While most of the recent attention surrounding specialized mobile radio services has circulated around enhanced SMR provider Nextel Communications Inc., some smaller dispatch providers have been quietly finding creative ways to use their spectrum to compete in the marketplace.
One such company is Regionet Wireless. While not technically an SMR, Regionet has found a way to compete in the fleet dispatch communications market thanks to a 1997 Federal Communications Commission decision.
Regionet owns Automated Maritime Telecommunications System licenses. The 1997 FCC decision allowed public coast stations, including AMTS, to serve units on land, including mobile, fixed and portable units, giving licensees the chance to compete with Part 90 SMR companies.
“To some extent we were fortunate because we were able to get our licenses without going to auction,” said Paul vander Heyden, Regionet’s president and one of its founders. Regionet got its licenses through a block allocation.
The company, which holds AMTS licenses for more than 100 metropolitan markets, has built out its West Coast markets and has deployed SMR-like services in an area spanning from Southern California to Washington. The area represents less than one-third of the company’s licensed area.
Regionet plans to build out and deploy in its other licensed areas once it raises the approximately $10 million that will be required to do so. The company is trying to secure the funding through an equity offering to private and corporate investors.
Features of Regionet’s service include group calling; private calling; cross-fleet calling, which allows a member from one organization to call other Regionet subscribers; and public switched telephone network interconnection. The company also last month introduced its Call Home mode, which allows the mobile unit to reach a dispatcher even when outside of the subscriber’s area, and wide-area group calling, which allows extended group calling capabilities for an extra $5.
The company offers customers two pricing options. Metered service, priced at $25 per month, allows customers 100 minutes per mobile unit each month. The option allows pooling of minutes, and unless the entire fleet exceeds the pooled amount, no additional charges are accrued. Unmetered service is $30 per month. Regionet said its customers’ average airtime usage is 48.6 minutes per month, per subscriber.
Some additional features cost extra, including $5 per month for text data messaging and $15 per month for automatic vehicle location services. Other services, such as status messaging, are free.
The Kenwood Communications Corp. radios necessary for the Regionet service retail for about $595 each.
In addition, Regionet only charges the party initiating a group call for airtime, rather than charging each member of the group or fleet.
Regionet targets its service for specific business categories where communication with vehicles, rather than communication with individuals, is the primary requirement. Targeted industries include companies with medium or large fleets involved with tobacco and liquor transport, waste disposal, concrete and cement transportation and school bus operations, among others, said the company.
Because it is a maritime provider, Regionet must still give priority to maritime subscribers.
The company said it believes it can capture 1 percent of the national fleet dispatch market, or 58,000 customers, by 2004.
