SAN DIEGO-In “Mission Impossible” fashion, Metricom Inc. ended years of buildout and anticipation by finally launching the first market for its Ricochet 128 kilobits per second wireless data network in San Diego.
Press conference attendees in San Diego watched a live picture of a diver jump a record-setting 128 feet from a helicopter into the Pacific Ocean off Mission Beach.
The diver then rode a jet ski to shore and handed off a message to a Metricom representative waiting on the beach. She e-mailed the message, using the Ricochet network, to Metricom Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tim Dreisbach, who was hosting the press conference at the Hyatt Islandia Hotel, several miles away.
Dreisbach was able to access the message through his office-based e-mail account. Several seconds later, the computer began to spark and smoke, signaling its “self destruction.”
Virtually any computer or appropriately equipped PDA can access the Ricochet network using wireless modems equipped with the technology, made by Metricom vendor partners Sierra Wireless Inc., Novatel Wirelss Inc., NatSteel Electronics Ltd. and ALPS Electric, among others. Dreisbach said the modems cost between $300 and $350, but the company expects the price to drop to around $200 as more customers are added. Flat-rate service subscriptions cost between $50 and $80 per month.
Metricom will begin the first phase of the company’s 21-market U.S. launch in September, including Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Boston, Dallas and Denver.
First-generation Ricochet services are available in San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C., as well as in 10 national airports, but only at 28.8 kbps. The San Diego launch marks the first move to 128 kpbs, though upload speeds are limited to about half that.
Metricom plans to launch service in Atlanta next and continue launching networks nationwide throughout the year.
