Ricochet wireless internet files for Chapter 11

[IW]

I had a demo of Richochet's system a couple of months after it was first on the market. (They are a local company.) They were trying to be nice to us to support their request to put some of their repeaters on campus to cover the surrounding neighborhood. I wasn't impressed, partially because they had a hard time getting a signal, just what the new hardware they wanted to put in place would remedy.

It's interesting that here in Silicon Valley for the past 6 weeks or more there's been a big campaign to sell the Ricochet/Metricom wireless modem at a "bargain" price of $99 when you signed up for service. They had desks in the Fry's stores and others and demos of the system. All the demo people disappeared a couple of weeks ago when they declared Chapter 11 but even this past week AFTER they called it quits entirely there were still ads for their modem at $99. However Saturday at Fry's in Sunnyvale I didn't notice any of their modems on the shelves even though the price sticker for $99 was still in place.

I really feel sorry for those poor people who bought the modem and signed up and prepaid for service during that big push for business. I talked one person out of it a couple of weeks ago when I noticed he was interested in the Metricom stuff still on the table and I pointed out to him that they were in Chapter 11, a fact he didn't seem to know.

[jray]

Wow! I had no idea. Just last week I heard radio ads for the $99 wireless modem available at Fry's when you sign up for Ricochet wireless internet service. (San Diego area.) Isn't that illegal, trying to sell service that they know is shutting down in less than a month? Boy, I'm sure glad I wasn't interested. What a scam!