Morgan O’Brien is a wireless industry pioneer and was co-founder and Chairman of Nextel Communications, Inc. He began his career as an attorney at the FCC in the late 1960s and was an early advocate for land mobile communication services. He later became a partner at Becker, Gurman, Lukas, Meyers, O’Brien & McGowan. He assisted companies in navigating through wireless policy, acquisitions and licensing for the initial cellular systems.

In 1987, Morgan founded FleetCall along with Brian McAuley, Chris Rogers, and Peter Reinheimer. The name referred to “fleet dispatch” which at the time used 800 MHz specialized mobile radio frequencies. In 1993 it was renamed Nextel Communications, Inc. and provided digital and wireless communications services. Morgan led Nextel in the creation of the first all-digital nationwide wireless network (the Nextel National Network using iDEN technology developed by Motorola for Nextel) and brought push-to-talk (PTT) communication to the mass business and consumer market. Nextel was consistently among the top 5 wireless providers in the country.  When Nextel was acquired by Sprint in 2005, the company had over twenty million subscribers in the U.S. and served 198 of the top 200 markets.

Morgan then founded Cyren Call Communications in 2006 serving public safety agencies, and was its chairman until 2009. He also co-founded PacificData Vision (later renamed pdv Wireless) with Brian McAuley. pdv Wireless ultimately acquired Sprint’s 900 MHz spectrum in 2014, which was originally sold to Sprint by Nextel.  In 2019 pdv rebranded as Anterix, and is the largest holder of licensed spectrum in the 900 MHz band in the U.S., serving utilities and technology companies. Morgan served as Anterix president and CEO, and then as Chairman of the Board until December 2024.

Over the years Morgan has received many honors including New Jersey Entrepreneur of the Year in 1987, RCR Person of the Year in both 1993 and 2006, and the Armstrong Medal in 2016 from the Radio Club of America.  He was inducted into the Washington, DC Business Hall of Fame in 2005, named a Fellow of the Radio Club of America in 2007, and was called “one of the top U.S. wireless innovators of all time” by Fierce Wireless.  Morgan is a graduate of Georgetown University and received his law degree from Northwestern University.  He was inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame in 2001.