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

To: Victor Cassella who wrote (629)	2/19/1998 12:05:00 PM
From: WTC	Respond to of 3376

Because of the currently high usage fees, DirectPC looks like even more of a niche play than ISDN. Very nice performance on the downstream, but the meter is running, and you have to tie up a telephone line while it's in use. Perhaps long term (at least until Spaceway and Teledesic fly - ho! ho! ho!)-- an access technology for the non-price-sensitive internet junkie beyond the reach of ISDN, LMDS, Wireless Cable data services, Autobahn, xDSL, cable modems ...

To: Victor Cassella who wrote (629)	2/19/1998 1:17:00 PM
From: Chip Anderson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3376

Metricom is about affordable mobile internet connectivity. DirectPC is about expensive high-speed downloads (it's upload-channel is a regular phone modem) to a stationary computer. If you are interested in affordable stationary high-speed access to the internet, ADSL will soon be the way to go. $40/mo and 2+ times faster than ISDN. I own a mini-dish and have watched DirectPC closely, but they've never gotten the price point down to where it needs to be. But both ADSL and DirectPC are aiming at a totally different market than Metricom - stationary vs. mobile computing. It's hard to understand unless you have a Metricom modem velcroed to the back of your laptop. Within its service areas, Metricom is about never being without the internet - bed, bathroom, den, kitchen, car, mall, park, office, traffic jam, restaurant, bike ride, etc. Chip Wireless in Seattle via MCOM Ricochet