NEW YORK (AP) -- The future of mobile computing suffered a kick in the pants this week with the demise of the country's fastest mobile wireless network.
Metricom says it will shut down its Ricochet wireless data network next week in the 15 U.S. cities it served, and auction off its assets Aug. 16. The company is also laying off 282 employees.
Those who surf the Internet on Ricochet's broadband service -- which runs more than twice as fast as a regular dial-up modem -- lamented the company's collapse, the latest in a recent spate of telecom woes.
"They have the best high-speed wide-area network technology," said Michael J. Miller, a Ricochet subscriber and editor-in-chief of PC Magazine. "I certainly hope somebody will do something with it."
Analysts described Ricochet's service as ahead of its time, which may have been part of the company's problem. Even if potential customers had heard of Ricochet, many didn't understand its uses.
"It was a hard sell," said Gary Arlen, president of telecom researcher Arlen Communications. "They had to explain the service and also make people aware of the product."
With Metricom's infrastructure expected to be auctioned for a fraction of its value, analysts say surviving wireless service providers might buy parts of the Richochet network to add speedier options to their own Internet service.
The auction might prove tempting to a wireless service provider like GoAmerica Communications, OmniSky Corp. or BellSouth Corp., said Richard Doherty, a technology research analyst for the Envisioneering Group.
The sale includes the Ricochet network in the cities where the company offered its wireless service and two where infrastructure was in place. Also included are patents related to the service and wireless licenses.
"It's a good opportunity to pick up the network for pennies or dimes on the dollar," Doherty said.
Ricochet's customers already own its wireless modems -- which cost between $99 to $299 -- making it attractive to a potential buyer, Doherty said.
Doherty and other analysts say the company's demise stemmed from a tangle of circumstances. Metricom probably spent too heavily to build a communications network that only garnered some 50,000 subscribers.
Users also found they couldn't rely on connections to the network, which transmitted from small boxes mounted every few blocks on lamp posts and traffic lights. The service was confined to the country's most developed corridors -- places frequented by the technology-savvy and wealthy: airports, large hotels and business districts in major cities.
"It was marvelous where you could find it," said Doherty. "But you couldn't count on it being there."
The company's pricing -- up to $69.95 per month for unlimited use -- was too high for many. Doherty said a new provider might consider various rates, with cheaper prices for limited use.
Metricom strived to build out its network, but often got stuck in a morass of government bureaucracy, said Doherty. The company struggled to earn permission to post transmitters along streets and highways in the cities it covered.
"All that paperwork was a killer to their expansion plans," Doherty said. "That's what eventually did them in."
