Ken Horowitz has been an entrepreneur, owner, and operator in wireless since the late 1970s. His interest in wireless goes back even further: he earned his Amateur Radio License at age 13. Ken began his professional career in the paging industry when he founded Direct Page Communications and Adirondack Mobile Telephone Service. In 1980, at age 29, Ken was awarded the exclusive license to provide radio paging and mobile telephone service to the Lake Placid Olympics by ABC Sports and the International Olympic Committee. By 1981, he went “all-in” on the new cellular service which was nearing authorization by the FCC and sold his paging companies.
As a consultant, Ken served as a key executive for Metromedia’s cellular endeavors. He also applied for licenses on his own and with other partners. In 1982, Ken organized United Cellular Network (UCN) to apply for markets 31-90. He actively negotiated in the “great settlement” to trade and consolidate for his upstate New York markets, where he was a hands-on Chairman and President. When the FCC identified another 209 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA’s) and 10 non-MSA’s to be licensed under newly issued cellular lottery rules, Ken started “CellPro”, a company which provided turnkey cellular applications for all 219 markets. CellPro had just over 90 clients, with some that applied for individual markets and others that applied for the majority of all 219 markets. Ken on his own, and with partners, was awarded cellular licenses and constructed many of these markets from coast to coast, including Puerto Rico and Hawaii.
Ken was also a major presence in industry trade organizations, both as a member of the paging association Telocator and as an early non-wireline board member of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA). By the early 1990s, Ken had sold the majority of his cellular holdings but continued to participate in wireless spectrum auctions with various partnerships through the mid-2000s.
Currently, Ken is an active investor in disruptive technologies in the wireless market, investing in companies like Iridium and American Mobile Satellite, and GoTenna, a developer of mesh networking solutions for government markets. He is Chairman of the Board of Witricity, developing wireless charging solutions for vehicles and personal electronic devices. Ken also leads the Kenneth A. Horowitz Family Foundation which supports many charitable causes and organizations. He was inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame in 2025.