Wireless

Wireless-Only Players: Take 3

Two ambitious Florida-based wireless shops plan rapid, massive expansion—and they'll both be courting dialup ISPs as partners.

by Gerry Blackwell [May 30, 2000]

Some of you will be glad to know this column marks the last time for a while that we'll talk about wireless-only ISPs.

Our wireless-only kick started a couple of months ago when we wrote about GetOnTheAir.Net a small North Carolina start-up that claimed to be the first ISP of its kind in America.

We thought a pure-play wireless ISP was an interesting notion, and so apparently did many of you. We were inundated with e-mail.

However, the mail included several messages from or about companies that had been going the wireless-only route for a lot longer than GetOnTheAir.

So last month we gave you snapshots of a couple of those companies and announced we would conclude this month with two more interesting pure-play wireless ISPs.

In the meantime, more than one reader has written in wondering why we're so obsessed with a business model that is inherently flawed.

Inherently flawed? Hmmm. Maybe.

But take a look at these two companies. Both have ambitious plans and say they will talk to dialup ISPs that might want to partner with them.

StacNet.com Corp.
StacNet, based near Fort Lauderdale FL, has an intersting little business now, but it plans to get very big very fast.

For now, StacNet's four tower sites cover Dade and Broward counties in southern Florida, including Fort Lauderdale and Miami. The company has been using Nokia network equipment operating in the unlicensed 2.4GHz band.

It currently has about 200 individual customers and another 100 to 150 users in multi-tenant commercial buildings where it functions as an onsite service provider (OSP), providing connectivity for the whole building and, in some cases, wireless LAN services inside.

Most of its customers are small businesses and home-based power users. The company's most popular service is 512Kb for $99.95, but it can provide higher bandwidth as well.

We first talked to StacNet co-founder and chief technical officer Rockwell Scott a month ago, just as the company was gearing up for a major national roll-out that was still partly under wraps. That roll-out has now begun.

StacNet's plan is to activate close to 10,000 tower sites all across the U.S. at a rate of about 30 a month.

"We're trying to be the first with the most," Scott says. He means the first national wireless ISP.

His company will be partnering with American Towers Inc. and other firms that provide tower real estate for PCS, LMDS, and wireless service providers of various stripes.

These companies already have far flung networks of tower sites. All StacNet has to do is install its equipment.

Making deals with the tower companies eliminates one of the most cost- and time-intensive tasks faced by companies building wireless networks from scratch. Score one for StacNet.

The company will be using Cisco network equipment and some antenna and other infrastructure components it manufactures itself. The Cisco equipment will allow it to offer bandwidth to 11Mb. StacNet is considering using both unlicensed and licensed spectrum.

All of this doesn't come for free, of course. And StacNet is in the process now of securing an additional $100 million in financing from international merchant banks and venture capital firms.

To make the StacNet business plan even more intriguing, the company is also currently working out the bugs on technology that will allow it to provide a broadband mobile service.

"We're looking at a product roll-out later this year in the September-October time frame," Scott says.

If you think StacNet sounds interesting, the feeling could be mutual. The company is considering the possibility of partnering with local and regional ISPs in places where it establishes tower sites.

"There's enough business out there in this field that you don't have to horde it," Scott observes.

Go to page 2: Airwire.net Inc.