Several points to make concerning Unwired: 1) Steve Cosser is a primary backer of the venture, having invested his own money into Unwired back in 2001; 2) Steve Cosser previously had found fame as the CEO of the TEN network, and then as the Head and part-owner of Australis (owners of Galaxy Pay TV back in the mid-90s); 3) Steve Cosser bid for and secured a number of MDS microwave licences back in the mid-90s, at a time when satellite licences were being pursued, but not the MDS licences (these were subsequently sold into Austar, etc and now form part of the backbone to TARBS); 4) in the mid-90s, Steve Cosser made some serious money out of these ventures; 5) Unwired was already heavily populated and capitalised by a combination of Cosser's money, and institutional funding, to the tune of $150M from 2001, onwards; 6) Unwired has had several pilot networks in place in the Sydney and Newcastle regions for some time (hence, they are not as far behind the curve as some may otherwise believe); 7) Unwired's Business Plan is quite comprehensive, but has been scaled back over the last 2 years to more realistic levels of prospective achievement (some more scaling back may still be required, going forward); and 8) there was a serious shake-up in the management ranks in late 2002 resulting both in an overhaul of the business structure, and of the Business Plan, and the installation of Peter Shore (UEC and IP1 fame) as Executive Chairman.
