It was only a matter of time … Metricom just won’t scale …
I have been following Metricom for quite some time, and have kept thinking about how I see things panning out for them. And I have kept going back to the fact that they are building a proprietary network, on proprietary hardware solutions. I just don’t see this combination as ever being successful. On top of this, they have to carry the entire financial burden of deploying their wireless network. It’s a cool idea, but I just don’t see where it fits into the future. The cell service providers are going to try to address the “mid-speed” data market, and I still think that widely deployed 802.11b networks are going to catch everyone off guard!

eWEEK: Compaq banks on rickety Ricochet for mobile. Compaq Computer Corp.’s decision to extend mobile Internet services on foundering Metricom Inc.’s Ricochet wireless network is raising questions about the offering and fueling speculation that Metricom may be ripe for a takeover. [Tomalak’s Realm]