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Aerie Networks to Reactivate Ricochet Service?
JimDog writes: "Aerie Networks is apparently buying the assets and IP of Metricom's Ricochet service and plans to reactivate it in at least some of the former coverage areas. A more detailed press release in PDF format is available here." There might be some hope for Ricochet addicts after all.
Although you can no longer get to it from the main web site (which has been replaced with a bankruptcy notice), the coverage maps are still available. I believe Metricom also built infrastructure in some additional metro areas where service was never officially announced and no coverage maps are available, but Aerie has the rights to that equipment as well. Some of those metros include Chicago and Salt Lake City.
At this url: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-7783542.html? tag=owv there's info on Aerie Networks looking to talk to municipal governments resell their wireless services like utilities. So not only are they reactivating it in some areas, they're also looking for new ways to sell their services and hopefully turn a profit unlike Metricom.
I have heard mixed things about Metricom's Ricochet service when I was researching what high-speed internet I should look into. Here is some background information on the service if you don't know much about it yet: Metricom's MicroCellular Data Network technology operates via 900MHz radios atop streetlamps and utility poles. The technology doesn't sound isn't entirely new at first. It has been running since 1996 (at speeds of 28.8kbits/s) in some areas and for the low price of $30 a month that is still a bargain today. Recently, Metricom revamped the service and got it up to a more pleasing number: 128Kbits/sec. The problem now is that Metricom decided to sell the service through "Ricochet Authorized Service Providers." The prices on this were in the $75 range (not to mention a sweltering $300 for a modem).
So what is so great about this service? Well it comes with a 10-ounce external modem that can be used on your laptop. Not only does this modem have its own rechargeable battery but it also connects via serial or USB. And even better is that the service is compatible with not only Win 9x and 2000 but also Macintosh, Linux, Windows CE, or any other OS with PPP software.
So if you were wondering why some people liked the service so much hopefully you know now. The reason I didn't go with it was some of the reviews said that it ran too slow in my area. So I got AT&T Roadrunner... the service could be better and I can't take it on the road with me but this is fast enough for me and that's good enough for now. Maybe now that some more life is getting pumped into the service and a new owner is running the show I'll look into it once again.
the byproduct of years of oppression by the white man
I came into the company at a time when the .com boom was just starting to happen. I was young and didn't quite understand business politics yet, so I thought it was right to point out when things are outright ripping off the customer or in the very least preventing the company from dominating the market. My "self rightousness" cost me my job.
You see my freinds, the ricochet development cycle really ended after the first modem was introduced. Sure it got smaller and faster, or so you think. The ricochet was allways capable of 128kbps speed. There was a s register that could change the modem speed to that maximum rate, but unless you were transferring from ricochet to ricochet at a distance of 100 feet or less, you would never see 128kbps from their network. This is because the poletops were set at 9600baud.
Now to understand how you can get 28.8 from poletops set at 9600 you have to understand how the ricochet network works. Basically you are surrounded by these poletops, all shooting out bits at 9600 baud, they are multiplexed together by your modem and combined to get the desired bandwidth. Thus 9600 from 3 poletops would give you 28.8. Internally people who knew about this and thought it was wrong were fired over the years. There was a lot of them trust me.
Whenever a new modem standard like 33.6 or 56k came out, metricom would release a new "Modem software upgrade" that "contained new code!" that would magically turn your 33.6 ricochet into a 28.8 one. All it did was change the default setting of that S Register, maybe some new stuff was added, but thats about it. Nothing really magical or fancy, they fired all the real engineers that created the modem in the first place long ago. All that was left was a skeletal crew that could never really improve the internal electronics design.
When they were "Upgrading the Ricochet Network!" this was nothing more than more smoke up the ass of ricochet users. The poletops speed was simply set from 9600 to anything higher. Just a stupid S register that was allways there.
I think Ricochet's real downfall wasn't the technology, when it was introduced allmost 5 years ago, it was capable of delivering 128kbps service. So the failure can only be found in the strategy used by the marketdroids. $20@month for 128kbps wireless internet service vs $20@month for a standard 28.8 isp would have sold a lot more modems than the $40@mo ricochet $20@mo standard ISP model that they took.
They did do an amazing job creating the network, just a shame that they never put that same effort into people that acually understood the internet market. People have allways gone with the cheaper ISP simply because they want to save money. Anyways I hope no heads roll from my comment.
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