Thanks for the link to that article, Hans. I was ready to switch from Qwest DSL to Ricochet as soon as my DSL contract was up in August,
but Ricochet died just before that. Better than just after, I guess :-)
What it says in the article is the same as the other articles I've read. Phoenix is never mentioned among the possibilities when they get
around to discussing which cities to turn back on, which is why I said what I did. I'd imagine that if somebody thought Phoenix is a
useful market, then they might mention it at some point.
I read another article that said the contracts with the agencies stipulated that failure to pay put Metricom in default, and that now the
transmitters belong to whomever owned the lightpoles.
I'd be up for putting together an "adopt-a-transmitter" project! If everybody who had Ricochet service got together and agreed to
"purchase" a transmitter for the cost of powering it for a year or two, then maybe we could get something going. The utility companies
aren't going to make any money from selling them outright; their value is leaving them exactly where they are hanging today.
Another approach might be for PLUG (or some other entity) to offer to acquire these units in exchange for bringing up the network again.
I'm sure there are lots of modems sitting in inventories around the country (eg., the company in Canada who'd invested in millions of
dollars of inventory not long before the announcement) that could be had fairly cheaply. This would be a great way to promote the use of
Linux!!!
My only question is this: where is the ISP connection? Do each of these "transmitters" have a phone line attached? Or are they just
repeaters? Or, where's the head-end equipment located, and who operates it?
Also, are there any lawyers here who might want to venture a guess as to the IP rights garnered through a taking through default? In
other words, if APS owns these, say, because they were abandoned, can they license somebody else to use them without violating any patents
or other licensing rights?
-David
"der.hans" wrote:
> Am 27. Dec, 2001 schwätzte David P. Schwartz so:
>
> > Sounds like you're getting suspiciously close to how Ricochet was
> > implemented! Why don't y'all see about purchasing their assets from the
> > folks who bought them? From what I read, Phoenix was NOT one of the
> > cities targeted to be turned back on.
>
> Where did you see that?
>
> Hmm.
>
> http://www.frtechbiz.com/displayarticledetail.asp?Art_ID=52582
>
> They didn't get the equip on the light poles. Time to contact our local city
> councils.
>
> http://www.aerienetworks.com/ still doesn't list which markets are coming
> back online.
>
> Can we use them without infringing in patents, etc.?
>
> ciao,
>
> der.hans
>
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