Flat-Rate Wireless Where The Sun Don't Shine (Much)

Tantus writes: "Something I've been drooling for for years has finally started to see the light of day... and it's not even close to where I am! I work for a company that does help desk outsourcing for a small startup in the ND, SD, and MN area called Monet Mobile http://www.monetmobile.com, which hopefully will hopefully start a wireless trend that will spread beyond Fargo, ND... Up to twice modem speeds and a $49 flat fee for your laptop or home. Sigh ..." This service sounds much like Ricochet's, for those lucky enough to live in range. Nice to see a wireless option starting up rather than shutting down

Comments

Ricochet Coming Back?

[instinctdesign]

Isn't the Ricochet network being restarted by its new owner? Here is a C|Net article on it.

Re:Ricochet Coming Back?

[timothy]

Well, there's hope of it, anyhow --
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/11/05/229204 .

It would be a shame for all that infrastructure to go to waste -- 128Kbps, flat rate, is really all I need for the most part. Sure, I like cable modems, DSL, and faster things when I have them to use, but on a day-t'-day basis, 128 wireless and flat-rate would be not bad. However, this stuff is so far still too localized for me to buy a Honda Goldwing and roam the country with an always-connected laptop. Low-Earth-Orbit Satellites are what I'm looking for.

Cheers,

timothy

Flat Rate Wireless

[atrowe]

I think that as soon as providers start offering flat rate wireless, the service will really take off. I used to work for a wireless phone company, and numerous consumer surveys have shown that flat rate pay plans with the same billing each month is what most consumers want. We're already doing this with landline phones and Internet access, and I feel that flat-rate cell plans are the next natural step in this direction.

The infrastructure to do this has been in place for several years now, and It's just up to cellular service providers to adopt a flat pricing plan and go from there. In fact, there are already several providers my locality who are offering unlimited usage for around $50/month.

The US has taken a lot of flak from critics about being slow to adopt cellular technologies, and I think this is a definite step in the right direction. We may not have Bluetooth or 3G yet, but nobody really needs those bells and whistles anyway. I want a cheap cell phone that will work just like my regular landline phone, and hopefully that's what flat rate pricing will allow. In some third world countries like Britain and Japan, their regular phones don't even have unlimited usage. You make a local call in a less industrialized nation like Britain, and you're going to be paying by the minute.

Check *this* out...

[jcapell]

[boast]

Just got it installed this week:

My Internet Connection

I got tired of my cable modem losing signal everytime it rained, and DirecTV-DSL (Telocity) was dissapointing, so I got me a dedicated 1.54Mb microwave wireless connection from MCI Worldcomm about 2 hops off UUNets's backbone.

Ok, so its about $340.00 a month, but I can write it off ;-)

While I'm bragging, also check out my Tower O' Power

[/boast]

Several such things exist.

[Segfault 11]

Having worked for an ISP out of Mankato, MN, I can tell you that there are several areas with wireless access. Rural areas are taking to wireless as the solution for their local utilities' lack of interest and/or ability to provide alternatives:
http://www.wirelessinitiative.net/

In Duluth, my friend used to work for Superior Broadband, where fixed wireless is available throughout the city and neighboring towns.

For (soon-to-be) college kids

[ekrout]

If you're thinking wireless, and you're considering college, check out Virginia Tech. They just bought four OC-12's, and are supposedly putting up wireless thru the entire campus this winter, or spring. Its already available in some parts of campus. I don't go there, but I've heard good things. Georgie Tech and Bucknell also are pursuing (and using, to some extent) 802.11b.

The Midwest...

[drenehtsral]

The midwest is a wireless imlementor's dream. There's no hills, no trees, no mountains, and few cities. Any line-of-sight wireless system will thrive there because initially when the customer base is small, they can still cover a large service area with a small number of towers, and then ass they fill up decrease transmitter power and increase density of towers.