The McCaw Mystery; Billionaire, 45, Seeks A Future. No Hurry.

Craig O. McCaw, who became both a billionaire and unemployed when he sold his cellular telephone company in September to the AT&T Corporation, says he is browsing for new ventures but still does not know what to do with the rest of his life.

Mr. McCaw, who is 45, caused a stir last week by applying to bid in the Federal Communications Commission's December auction of new licenses for wireless telephone and data services.

Speculation began almost immediately. Did the founder of McCaw Cellular Communications plan to compete against his old company? Did he have some radically new idea for using radio frequencies?

Maybe, maybe not. "People shouldn't believe that, just because I got a catalogue from Christies, it means I'm going buy anything," Mr. McCaw said in his first public comment on the issue this week.

"I'm really doing a lot of soul-searching," he said. "Is this going to be embarrassing? Is this going to cause trouble? Do I need to do all this at this point in my life?"

Mr. McCaw has plenty of time -- not to mention money -- on his hands. He was not asked to take an executive role at AT&T when he sold McCaw Cellular, and he announced two weeks ago that he would not serve on AT&T's board. The entrepreneur, who is now AT&T's's biggest shareholder, said he wanted to avoid conflicts of interest.

Mr. McCaw has assembled about a half-dozen associates around him, and he clearly does not plan to retire. He also made it clear that he did not want to start building another cellular telephone company, and that he might be looking for specific opportunities in certain regions of the country.

Even though he is required to put up more than $50 million in earnest money to bid in the auctions for so-called personal communication services, Mr. McCaw said he wanted to keep his options open. "I haven't got a plan," he said.

Instead, he said, he simply told his lawyers to file for permission to bid on every region in which AT&T would not want to bid.

"If the truth be known," he said, "I haven't got a clue."