(FORTUNE Magazine) – Cellphone pioneer Craig McCaw surprised the ailing telecom industry in June when he decided to launch Clearwire, a wireless network that will compete with high-speed Internet services offered by cable and DSL providers. This isn't the first consumer venture for the reclusive billionaire. Twenty years ago McCaw cobbled together pieces of spectrum to create the first national cellular network, which he sold to AT&T for $11.5 billion in 1994. Since then he has become a serial entrepreneur and investor, with successes like Nextel (which enjoys a stellar reputation in the mobile world) but also stumbles like XO, which filed for bankruptcy in 2002 after racking up liabilities of $8.5 billion, and Teledesic, the satellite company that never launched a satellite. McCaw, 54, recently spoke to FORTUNE's Christine Y. Chen about his newest bet, the perils of running a public company, and buying used cameras on eBay.

Everyone wants to know--what is Clearwire?

As opposed to some of the reports circulating, there is no grand scheme. We're essentially picking our way through the land mines in telecom. It's basic broadband-access technology, competitive with DSL and cable modems. Since it's wireless, it is especially good as an alternative in spaces where DSL and cable can't exist.

How will Clearwire work?

The consumer simply goes and picks up a box and plugs it into the back of a computer. We put antennas on towers. In that way, it is like cellular lite.

Some analysts are saying that eventually you'll have to take the company public. Would you ever want to run a public company again?

I think September 1994 was the last time I served as CEO of a public company. It's much harder to be a public company than in the old days when we had a lot of fun operating at will. In this era you have to tell people too much, and you have a lot of people helping you in the boardroom. It's not something we look forward to, but someday it may happen.

You spent so long building McCaw Cellular before you sold it in 1994, and now, in its current troubled incarnation as AT&T Wireless, it's being sold to Cingular. Thoughts?

I feel bad about the impact that the past few years have had on the employees who helped build the company. They didn't get to be part of a winning team, and that's what I feel worst about. I don't ever want to criticize the operation or other people, but my view is that the company had much more opportunity than it realized.

How many companies are you invested in?

We're trying not to make tons of willy-nilly investments. We're taking an active role in maybe ten. Of the ones we want to talk about, we'd probably say Radio Frame, NextNet, and Clearwire.

You've spent heavily on the satellite business--a quagmire for many investors, including you. What's going on?

We elected not to go forward with Teledesic because the financial markets were so horrible. But we're still pressing forward with New ICO [another satellite company] and are waiting for the environment to change to launch service. Sometimes we're stubborn beyond the point of good sense.

You ran Nextel, Nextlink was the former name of XO, and now you've acquired a company called NextNet. What's the deal with all the "nexts"?

I said, "No more nexts!" And along came NextNet, and I said, "Oh, that's not so bad." It was actually by complete happenstance. Next question!

What websites are you using these days?

Google, of course. And on eBay, I just bought a used Sony video camera. It was the latest model. It's good to buy used; they go out of date so fast.

Are you still yachting? Any plans to sponsor another America's Cup team the way you did two years ago?

I'm still boating. "Yachting" is such a foppish term, so I don't like it. I found the America's Cup to not be very collegial. And I think it's too expensive to go play with it in Europe.