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Technology Stocks : METRICOM - Wireless Data Communications -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rich Wolf who wrote (2366)	7/26/2000 3:00:50 AM
From: Rich Wolf	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3376

Consider the business model MCOM has chosen: (cross post from yahoo) <<Comparing ATHM and MCOM by: mvpel (29/M/San Jose, CA) 7/26/00 2:11 am Msg: 75884 of 75893 Also, there's a difference between Metricom and ATHM - and I've owned both - that is crucial in understanding the importance of the way in which Metricom has set up their business model. Ultimately, Excite@Home is an ISP, just like Juno or UUnet or AOL. The only difference is that they happen to be an ISP with access to the cable lines to reach their subscribers. This is the "monopoly" that's going to go away in 2002 when the cable lines are opened to the likes of Juno and UUnet to provide bandwidth to cable subscribers. Metricom is absolutely NOT in the same position. Metricom is analagous to the telephone companies that modem-users dial up to AOL, Juno, or UUnet over. They're analagous to the companies who own the cable lines that ATHM is using to reach those customers. Metricom is starting out from the beginning with a policy of "open access." They used to be their own ISP, with the whole "ricochet.net" address, but they may well have realized that what happened to ATHM would happen to them eventually. MCI/Worldcom and Juno and whoever else signs on to be Ricochet providers are equivalent to Excite@Home in the wake of the 2002 open access to cable lines. Maybe Excite@Home will become a Ricochet reseller, eh? Just as the cable companies will still make money leasing the lines to the ISPs, and the phone companies make money off of phone lines installed for Internet access, Metricom will make money off of the providers who use their network. They've got the patents, the technology, and the backing to build a powerful network covering the majority of the population centers of the US. And given their decided advantage of using unlicensed spectrum which allows them to charge flat fee, unlimited use rates as opposed to the billion-dollar-spectrum wireless companies, it's not likely, in my opinion, that they will face serious competition even in 2 years. In 2 years, the wireless hucksters hawking their 3G wares will be where Metricom is now, but they'll be two years along in their technological growth with a solid subscriber base and a slew of rights-of-way and a huge installed network. -Michael Pelletier. dd-b.net >>