Arlene Harris (inventor)

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Arlene Joy Harris (born June 6, 1948), also known as the "First Lady of Wireless," is an entrepreneur and inventor, who holds numerous wireless communications patents. In May, 2007 she was the first woman inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame.

Video Arlene Harris (inventor)

Career

In 1983 Harris co-founded Cellular Business Systems Inc. (CBSI), (sold to Cincinnati Bell, now Convergys) where she guided the development of the leading billing/CRM service bureau in the early cellular industry. She personally specified and directed the development of the first automated cellular service activation systems now used globally in retail locations to remotely and instantly activate cellular phones. While at CBSI Harris served as one of three FCC committee members challenged to develop intersystem roaming protocols. The committee was established to create methods for cellular companies to bill customers who visited their networks. The committee's work resulted in the Cellular Inter-carrier Billing Exchange Record (CIBER) used throughout the cellular industry.

In 1986 Harris launched Dyna LLC in Chicago, Illinois, and later relocated to Del Mar, California, as a home base to incubate and spin out new ideas and help young companies.

Harris founded the software company Subscriber Computing, Inc. (merged with Corsair, now CyberSource) in 1986; her team built and delivered systems to the largest paging companies in the world and provided the first converged billing systems for cellular and the Internet to global leaders, including British Telecom and Hutchinson. In 1988, she led the Company's implementation of the first communications methods used to support access to cellular services by low and no credit consumers. The concept became known as "prepaid" cellular service and has grown to become one of the primary forms of subscriber relationship and payments in the cellular industry.

In 1986, Harris founded Cellular Pay Phone, Inc. (CPPI) where she developed her first patented invention, the first program-controlled end-to-end management system (created with OKI Electronics and Motorola). This offering made CPPI the first niche cellular reseller in history to create a special cellular phone and a tightly integrated system to support cellular with automated payments by credit card.

Founded by Harris in 1994 and under her guidance, SOS Wireless Communications developed the first consumer oriented reseller of cellular service designed especially for safety. Like the payphone business SOS developed a custom phone and service for making outgoing calls for urgent communications. SOS customers were primarily older Americans who adopted cellular service to keep them safe while on the road.

Harris acquired cellular carrier Accessible Wireless in 2001 to provide a home carrier service for offerings targeting typically low usage applications. Accessible and SOS both supported the founding of Harris' next company GreatCall in 2005.

GreatCall is the first complete end-to-end value-added service provider in the cellular industry to focus on simplicity with primary emphasis on baby boomers and senior citizens. At GreatCall Harris led the development of the Jitterbug phone in partnership with Samsung to create a simple and personalized cell phone experience. The Jitterbug and service earned top honors as one of New York Times top 10 greatest technology ideas of 2006 (as judged by David Pogue), as a finalist in Yahoo's "Last Gadget Standing" competition at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2007 and as Reader's Digest "Top 100 Products." Additionally, GreatCall won the wireless industry's coveted Andrew Seybold Choice Award for "Best New Company" at CTIA in 2007 and the American Society on Aging's Award for "Best Small Business in 2008."