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The early history of Spectrum Cellular Corp. reads like one of those legendary high-tech success stories.
On a Saturday morning two years ago, Dana Verrill and his partners gathered around a kitchen table to brainstorm about the growing world of cellular telephones.
The result was an idea to develop and market a high-speed modem that would allow data, not just voices, to be transmitted over cellular telephone lines.
The modem -- currently the only one of its kind -- was designed to link laptop computers to cellular telephones. It allows mobile businessmen, while in their cars, to stay in touch with data bases stored in office computers.
"We wanted to come up with something proprietary, a product that would let us stand out from the crowd," said Verrill, Spectrum's president.
The company's modem does that, and Spectrum's marketing strategies appear to have been similarly successful, said industry observers.
Spectrum's products are now being tested by companies like General Motors and Hewlett-Packard. Its modems are being produced on private labels for three regional phone companies, and the systems also are being integrated into the next generation of laptop machines manufactured by two computer makers.
The latter contracts for original equipment manufacturing hold the greatest promise for Spectrum, experts said. Wider acceptance could lead to the modem being adopted as an industry-wide standard, in which case it would be installed as standard equipment in laptop computers.
In such cases, Spectrum will receive a royalty for each machine that contains the technology. But Verrill said most of the company's revenues over the next 12 to 18 months would come from finished modems marketed through regional phone companies.
IBM's announcement on April 2 that it was entering the laptop market is likely to bolster those returns. Because Spectrum's success is directly linked to sales...