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

To: Tom Day who wrote (616)	2/10/1998 8:32:00 AM
From: HVN	Respond to of 3376

OK. If you insist it's that easy, I'll let you have your say.

To: Tom Day who wrote (616)	2/10/1998 12:18:00 PM
From: Chip Anderson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3376

News from the MCOM site: ======================== Metricom Making "Smart Cars" Smarter Cars are called many things these days: safe, sexy, sporty, sleek. But smart? For anyone unfamiliar with the term, "smart cars" are nothing short of the Internet-on-wheels. Also called "Web cars," they come equipped with onboard computers that can obtain traffic updates and directions, send e-mail, and eventually be able to transmit corrective software to fix mechanical problems roadside. "Smart car" is not a term reserved for the future either. General Motors, Lexus and Mercedes are making them a reality today. And Metricom is one of the reasons why. The Ricochet Wireless Modem and Internet Service is currently being installed in Daimler Benz's new "networked" Mercedes -- an E420 sedan with a 5-inch computer screen on the dashboard, plus two computer screens for use by passengers in the back. Metricom's next-generation, high-speed wireless network and modems, code-named Autobahn, will transfer data to users at 128-kilobits per second -- four times the transmission speed Mercedes achieved with the original Ricochet technology. Right now, Ricochet maintains a constant connection while traveling at speeds of about six miles per hour, although some users have experienced a constant connection while traveling on ferries in Seattle and San Francisco and riding commuter trains in California. With Autobahn's debut in early 1999, users will be able to zip down the highway at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour without the fear of losing that ever-important connection. Speed is just one of the advantages driving auto manufacturers to Metricom. The company's use of densely-packed small radio transmitters, instead of costly and cumbersome cellular towers, allows Ricochet to deliver a constant two-way communication with the Web, bypassing the patchwork nature plaguing cellular communication today. And because Internet communication is much cheaper than cellular communications, Ricochet makes smart cars even smarter with its affordability. So, if a smart car is in your future -- and chances are it will be in all of ours -- then it's likely Metricom will be making you more productive at the wheel as well as at your keyboard.