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Ricochet Dead By June?
corky6921 writes "ZDNet is reporting that Metricom, the parent company of the Ricochet wireless network, may be out of cash and dead as soon as June! Forget Omnisky (the other company they mention in the article)" Richochet has always been in that group of really cool technologies that I fully accept will never make it out to where I live. But I hope it makes it. National coverage would be cool to tho ;)
Ricochet might be useful to users of ricochet themselves, but other people trying to use the same radio bands as ricochet are SOL.
Their original system used to run 900Mhz, with their new system running 2.4Ghz. Both of these are unlicensed public-use bands. They put up their 900Mhz/2.4Ghz repeaters everywhere and pretty much make those frequencies imposible for anyone else to use except for very short ranges (i.e. in their own homes).
I used to live up in the mountains, where I had a homebrew 2.4Ghz wireless link down into Santa clara valley for my interenet connection. Worked like a charm untill Richochet started rolling out it's test 128K service; then they flooded the 2.4Ghz band and made our equipment useless.
So, for me this is good news that ricochet will finally 'go away'. Besides, nowadays you can get nearly the same service by the cellular networks.
-- Greg
Slashdot, would a spell-checker for posting be too much to ask? It's not rocket science!
I've been a happy user of 128k Ricochet in the SF Bay area since the day it became available. It has absolutely lived up to its potential thus far. I regularly see speeds in excess of 160kbps - my record is over 256kbps downloading a mozilla nightly. It works beautifully under any OS that supports PPP. It's flat rate ($68/month when prepaid for a year), and is at least 20 times faster than any pay-per-minute/byte connectivity like GSM Data, CDPD, Mobitex, etc.
Basically, it rocks. Yes, it's slower than DSL, but try taking that DSL with you to your local coffeeshop or to work (!). As a UNIX consultant, Ricochet is invaluable to me as it allows me to bring my own, independent connectivity to my client's site. It's worth every penny to me.
Let the naysayers not forget that Metricom is backed by Paul Allen and MCI Worldcom, and already has a functioning, high-speed data network in most of the major metro areas in the US. (No, there's not national coverage in every two-horse town, but such areas lack the density to make rollout worthwhile right now.)
Anyhow, even if Metricom goes belly up, their existing wireless network is a tremendous asset, and I can't see service ceasing in currently served locales. Someone else will pick this asset up in the (rather unlikely) event of a liquidation.
I think this article is more a propaganda piece for Omnisky (*cough*majorzdnetadvertiser*cough*), more than anything particularly revelatory about Metricom. I certainly don't have any problem with Omnisky, mind - it's just that their slow, PDA-only service doesn't meet my needs. Bully for them if they're on track for profitability; they're simply reselling existing CDPD service with PDA-specifc radio modems, and their competitor is palm.net, not Metricom.
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
Your bandwidth numbers don't match my experience. I'm the new proud owner of a Merlin ricochet pcmcia card -- no bulky modem to lug around (a kernel patch is required to get it working at these speeds). I regularly get 25k/s off of it. This may be because their network is rather er, underused. My radio can typically "see" 5 to 8 pole-top stations, and 0 to 2 other customers.
It's worth it for me.
I use dsl when I'm at home, but this card has added 1.5 hours of useful computer time to my day (I commute by train). It also lets me spend the odd work-day in the park. Worth every penny.
You're quite right about me being in a minority though. What percentage of people have laptops, and what percentage of those either commute by public transit or need to be/can be online in the field when working? Not too many.
--
see shy jo
This is actually sort of relevant: Check out the comment I made earlier today about Rolling Your Own Internet Connection.
In short:
The Register has this story about Laramie, Wyoming, where they run their own non-profit community wireless Internet service. It includes high-speed Net access service for a fraction of the price of most services in the US. Normal dial-up service is $5 a month, $20-$30 a month for high speed (10MB/second). Businesses can now get T1 wireless or SDSL for fee $125 monthly. Information on how to set up a similar enterprise can be found on their site.
Bottom line is that a bunch of geeks can get together, form their own user groups, and ust the group to set up their own ISP, with their own rules for fairly cheap.
On a separate note, I have seen some of the new Omnisky products, and I got to say that they seem to be pretty solid. They must be putting in some pretty intense QA on them, all things considered.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Ricochet has been doomed for a long time because it's been too slow; You were hard-pressed to get anything better than 28.8Kbps out of it before this latest upgrade that supposedly gives you 128Kbps. Then, it was $40; Now, it's $80. The fact that you can take it with you is nice, but at best it's no faster than ISDN. When modems were king, ricochet was a great solution because it was just as fast, still priced within the realm of reason, and portable.
Now, ricochet is more than twice as much as land-line-based modem service, and only about three times as fast; It's also over $50, which is a magical price point for many (if not most) people. It's literally twice as much as basic ADSL from pacific bell (I don't know what DSL prices are like when you're not on the left coast) and about twice as much as cable modem service, on average. However, 128Kbps is a lot less than 1544Kbps, which is what I get downstream on the basic rate ADSL at home.
They'd have been better off providing 64Kbps for $40 a month. (Both would be even better.) $40 seems to be the magical price at which people sign up in droves. 64k is pretty decent; Definitely enough to websurf meaningfully. I know that 128Kbps is about the right point for downloading mp3s, which is probably what they were thinking, but $80 is too much.
I'm not saying that no one will sign up for ricochet at this higher price; Doubtless a number of you are using your 128Kbps ricochet to read this comment right now, and every other word out of your mouth is gonna be "bullshit", but let me tell you, you are insignificant. The far vaster majority is going to decide it costs too much, and live without wireless. They're going to get a DOCSIS CM or get *DSL and forget all about this ricochet thing. They priced themselves out of a market. This may be a great solution for some of you, just like the Motorola Mobydem was a great solution for some people, or Iridium.
In any case, unless the price-point drops somehow, and they get more subscribers, they won't be able to expand into new markets and get more subscribers, QED.
--
ALL YOUR KARMA ARE BELONG TO US
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I can see why their network would have problems. They used to be a niche market that allowed mobile IP services. Now the cell companies have steped into the fray with CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data) which was an adaptation of the pre-existing AMPS (American Mobile Phone System aka Analag) networks. Now most or the wireless mobile IP devices use CDPD because analog phone networks are almost everywhere in the nation. However I believe that Ricochet had faster speeds available, whereas CDPD is 33Kbit. Things are only going to get tougher for Ricochet when AT&T introduces their wireless boadband to the home and stuff.
It's a good network, good design, but might be outmarketed... However there are some market segments they could get into if they wanted to like automated meter readers which PG&E is doing with CellNet who uses a system similar to Ricochet's. If ya think computing is krazy, try cellular... it's even stranger...
---- Fight to protect your right to keep and arm bears! ummmm... ya I think that's right....
Fuck national coverage, I merely want coverage. My area has limited to no coverage for Ricochet which I've been excited about since I first heard about it. I'd pay 80$ for a 128k connection that traveled with my Powerbook. Metricom's major problem is and was availability. Of course a new service like this takes time to percolate to new areas but they spent a wad of cash on advertising and getting product recognition before they could feasibly deliver their product to anyone who might want to use it. I really doubt they would be in such troubles now if they would have spent more money on deployment rather than advertising; if they had wider deployment and penetration right now they could offer up licenses for other companies to use their networks/patents. Their advertising dollar would have been better spent if they really pushed the corporate buttons rather than a dumb campaign geared towards crow-like home consumers. IBM advertises to businesses correctly. PHBs see IBM commercials and get a sense of awe and the next day ask their IT manager if they can handle a bajillion hits every second and some other mumbo jumbo. Metricom ought to have learned from them. Point out to PHB types that connectiveity is a good thing and wireless connectivity for traveling types is even better. Once they grabbed a bunch of corporate accounts they should have gone after the college student and oddly enough college faculty. Get schools to host relay stations and the student body will cream themselves because they can for a nominal fee (tacked onto their housing bill) use napster from the park by the school or from non-connected buildings. Both of these customer bases are going to be purchasing year or multiple year contracts for a fair number of people and in the case of college campuses support their network and increase availbility. Poor Metricom.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
true. I've been watching their coverage creep closer and closer to where I live. I can't believe this isn't a viable business model - wireless 128k service for $75 a month or something? Shit, my 384k DSL line costs me around $90/month. I've been strapped with a piece of junk cellular "modem" at 14.4 for so long it's ridiculous. My guess is that most people just don't know about it. They need a big partner I think to help get the word out.
OmniSky and Ricochet are not in the same category - OmniSky uses the existing CDPD network of AT&T, cranking along at a good 10kbps Internet throughput on a good day. Yes, I have OmniSky for my Palm Vx, but I really could use another 20-30 kbps!!!
Ricochet, on the other hand, has built out its own network. They sneaked into the consumer market by first selling remote monitoring services to power companies, who in turn let them mount the units on the light poles (where the repeaters can get power from as well). I used Ricochet's first service, that delivered ~20 kbps Internet throughput. I abandoned it for the slower Verizon CDPD because it was available in a NIC version as a PC card instead of a separate modem that seemed to disconnect every micro cell hop as I drove. (Actually, the separate modem part is cool in that you have an extra battery, and can mount it farther from your PC without cable loss. OmniSky's Minstrel modem has its own battery, but form-fits around the Palm.)
I've been waiting to try out Ricochet's "128kbps" service, that does seem to provide 50-100kbps of Internet throughput from what I've heard. However, it hasn't made it to the Washington, DC metro area yet. There are PCMCIA cards for the new Ricochet now, and I believe there is a NIC version as well.
Probably the best use for Ricochet is not with a laptop, but with a WinCE/Linux PDA running a reasonable Web browser, email client, etc. At the Ricochet 128kbps level, you can imagine sourcing/receiving streaming video, webcams, streamed MP3s, etc., going well beyond the world of Palms. Also, there is the concept of "Social ASPs", instant messaging and other mechanism to help organize groups of people for both recreational and business reasons in the mobile (club-going, bar-hopping, sales show) environment.
I don't buy that any homebuilt 802.11b networks will be able to compete with a network that is built out as large as Ricochet. There are a bunch of issues - for one, it isn't enough just to have repeaters, you need connection to the Internet. The question of who gets billed for this is the major problem.
However, there is something to be said for local Ricochet gateways. I know in the olden days, Ricochet would work with a University to set up a micro-cell campus network. I think that those deals have to be put aside for now until the major Metro area buildouts are done, but in the future companies and Universities should be sold local Ricochet gateways.
BTW, check out the CarlaZone, my fiance who has a Webcam powered by Verizon CDPD. We take it along in the car sometimes.
and allows a country with a substandard communication infrastructure, like sub Saharan Afrca, leapfrog their 100 year old technology and jump right into the 21st century.
This is probably why wireless is so prevalent in England, too.
Ricochet announced earnings the other day. In that announcement, they mentioned that they don't have the operating capital to continue indefinitely, and that they're seeking another round of funding.
/. story, and refuse to buy the service on the basis of it, without reading any further. The headline, while untrue, becomes a fait accompli.
Just like umpteen other companies out there. Why not a story about the SEC investigation of Lucent? The Congressional hearings on ICANN? The similar situation of any number of other companies (e.g., Tivo, which recently offered preferred stock to prevent a potential hostile takeover?) Why take what these days amounts to boilerplate in an earnings statement for a high-tech company and blow it out of proportion?
Stories like this do more damage to struggling companies than the current market situation...people see the
Me? I'm taking delivery of my 128kbps PCMCIA Ricochet modem this afternoon.
.@.