Superfast wireless Web access hits San Diego, Atlanta

From...

June 29, 2000
Web posted at: 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT)

by Yardena Arar

(IDG) -- Wireless Internet access is hot, but up till now the services have been too slow for anything beyond text messages and e-mail. Metricom aims to change that with its next-generation, 128-kbps Ricochet wireless service, which is slated to launch in Atlanta and San Diego at the end of July.

At 7 to 13 times faster than current wireless Internet services, the new Ricochet will be eminently suitable for heavy-duty Web browsing or corporate data access by notebook users on the go.

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But the service won't come cheap. You'll typically buy it from a reseller such as Juno, Wireless WebConnect, or WorldCom, and while pricing hasn't been announced, Metricom's chair and chief executive officer, Tim Dreisbach, says individuals will likely pay between $60 and $90 a month for unlimited access. Metricom hopes to roll out the service in 21 major cities by year's end.

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At launch, users will only be able to access the service using an external Ricochet modem, which will connect to a Universal Serial Bus or serial port (the latter will not deliver full throughput, however). You could hook up the modem to a PC, but vendors expect it to be used primarily in notebooks. Later this year, NovAtel will offer a $299 Merlin PC card modem for Ricochet. Sierra Wireless expects to deliver a competing PC Card modem in January for about $350.

Dreisbach said National Semiconductor is developing a Ricochet chip set that will allow support for the service to be built into notebooks and other devices such as Internet appliances, much the way dial-up modems are now built into many portables.

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