It falls to the entrepreneurs to break the game open--young companies with nothing to lose and everything to gain in a market where garnering a mere 3 percent share can create billion-dollar valuations. Here are four companies to watch, all pursuing broadband, all eschewing the consumer as each focuses on business connectivity, and all utilizing emerging millimeter wave wireless technologies.

WinStar Leader of the pack, WinStar Telecommunications (www.winstar.com), got a head start thanks to a far-sighted speculator who played the license game with such skill that he locked up one of the largest swatches of privately owned spectrum in the world (see "The Building Blocks for a Competitive Future," techweb.cmp.com/nc/611/611frezza.html). WinStar offers commercial service in 12 cities with plans to roll out in 47 of the top 50 U.S. markets. Providing a mix of T1 and T3 servic es, WinStar utilizes 38-GHz channels that form the "last mile" of a hub-and-spoke system interconnecting customers with the ba ckbone wireline carriers. Targeting small-to-midsize businesses, WinStar offers local, long-distance and Internet-access service at prices that start 20 percent below the incumbent carrier.

ART Hot on WinStar's heels is Advance Radio Telecom (www.artelecom.com), the second-largest 38-GHz licensee. Unlike WinStar, which employs more than 400 people in customer sales and service, ART operates as a "carrier's carrier," selling raw transport, but not switching, to competitive local exchange carriers as well as Internet service providers (ISPs). Active in 15 cities, ART is busy buying up roof rights, a critical ingredient in provisioning service since millimeter wave frequencies operate on a line-of-sight basis.

Teligent The most flamboyant of the group, Teligent (www.teligentcorp.com) grabbed the industry's attention when it paid former AT&T president Alex Mandl an eye-popping $20 million bonus to take over as CEO. A subsidiary of Associated Communications, formerly the 14th larges t cellular carrier in the U.S., Teligent operates in the 24-GHz band with plans to offer commercial service in the first half of 1998. Continued legal challenges dog the firm, which had to claw through a gantlet of opposing forces to stake its claim.

WebCel WebCel is the newest and least-known member of the group, a prospective bidder in the upcoming 28-GHz Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS) auction. WebCel's fate depends as much on upcoming court rulings as it does on its innovative business plan. WebCel has been a key proponent for keeping monopoly telco and cable operators out of the auctions, arguing that allowing the monopolies to bid on in-region frequencies will severely distort pricing. LMDS represents the mother load of wireless, with more than 1,300 MHz of spectrum available for advanced fixed services. WebCel's plan to offer wireless ATM at 100 Mbps and up is the most technologically aggressive of the lot.

Probably the most impressive thing about all of these companies is the talent each has attracted. If they can keep the lawyers out of the way, these four will set the world on fire.

Bill Frezza is a general partner at Adams Capital Management. The opinions expressed here are his own. He can be reached at frezza@alum.MIT.EDU or techweb.cmp.com/nc/frezza/frezza.html.