A competitor to check out
C-Com offers high-speed Web access on the fly
'Mobile office' option
Jill Vardy
Financial Post
OTTAWA - Succumb to the lure of the open road and e-mail the relatives and check your stock quotes while you're out there.
C-Com Satellite System Inc. of Ottawa has created a mobile Internet service that gives people high-speed Web access from anywhere their recreational vehicles or yachts can take them.
The service uses a high-speed satellite downlink, a satellite or cellular return link, C-Com software and a satellite tracking antenna. "In effect, your van, truck or boat becomes a mobile office, where you can browse the Internet at high speed, receive and send e-mail, look up stock quotes and receive all other Internet services that you get from your home-based Internet-enabled PC," the company says.
High-speed Web access on the fly isn't cheap -- 60 hours costs about US$100 -- but it's vastly cheaper than the US$8-11 per minute charged for the satellite cellular service that until now has been the only choice for high-speed mobile Internet.
The lower cost makes it affordable for such organizations as a fire department in California, which is Web-enabling its trucks, and a U.S. library that is installing the C-Com service in its bookmobiles. And the M.S. Chi-Cheemaun, a ferry that runs between Tobermory and South Baymouth, Ont., now offers Internet service to passengers using the C-Com system.
"Our strategy is to be the Internet service provider to the mobile market," says Leslie Klein, president of C-Com. The signals are sent and received through a kettle-sized satellite modem, a dome-like antenna that sits on the top of the vehicle. It allows people to surf the Web while their vehicle is zooming down the highway - preferably driven by someone else.
C-Com has no debt and reported a profit in its last quarter. It has been financed privately and through large sales to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Ontario Hydro. But the company is expected to launch its IPO today with an offering of 4.2 million shares on the Canadian Venture Exchange priced at $1 each.
C-Com is already getting a profile among the booming RV community. RV sales in the U.S. were well above 300,000 last year, and by 2010, the number of RVs on the road is projected to jump to 10 million. |
