Ricochet emerges as a new player in muni-wireless

Ricochet Networks, a company with a long and legendary history in Internet data services, has announced plans to include Wi-Fi mesh with its complement of mobile services in the city and county of Denver, Colo.Ricochet Networks, a company with a long and legendary history in Internet data services, has announced plans to include Wi-Fi mesh with its complement of mobile services in the city and county of Denver, Colo.

Think of it as a prelude for what’s to come. In its , Ricochet said it would offer the service to commercial customers before extending it to residential users.

But that does not rule out Ricochet’s interest in courting municipalities as customers. And today, when I spoke with Ricochet President Judi Evans about that possibility, she said Ricochet is definitely in the muni business.The company, she said, is pursuing a two-fold business model for the muni-market:

Evans told me Ricochet is looking especially at markets where Wi-Fi and WiMax, as well as 4.9 public safety technologies, can compliment Ricochet’s existing MCDN high-speed cellular data network. “We’re layering in additional service offerings,” she said, and the Wi-Fi service in Denver is the first evidence of that. The goal, she said is “to be able to deliver these end to end networks.”

As such, the company–which pioneered the first U.S. nationwide wireless data network at the end fo the 1990s–is now emerging as a competitor to EarthLink, MetroFi, AT&T and others in the space.

“Our focus right now is Denver but we’re actively pursuing other markets,” Evans told me. Denver presently has an RFP out for a public safety wireless solution and, although Evans would not comment on Ricochet’s interest in it, she also did not rule it out. Responses are due April 20.

Ricochet’s announcement followed a that it was rolling out its WiMAX network in Denver and other cities around the country.

I asked Ricochet President Judi Evans if Ricochet was exploring synergies with Sprint-Nextel in the Denver market. She said they were not but “would love an opportunity to support them.”

Many of you, I’m sure, remember the old Ricochet. Back in the 1990s, when it was owned by Metricom, Ricochet rode with other high-flyers on the Internet bubble, offering the first nationwide mobile data subscription service in the U.S. But not long after the millennium clicked over, in August, 2001, the company filed bankruptcy with 51,000 subscribers and a trail of debt that topped $1 billion. It resurfaced as a hero one month later when former Metricom employees responded to the attack on the World Trade Center by re-lighting the company’s MicroCellular Data Network (MCDN) to provide emergency data services to rescue and recovery teams after traditional communications were destroyed in the buildings’ collapse.

In 2004, TeraBeam purchased Ricochet and its national cellular data and, one year later, bought Proxim Wireless. Today the cellular network remains dormant except in Denver and San Diego where Ricochet providesMCDN service. Terabeam, however, has made no secret of its intent to light up again in other markets and expand its present reach geographically and technologically. The following is text that I copied and pasted from its web site.

“Ricochet used to operate in many major metropolitan cities including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Minneapolis, and Washington, DC. Ricochet is investigating the feasibility of restoring service in these markets. In addition, Ricochet is pursuing opportunities to provide Homeland Defense and public safety systems utilizing the Ricochet solution. Also, Ricochet is offering equipment to service providers, WISPs, and municipalities who wish to offer wireless Internet services and become part of Ricochet’s network.”