Guglielmo Marconi
loreISP & telecom
The engineer and entrepreneur who turned Hertz's laboratory effect into a transatlantic service, claiming reception of a signal across the Atlantic in 1901.
His technical contribution is contested and his commercial one is not: he built the company, the shore stations and the ship contracts that made wireless a business rather than a demonstration. The pattern is familiar to anyone who has watched a standard win - the person who makes something deployable is frequently not the person who made it work. The claim about the 1901 signal has been questioned on physical grounds ever since, which the record should carry rather than smooth over.
Also known as: marconi