Ricochet (internet service)
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Ricochet Networks was one of the pioneering wireless Internet service providers in the United States, before the advent of widespread wireless fidelity and broadband services were available to the general public. The technology, deployed by Metricom Inc., worked as a mesh network: packets were forwarded by small repeaters (typically mounted on streetlamps, for the use of which Metricom negotiated agreements with municipal governments) and might "bounce" among several such units along the path between an end-user's modem and a wired internet access point; hence the name of the service. The wireless ISP service was an outgrowth of technology Metricom had developed to facilitate remote meter reading for utility companies. It was originally inspired by amateur packet radio, but differed from this technology in many respects: for instance, Ricochet used spread spectrum (FHSS) technology in the low-power "license-free" 900MHz ISM band of the RF spectrum. In addition to the eavesdropping resistance offered by FHSS, modems offered built-in encryption, but this was not turned on by default.
Throughput was originally advertised as equivalent to, and in practice was often somewhat better than, that of a standard 28.8 kbit/s telephone modem, in an era when all but a vanishing fraction of personal Internet connections were dialup at this speed. In addition, Ricochet could be treated as an "always-on" connection (in the sense that, once connected to the network, it could stay connected even when not in use without tying up scarce resources, unlike a dialup connection), much the way broadband is today. It was also marketed for a flat monthly fee (the original Ricochet service was $29.95 a month, less than the cost of dialup plus a second phone line). As a result, a significant number of users in the Ricochet service area adopted it as their primary home Internet connection.
Ricochet's main draw, however, was that it was wireless; at the time, there were almost no other options for a wireless Internet connection. Cellular phones were not as prevalent as today, and wireless data services such as GPRS had not yet been deployed on US cellular networks. It was possible to use specially adapted dialup modems over cellular connections but this was slow (typically topping out at 9.6Kbps), expensive (per-minute charges applied), and often flaky. In contrast, Ricochet was fast, flat-rate, and very reliable.
Service began in 1994 in Cupertino, California and was quickly deployed throughout the Santa Clara Valley by 1995, the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area by 1996, and to other cities throughout the end of the 1990's. By this time, the original network had been upgraded, via firmware improvements, to almost twice its original throughput, and was operating at roughly the speed of a 56 Kbit/s dialup modem; in addition, Ricochet introduced a higher-speed (nominally 128 Kbit/s, in practice often faster) service in 1999; monthly fees for this service, however, were more than double those for the original service.
At its height, in early 2001, Ricochet service was available in Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Minneapolis, New York City and surrounding New Jersey, Philadelphia, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Over 51,000 subscribers paid for the service. In July 2001, however, Ricochet's owner, Metricom, abruptly ceased service. The company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in August 2001. Like many companies during the dot-com boom, Metricom had spent more money than it took in and concentrated on a nationwide rollout and massive marketing instead of developing select markets (similar to Webvan).
After bankruptcy, in November 2001, Aerie Networks, a Denver based broadband firm, purchased the assets of the company at a liquidation sale. Service was restored to Denver in August 2002, and to San Diego in November 2002. Aerie sold Ricochet to EDL Holdings in 2003, who then sold it to YDI Wireless in 2004. YDI Wireless changed its name to Terabeam Inc., and Ricochet is operated as a subsidiary of Terabeam. Terabeam has pursued a less ambitious strategy for Ricochet and as such has not announced plans for expansion. There are currently approximately 8,000 subscribers between the two markets. [1] During the bankruptcy, ownership of the Ricochet radio transmitters reverted back to the municipalities where the radios were installed, so any expansion would require Ricochet to renogotiate agreements with the cities or counties in question. In the meantime, wireless data services carried over the cellular telephone network have become increasingly popular (and are available in most population centers worldwide), making the future of Ricochet technology uncertain.
Ricochet equipment can sometimes be found on the surplus and used market. The consumer equipment uses license free 1W 900MHz FHSS encrypted radio modems which respond to standard Hayes "AT" commands. They include a packet-based mode of operation called "star mode" and it is possible to create a point to point connection or even a small independent network with data speeds greater than 256kbit/sec. Some of the infrastructure equipment used 900MHz for the link to the consumer and used 2.4GHz for the backhaul link. (A third option, the licensed 2.3GHz WCS band, was used only in heavily loaded parts of the network and is seldom mentioned in literature.)
