DENVER, United States-Metricom will be officially reincarnated on Thursday when Ricochet Networks launches high-speed wireless Internet service in Denver.
Ricochet will charge US$45 per month for the service and US$100 for a wireless modem.
With a debt load of more than US$1 billion, Metricom filed for bankruptcy in July 2001, less than a year after its launch. Four months later in November, Ricochet Networks’ parent company, Aerie Networks, bought the majority of Metricom’s assets for US$8.25 million. Metricom’s spectrum licenses were not part of the deal however, and consequently Ricochet operates in the 902-928 MHz and 2.4 GHz unlicensed frequency bands.
At the time of the filing, Metricom had launched service in 17 markets. Ricochet intends to eventually reactivate all 17 markets, including San Diego next month and Los Angeles and San Francisco by the end of the year.
