Why didn't my broker tell me about this one department -
The strange case of SWOMI
Are you ready for mobile -- yes, that's MOBILE -- wireless Internet connectivity at T-1 speeds?
Gerry Blackwell - Word has been getting around about some very cool high-bandwidth mobile wireless technology—from a company known for a completely different line of business. Sounds awesome, but no one we could find has actually seen it demo'ed and unanswered questions abound.
This is the story of an interesting new wireless Internet technology and service called SWOMI (Seamless Wireless Omni-directional Mobile Internet), from BIFS Technologies Corp. of Sarasota, Fla.
ISPs might want to keep SWOMI on their radar screens, for reasons that should become clear.
Detour
But there is a subplot to this story that I need to introduce first. This part of the story says a lot about how not to launch an interesting new wireless Internet technology.
One twist in the subplot is that your faithful correspondent has not actually interviewed the masterminds behind SWOMI in person. This is because they do not grant interviews.
According to Tom Cannon of BIFS, one of three non-spokespersons whom I conversed with all too briefly on the phone, the company's experience has been that telephone and in-person interviews were too often "misconstrued."
BIFS did, however, deign to answer questions by e-mail—many it appears by clipping and pasting text from existing marketing bumpf.
We'll return to this exciting subplot later and explain some of the background to why BIFS might be a teensy bit media shy. But first, let me tell you what I know for sure about SWOMI. I think.
End Detour
SWOMI is a mobile Internet technology that operates in the unlicensed ISM (2.4GHz) band. However, the company expects also to deploy it to provide fixed wireless Internet access, apparently mainly to residences.
Although some of the company literature talks about data throughput up to 2 megabits per second (Mbps), Scott Neils and Ken Bourg of BIFS, who prepared the answers to my e-mailed questions, say the technology is capable of "speeds up to T-1." T-1 is 1.544 Mb, of course, so we're not sure which is correct.
One possible explanation for this minor discrepancy and some other oddities in the SWOMI story is that BIFS made its move too soon—as B.B. King would say—that the technology was in fact still under development when the company started publicizing it as a done thing.
This is pure speculation on my part, however.
Wireless cellular Ethernet?
SWOMI can be implemented in a cellular-like network that allows for seamless handoff from cell to cell. I asked if it would be possible to maintain a connection at highway speeds. Neils and Bourg wrote back:
"We have driven at local highway speeds and have not lost signal or degradation in signal as long as we are within service cells."
In a discussion group at the new SWOMI Web site I found mention of testers watching streaming video TV on their laptops while driving down the highway—not very safe perhaps, but an impressive achievement if true.
SWOMI is an Ethernet-based technology. To use the service, a computer needs to be equipped with an Ethernet network card.
The other piece of essential hardware is the wireless antenna/transceiver that BIFS describes as a "1-by-3-by-5-inch S-shaped box that affixes to your desktop or laptop computer." (Affixes? Imprecision appears to be a SWOMI hallmark.)
The technology was co-developed by BIFS subsidiary beachaccess.net Inc., a Myrtle Beach, South Carolina ISP, and Revcon Technologies Corp., a Tenessee-based company that beachaccess acquired earlier this year.
The Revcon work on SWOMI started as a project to create a system for police vehicles. Beachaccess president Jay Knabb is credited with developing the SWOMI "concept."
Getting real?
BIFS is now saying it will kick things off when it launches a "prototype system" covering over 16 contiguous miles in the Myrtle Beach area—by December 2000.
The company has also announced deals with some hotel operators to offer SWOMI-based high-speed Internet services on their properties.
It appears these hotel-property deals will play a part in the Myrtle Beach prototype network. When I asked what kind of business applications SWOMI would target, the answer was:
"Lying on a beach towel viewing the ocean. In their hotel room checking their email from work or relatives. In the hotel conference room attending an industry meeting. By the pool chatting with a friend. Doing research work while on Spring Break."
Neils and Bourg also say SWOMI would be perfect for real estate companies. They could get a new listing out to agents instantly.
Other applications? "And the list goes on…," is how the BIFS e-mail finishes up on this question. In other words, use your imagination. Fair enough.
What's in it for ISPs?
So. SWOMI is at the very least an intriguing technology. And making it more interesting is the fact that the company is looking to franchise the service to ISPs.
"ISPs play a critical role in our vision for this technology," Neils and Bourg write. "SWOMI provides a way for non-metropolitan and rural ISPs to provide reliable, high-speed Internet access with minimal implementation investment."
What kind of "minimal investment" will it take to get in on SWOMI? BIFS can't say yet. The franchise program is "still under development."
Another Detour
Returning to our sub-plot: Earlier this year, denizens of some stock market discussion groups on the Web cast aspersions on SWOMI, apparently questioning whether BIFS actually had the technology it said it had.
BIFS, you should understand, is a widely diversified public company trading on the National Daily Quotation Bureau Pink Sheets. Its other main business is water filtration systems—BIFS stands for BIo-Filtration Systems.
(Sub-subplot: The Pink Sheet status is because of a temporary situation related to new SEC regulations, BIFS explains. The company expects to be reinstated as an OTC:BB stock soon.)
The negative buzz from the Web discussion groups was hurting the BIFS stock.
In August, the company announced it was "taking steps to solicit the assistance of Federal Law Enforcement authorities and Securities and Exchanges regulators to investigate the recent attempts by several persons to wrongfully discredit the company, its products, and its executives."
Danger! Wall Ahead
In response to my questions about this situation, however, BIFS erected a stone wall.
Why was there so much controversy in the first place? "Is there a controversy?" the company replied in its e-mail. What happened about the appeal to cops and regulators. "No comment." What impact was there on its stock price. "No comment."
I also asked if BIFS had demonstrated the technology to any credible third-party experts. I had already determined that neither Probe nor Yankee Group, two well-respected telecom research organizations, knew anything about the technology.
Please stay tuned
The answer from BIFS was basically no, but we'll demonstrate the technology to analysts when we go live in December. Fair enough.
Should you take from the slightly skeptical tone of this report that you ought not to go near SWOMI with a ten-foot pole? By no means.
The fact that the company may—may—have made some mistakes along the way and that it hasn't got a clue when it comes to media relations is not inconsistent with it having a breakthrough technology and a very attractive program for ISPs. At least at some point in the future.
You just have to approach BIFS—as you should any potential supplier or partner—with all due diligence.
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