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

To: rrufff who wrote (3302)	5/26/2001 12:12:34 PM
From: Lewis Edinburg	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3376

I notice that Wireless WebConnect is now trying out a second variation of the Home user pricing. They first offered "local only" service in San Diego for $45/month for 128K service. Now they are also experimenting with "local only" service in the San Francisco Bay area for $40/month but for 64K service. I don't know whether this means that they found luke warm reception by home users in San Diego for the $45 price or they are getting more aggressive and trying a second variation at the lower download speed. If and when they get around to offering 128K local-only service for the Bay Area for $45/month I will sign up for the service. I previously subscribed to Ricochet1 service for three years but when my annual contract was up for renewal around the time when R2 was going to launch I called Metricom's Customer Service to find what my options would be. (In the years leading up to R2 service Metricom repeatedly told us they would "do right" by their original subscribers.) I called Metricom last Summer to inquire what my options were and was told that I had just one: to sign up for R2 at $79/month. They did not mention that I would be able to continue my R1 service. If they had, I would have kept R1 service and then see what happened since the alternatives for always on service all stink. Instead, since they didn't give me any viable option, I dropped my Ricochet service. These new Home-Only user plans are the first sign of some intelligent marketing of the Ricochet service. I still believe that they priced unlimited service too high but at least they are now considering alternatives. I truly believe that if Metricom (and its resellers) had priced Ricochet service at $50/month then they would have had people lining up to sign up for service. While there is still no competition from any of the cellular alternatives, Ricochet could have become the de facto standard for high speed wireless internet connection. Since Metricom incurs most of the expense of the service, doesn't it make sense for the resellers to have ten times as many subscribers and they make $20/subscriber (i.e. sell service at $50/month minus the flat $30/month that Metricom gets per subscriber) rather than have one tenth that many and make $50/subscriber? I'm not sure who was the dumber partner in this marketing arrangement that Metricom set up with their resellers. Metricom people have told me that their market research told them that pricing Ricochet service at $75-$100/month was the "Sweet Spot". Obviously, Metricom's Marketing Department had found another Market Research company that was just as incompetent as Metricom's Marketing Department has been and continues to be from Day One. We don't often see much about Metricom to feel good about so it is encouraging to see that maybe the resellers may save Metricom's hide.