone monopoly -- successfully -- and McGowan was called the "man who beat AT&T" (see here). LONG DISTANCE WARRIOR curiously bills its subject "the most famous business leader you’ve never heard of" -- curiously for those of us who remember when McGowan was a real mover and shaker in Washington and in the communications industry. It is good to see him back in the spotlight, as here.

The photograph above is featured in the film.

Much more about Bill McGowan and the upstart MCI can be found here.

AT+T AND DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN

AT&T

T-MOBILE

&

DEJA VU

ALL OVER AGAIN

WILLIAM G. McGOWAN

THE "MAN WHO BEAT AT&T"

Featured in the July 14, 1980

issue of FORTUNE Magazine

Photographed by Gwendolyn Stewart

Comes the news that AT&T has cut a deal with Deutsche Telekom to buy T-Mobile, subject to regulatory approval. Then, once again, an entity known as AT&T will be the largest telephone company in the US of A. True, it will not immediately occupy the monopoly position that the "old" AT&T did before William McGowan of MCI took on the communications Goliath. And the original AT&T did get broken up, and this is about a brave new world of "smart" phones, and there is already opposition (and no, T-Mobile subscribers will not get iPhones, at least, not any time soon), but still: to see this circle come full around again....