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Metricom's Ricochet Network Will Go Dark
cloudscout writes "According to this blurb at Go2Mac, the end is finally here for Metricom's Ricochet Network. Employees are being given one week severance. Now who is going to fill this vacuum? CDPD just doesn't cut it."
(with apologies to Paul Simon)
When I think back on all the crap I read on Slashdot
... photographs
... photographs
It's a wonder I can think at all
And though my frequent links to goatse.cx
Haven't hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall
Ricochet
You give us those nice fast downloads
You give us the warez and Napster
Makes you think all the world's a fast freeway, oh yeah!
I got a Sony laptop
I love to look at
So Mama, don't take my Ricochet away
If you took all the sites I read
When I was "working"
And brought them all together for one spell
I know they'd never match
one brilliant round of trolling...
And everything looks worse on DSL
Ricochet
You give us those nice fast downloads
You give us the warez and Napster
Makes you think all the world's a fast freeway, oh yeah!
I got a Sony laptop
I love to look at
So Mama, don't take my Ricochet away
Mama, don't take my Ricochet away
Mama, don't take my Ricochet away
Mama, don't take my Ricochet away
Mama, don't take my Ricochet
Mama, don't take my Ricochet
Mama, don't take my Ricochet (away)
Mama, don't take my Ricochet
Mama, don't take my Ricochet
Mama, don't take my Ricochet (away)
Mama, don't take my Ricochet
(Make your boy just pay and pay)
Mama, don't take my Kodachrome (away)
I have had a Ricochet for 4+ years and every time I pulled it out in public everyone wanted to know about it. Seems that they never told anyone about their service.
I expect someone like Worldcom to puck it up and use that to get into wireless in this country since the Sprint deal fell through. Plus they already offer it as a reseller.
> They currently have 50,000 customers, most of >which are at high-speed.
>
> Are they losing money every month? If so, WHY? >If not, why couldn't a company come in, buy their >assets
> from auction, and start making money?
They are nearly a billion dollars in debt. You can't look at their assets without looking at their liabilities. The service is US$75-80 per
month, and at just 50,000 customers, how will they
ever get out of debt?
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
http://www.ricochet.net/news_events/media_center/
Other interesting tidbits for those to lazy to click thru:
So, it's not quite over yet. But, I won't be holding my breath...
This sucks cause Ricochet was a good service, and its bad news that the flat rate access model got rocked in this case. However, check out this list of top 20 creditors, man those are some debts yo!
At the time that the modems came out, they didn't have anything else to compare them to. Hell, it would be almost another year before we had x2 and kFlex [okay, both kFlexes, if you want to get picky about it], and then almost another year after that before v.90.
So first off, they weren't significantly slower than a standard modem (28.8kbps vs. 33.6kbps). Second, they were only $30/month if you bought the insurance on 'em. [well, I did, so let's forget that other option]. For $30/month, you were getting a dedicated connection.... in 1996. For any of you other folks out there who tried pricing out something similar, you'd be looking at $150+ for port, and the $20 or so for line. [Hell, you still are these days for dedicated dialup in many areas].
Yes, they had a limited area (I got coverage at my apartment, school, National Airport, and my dad's house, but not my mom's.). For those people that fit their demographic, however, it was a godsend. I could get in an hour of mudding while between classes, without having to go down to a crowded computer lab, or trek back home.
I could get online while sitting at my mom's car in the middle of the Pentagon parking lot, waiting for her to get off work. And hell, as it was the earlier model, with the seperate battery pack, I could use it on my desktop machine, too. [Although a foot or two of contract gives you some damned crappy latency, as the repeater was on the dead other side of the building].
The page you linked to reminded me of the people who bitched about CueCat. Yes, the companies are dumbasses for selling the product without forcing you to get the service, too, however, you're thinking rather highly of yourself if you think everyone should just bow down to you and give you stuff for free. If you don't register your shareware programs, the odds are, that people won't continue releasing stuff as shareware, as it's not worth it to them.
If there's a product that you like, that you use, you have to support them. If you don't, they fold, and everyone's screwed in the long run.
Now, is Metricom a good product? Before, yes. Right now, I don't know their pricing model, or their level of service, so I can't make that call. If they're still in the $30/month range, I'd say definately, if you're presently using dialup. If you're in an area that's widely covered, or go through airports that are, it might also be a godsend. Is it competative with DSL / Cable Modems? As strange as this sounds, I'd say yes, but it depends on the pricing model. There's a good market for those people who want to pay a little more for the always-on connection, but can't justify spending $50-$100/month.
PS. not everything's good about metricom. I had bit of a problem returning the modem after I moved out of a service area, and they tried charging me for another year, and I went through a few phone calls to 'em to get it cleared up, and then realized I had the insurance on it, so I could have just told them I lost it, and to eat the cost, rather than me returning it
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
This makes seance, if the network went down then they would lose the 50,000 subscribers, thus making it a less attractive buy.
Usually seven poletop radios are installed per square mile, one wired access point every ten square miles, and one network interface facility per 600 miles. They list a approximate cost of $2,000 per poletop radio. $180,000 per wired access point, and $550,000 per network interface facility. With a average cost per square mile of approximately $33,000.
The above facilities operating cost is approximately $10/mo per poletop radio, $2,000/mo per wired access point, and $10,000/mo per network interface facility. With wired communication costing approximately $900/mo per wired access point and $12,000/mo per network interface facility. Giving a approximate operating cost of $400/mo per square mile.
Metrocom receives approximately $25/mo in revenue per subscriber. They need 16 subscribers per square mile to cover the operating costs, and 44 subscribers per square mile to cover its operating and equipment costs.
The business model calls for a eight to one ratio of paying subscribers to active subscribers. This is based on ~12% of subscribers using the network at once, and each subscriber averaging 500 mb's a month of transfer.
I believe that the model is good but the main issue is with outsourceing the internet service. People I have talked to at WWC state that they are getting raises, and the outlook is good. If Metrocom had done its own internet service and received double the revenue I believe that would presently be on its way to profitability.
All I can say is this is a damn shame. Ricochet had a fine service, while it lasted.
Were they a victim of their own pricing? I think so. If their service had been $40, it could have easily competed with home DSL and cable, and been very attractive to users with no other broadband choices. Instead, they wanted $74.95 (in my area), which buys some DARN high speed DSL.
Maybe I'm missing something (I'm no business major, for sure), but isn't it better to sell your product to triple the number of users for 1/2 the money?
The other thing that killed them was lack of exposure. They just rolled out Los Angeles/Orange County a few months ago, yet I heard nothing about it - I only knew because I'd been watching for it. Even some geeky friends of mine didn't know they'd arrived, or had even never heard of the technology.
Seriously, who would be the kind of company with the capital to afford it, that also has a need for the network? Someone like MCI? One of the cellular providers?
Hey - killer idea - what if PALM bought the network, now that would be HOT. They could replace their current Palm.net offering (slow, expensive) with a high speed, always on offering for the same amount of money, and also tie you into a Palm device at the same time. In fact, the more I think about it, the more it sounds like a damn fine idea! What is a network like Ricochet worth?
Seeing the double extension [...] victim of the SirCam virus
.tar.gz file today and nearly died!
Yup, I saw a
It's a range/speed tradeoff. Ricochet modems have been known to operate at least a mile in most cases. My own tests prove this true, and I can't get near that range with my 802.11 cards.
I've also heard stories (from Metricom representatives before they went anti-P2P) of cases where people have achieved up to 10 miles in areas with no obstructions; ie, when used over water, plains, or to link two tall buildings.
-Justin
They sucked anyway.
'course, if they are truly going to pack up and go home, maybe it's time to head to Fry's and stock up?
You mean "ricochet" won't bounce back this time?
* rimshot *
Lucky for me, there's no "that joke should be taken out back and shot repeatedly in the head until it screams and dies and then shot some more" moderation choice.
:-D
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