Metricom Launches Ricochet in San Diego

Mobile data provider Metricom, Inc. has launched its 128 kb/s high-speed mobile wireless access in San Diego, CA. Although the first-generation Ricochet service is currently available at speeds up to 28.8 kb/s in the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle, Washington DC and 10 national airports, the San Diego launch marks the beginning of its second generation of mobile access in major markets across the nation. Atlanta will quickly follow San Diego and is also scheduled for launch in July.

"San Diego is the ideal place to kick off our national roll-out of Ricochet because it is among the most active markets in the wireless space, and it is home to a growing number of companies that are developing wireless products," said Tim Dreisbach, chairman and CEO of Metricom.

The always-on system allows users to access the Internet from anywhere within coverage areas—at the office or home, at a client site, on a park bench, in an automobile (up to 70 mph), or at the airport.

Metricom has chosen a different approach with its MicroCellular Data Network (MCDN) technology—Ricochet's platform. MCDN supports mobile network access at speeds equivalent to proposed 3G cellular specifications. Using microcells in a meshed architecture to minimize capacity slowdown and deploying at raw network data rates of 1 Mb/s, the platform provides Ricochet end-user speeds of 128 kb/s or greater. This approach allows the company to offer authorized service providers the opportunity to give customers full access to the desktop and all things Web.

Ricochet is based on a digital packet-switched network incorporating spread-spectrum radio frequency transmission and standard IP. The network consists of radio transceivers (microcell radios) mounted to streetlights or utility poles, wired access points (WAPs), which collect and convert the RF packets for transmission to the wired IP network backbone. The small radio transceivers are integral to the Ricochet network, allowing users to send and receive data from Ricochet wireless modems anywhere in coverage areas.

Edited by Ellen Jensen
Managing Editor, Wireless Networks Online