Ricochet Heard Again in Denver
By Karen Brown -- Multichannel News, 8/16/2002 9:37:00 AM
After falling into bankruptcy, Ricochet Networks Inc. is back in the air over Denver under new owners.
The wireless broadband service, first fielded by Metricom Inc., once reached 14 cities with 51,000 subscribers, offering wireless connections at up to 128 kilobits per second. But enormous start-up costs proved too burdensome for Metricom, and it filed for bankruptcy.
Denver-based Aerie Networks Inc., formerly a fiber-network start-up, bought up the assets for pennies on the dollar. Set up as a subsidiary of Aerie, Ricochet has since been working to re-establish its service under a new business plan.
After several months of testing, Aerie has relaunched Ricochet in Denver, this time in partnership with the city and county of Denver.
Ricochet will provide the city with modems and service in exchange for the right to develop the service as a municipal and public-safety wireless network able to support data rates of 176 kbps or more. It is also available to consumers and businesses in Denver for $44.95 monthly plus purchase of a $99.95 modem.
'The partnership also allows us to learn more about how we can develop public-safety applications and products,' Ricochet president and CEO Morton C. Aaronson said. 'Our partnership with the city and county of Denver is the model of a new sustainable business plan for the Ricochet network -- one that we are working to extend to other cities around the country.'
Ricochet is now in discussions with other cities, landlords and resellers to reactivate the network.
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