Career spans from wired to wireless

WOBURN -- Four decades ago, Bob Stott began installing wires, checking circuits, and fixing equipment at New England Telephone Co.; at the end of this month, he will step down from a leading position at Verizon Wireless, a company that has helped free people from the telephone wires he once spliced together.

The former equipment installer has guided the company from a time when a cutting-edge "mobile" phone was a 25-pound briefcase, with a handset attached by a cord, to the pocket-size phones of today.

"We were really writing the rules," said Stott, 60, in an interview at the Woburn office he has decorated with numbers he wore while running 14 marathons over the years.

Stott fell into telecommunications by chance. The Lowell native graduated from high school and then drifted, hanging out at a corner store called Bill's Variety near his parent's house.

A regular customer who dropped by for a 10-cent cup of coffee every day asked him whether he would be interested in working for the telephone company . The man brought in some paperwork for the New England Telephone Co., and soon Stott was out in the field, learning the business in switching centers across New England.

Stott's telecommunications career ends this month when he retires as president of the New England region for Verizon Wireless, having watched the rotary dial give way to luminescent touchpads.

"In terms of corporate changes, it's amazing to go from companies that were locally based like New England Telephone and Nynex, to huge global companies," said Mark Horan , executive director of the Massachusetts Network Communications Council. "You've got to be pretty flexible and pretty smart to keep on your feet during all that."

In 1977, Stott became an engineer at New England Telephone Co. He began to work toward a college degree, taking night classes at the University of Lowell and graduating with a degree in applied mathematics in 1988.

In 1986, Stott took over as general manager of engineering and operations in New England for Nynex Mobile Communications Co., believing firmly that mobile phones would succeed.

He had one computer and a room filled with folding chairs and rented tables. There were only 19 cell towers in the area, only about 6,000 customers in New England, and no way to know how big mobile phones would become.

"Bob always believed in it. He had the vision . . . and was always willing to take the next step," said John Williamson , who met Stott when they worked at New England Telephone Co. and came to work for him at Nynex Mobile in the mid-1980s against the advice of others in the industry.

"People told me -- hey, you go there, and in three years that company will be out of business because the cellphone industry will fall flat on its face," Williamson said.

Stott always believed that mobile phones would catch on, but the early days were uncertain times. He asked everyone at Nynex Mobile to count the number of wireless antennae they saw mounted on cars during their morning commute.

"People would come in and say they saw five," he said, smiling. "Five! Wow!"

In 1998, as cellphones were becoming standard, Stott became president of Verizon's New England region. Today, he sees cellphones as the "third screen" in people's lives, along with their television and PC screens. He predicts the phone will surpass those other screens and become the one "converged" device that people will increasingly turn to when they want to watch TV, check e-mail, play games, and talk.

But as mobile phones have become more ubiquitous, so have competitors.

Ten years ago, the competition was clear: other wireless carriers.

"Now, you've got iPod, you've got Google, Yahoo. Our list of competitors is so much broader now. It goes on and on; it adds so much complexity to business life," he said.

Facing those challenges, Stott says Verizon's strategy has been to focus on the wireless network and customer service. He anticipate s that Verizon Wireless, which is jointly owned by Verizon and Vodafone, will be bought outright by Verizon as companies work to give customers mobile access to the files on their home computer and the entertainment options in their living room.

In retirement, the long-distance runner and cancer survivor known for his optimism and his competitive streak will still get up around 4 a.m. He plans to continue his philanthropic work with the American Cancer Society, and says a 150-mile run through the Gobi Desert is on his to-do list.

But the man who had a key role in the shift from wired to wireless telecommunications said he is always on the lookout for the next big idea, the new device or service that will change the way people communicate and interact.

Society has come a long way since the Blizzard of '78, when he and a colleague pulled over and searched for pay phones on their drive into work, to alert the office of their progress.

"This was a new technology. It gave me the ability to start something from the ground up," he said.

"Every step of the way has been fun."

Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at cjohnson@globe.com.