TORONTO – The late Ted Rogers was inducted into the international Wireless History Foundation Hall of Fame at a gala dinner of the Wireless History Foundation held earlier this week in San Francisco.
Melinda M. Rogers, Ted’s daughter and SVP of strategy and development for Rogers Communications, accepted the award on behalf of the family and company.
"Until his death two years ago, Dad was often dubbed a ‘media mogul’ and a ‘cable czar’," Rogers said in a statement. "But arguably his greatest success came in wireless telecommunications.”
Today, Rogers is the largest wireless telecommunications company in Canada with 56% of its revenue and 70% of its profit coming from wireless. But in 1983 when Ted Rogers went to his board of directors asking for $500,000 to invest in the new technology, he was voted down because the company carried too much debt. Ted then invested his own money and was a founding partner in Cantel, Canada’s first national cellular phone company that later became wholly-owned by Rogers.
