Ricochet Networks was one of the pioneering wireless Internet service providers in the United States, before the advent of widespread wireless fidelity and broadband services were available to the general public. The technology, deployed by Metricom Inc., worked as a mesh network: packets were forwarded by small repeaters (typically mounted on streetlamps, for the use of which Metricom negotiated agreements with municipal governments) and might "bounce" among several such units along the path between an end-user's modem and a wired internet access point; hence the name of the service. The wireless ISP service was an outgrowth of technology Metricom had developed to facilitate remote meter reading for utility companies. It was originally inspired by amateur packet radio, but differed from this technology in many respects: for instance, Ricochet used spread spectrum (FHSS) technology in the low-power "license-free" 900MHz ISM band of the RF spectrum. In addition to the eavesdropping resistance offered by FHSS, modems offered built-in encryption, but this was not turned on by default. Wi-Fi (or Wi-fi, WiFi, Wifi, wifi), short for Wireless Fidelity, is a set of standards for wireless local area networks (WLAN) currently based on the IEEE 802. ... Broadband in general electronics and telecommunications is a term which refers to a signal or circuit which includes or handles a relatively wide range of frequencies. ... Mesh networking is a way to route data, voice and instructions between nodes. ... A packet is the fundamental unit of information carriage in all modern computer networks. ... For the album by the post-hardcore band Fugazi, see Repeater (album). ... Amateur radio, often called ham radio, is a hobby and public service enjoyed by about 3 million people[1] throughout the world. ... Packet radio is a form of digital data transmission used in amateur radio to construct wireless computer networks. ... Spread-spectrum telecommunications is a technique in which a signal is transmitted in a bandwidth considerably greater than the frequency content of the original information. ... Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) is a spread-spectrum method of transmitting radio signals by rapidly switching a carrier among many frequency channels, using a pseudorandom sequence known to both transmitter and receiver. ... The industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio bands were originally reserved internationally for non-commercial use of RF electromagnetic fields for industrial, scientific and medical purposes. ... Rough plot of Earths atmospheric transmittance (or opacity) to various wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, including radio waves. ... In cryptography, encryption is the process of obscuring information to make it unreadable without special knowledge. ...

Throughput was originally advertised as equivalent to, and in practice was often somewhat better than, that of a standard 28.8 kbit/s telephone modem, in an era when all but a vanishing fraction of personal Internet connections were dialup at this speed. In addition, Ricochet could be treated as an "always-on" connection (in the sense that, once connected to the network, it could stay connected even when not in use without tying up scarce resources, unlike a dialup connection), much the way broadband is today. It was also marketed for a flat monthly fee (the original Ricochet service was $29.95 a month, less than the cost of dialup plus a second phone line). As a result, a significant number of users in the Ricochet service area adopted it as their primary home Internet connection. A modem (a portmanteau constructed from modulate and demodulate) is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. ...

Ricochet's main draw, however, was that it was wireless; at the time, there were almost no other options for a wireless Internet connection. Cellular phones were not as prevalent as today, and wireless data services such as GPRS had not yet been deployed on US cellular networks. It was possible to use specially adapted dialup modems over cellular connections but this was slow (typically topping out at 9.6Kbps), expensive (per-minute charges applied), and often flaky. In contrast, Ricochet was fast, flat-rate, and very reliable. Cellular redirects here. ... General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a mobile data service available to users of GSM mobile phones. ...

Service began in 1994 in Cupertino, California and was quickly deployed throughout the Santa Clara Valley by 1995, the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area by 1996, and to other cities throughout the end of the 1990's. By this time, the original network had been upgraded, via firmware improvements, to almost twice its original throughput, and was operating at roughly the speed of a 56 Kbit/s dialup modem; in addition, Ricochet introduced a higher-speed (nominally 128 Kbit/s, in practice often faster) service in 1999; monthly fees for this service, however, were more than double those for the original service. 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal. // Events January Bill Clinton January 1 : North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect. ... Official website: http://www. ... The Santa Clara Valley is a valley just south of the San Francisco Bay in northern California in the United States. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... USGS Satellite photo of the San Francisco Bay Area. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...

At its height, in early 2001, Ricochet service was available in Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Minneapolis, New York City and surrounding New Jersey, Philadelphia, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Over 51,000 subscribers paid for the service. In July 2001, however, Ricochet's owner, Metricom, abruptly ceased service. The company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in August 2001. Like many companies during the dot-com boom, Metricom had spent more money than it took in and concentrated on a nationwide rollout and massive marketing instead of developing select markets (similar to Webvan). 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... This article is about the state capital of Georgia. ... Flag Seal Nickname: Monument City, Charm City, Mob Town, B-more Motto: Get In On It (formerly The City That Reads and The Greatest City in America; BELIEVE is not the official motto but rather a specific campaign) Location Location of Baltimore in Maryland Coordinates , Government Country State County United... Dallas redirects here. ... This article refers to the state capital of Colorado. ... Motto: Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus (We Hope For Better Things; It Shall Rise From the Ashes - this motto was adopted after the disastrous 1805 fire that devastated the city) Nickname: The Motor City and Motown Location in Wayne County, Michigan Founded Incorporated July 24, 1701 1815  County Wayne County Mayor... Houston redirects here. ... This article is about the city in Minnesota. ... Flag Seal Nickname: Big Apple Location Location in the state of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,214. ... Philadelphia is a village located in Jefferson County, New York. ... State capitol building in Saint Paul Saint Paul is the capital and second-largest city of the state of Minnesota in the United States of America. ... Flag Seal Nickname: Valley of the Sun Location Location in Maricopa County and the state of Arizona Coordinates , Government Country State Counties United States Arizona Maricopa Incorporated February 25, 1881 Mayor Phil Gordon (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,230. ... Flag Seal Nickname: Americas Finest City Location Location of San Diego within San Diego County Coordinates , Government County San Diego Mayor City Attorney         City Council District One District Two District Three District Four District Five District Six District Seven District Eight Jerry Sanders (R) Michael Aguirre Scott Peters Kevin... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... City nickname Emerald City City bird Great Blue Heron City flower Dahlia City mottos The City of Flowers The City of Goodwill City song Seattle, the Peerless City Mayor Greg Nickels County King County Area   - Total   - Land   - Water   - % water 369. ... Nickname: DC, The District Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., with regard to the surrounding states of Maryland and Virginia. ... Dot-com (also dotcom or redundantly dot. ... Webvan was an online credit and delivery grocery business that went bankrupt in 2001. ...

After bankruptcy, in November 2001, Aerie Networks, a Denver based broadband firm, purchased the assets of the company at a liquidation sale. Service was restored to Denver in August 2002, and to San Diego in November 2002. Aerie sold Ricochet to EDL Holdings in 2003, who then sold it to YDI Wireless in 2004. YDI Wireless changed its name to Terabeam Wireless, and Ricochet is operated as a subsidiary of Terabeam. Terabeam has pursued a less ambitious strategy for Ricochet and as such has not announced plans for expansion. There are currently approximately 8,000 subscribers between the two markets. [1] During the bankruptcy, ownership of the Ricochet radio transmitters reverted back to the municipalities where the radios were installed, so any expansion would require Ricochet to renogotiate agreements with the cities or counties in question. In the meantime, wireless data services carried over the cellular telephone network have become increasingly popular (and are available in most population centers worldwide), making the future of Ricochet technology uncertain. Liquidation, or winding up, refers to a business whose assets are converted to money in order to pay off debt. ...

Ricochet equipment can sometimes be found on the surplus and used market. The consumer equipment uses license free 1W 900MHz FHSS encrypted radio modems which respond to standard Hayes "AT" commands. They include a packet-based mode of operation called "star mode" and it is possible to create a point to point connection or even a small independent network with data speeds greater than 256kbit/sec. Some of the infrastructure equipment used 900MHz for the link to the consumer and used 2.4GHz for the backhaul link. (A third option, the licensed 2.3GHz WCS band, was used only in heavily loaded parts of the network and is seldom mentioned in literature.) The industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio bands were originally reserved internationally for non-commercial use of RF electromagnetic fields for industrial, scientific and medical purposes. ... Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) is a spread-spectrum method of transmitting radio signals by rapidly switching a carrier among many frequency channels, using a pseudorandom sequence known to both transmitter and receiver. ... This article is about algorithms for encryption and decryption. ... Most dialup modems follow the Hayes Command Set to a large extent, originally developed for the Hayes Smartmodem 2400. ... Point-to-Point telecommunications is most recently (2003) referenced regarding wireless data communications for Internet or Voice over IP via radio frequencies in the multi-gigahertz range. ... In telecommunications, backhauling is concerned with transporting traffic between distributed sites (typically access points) and more centralised points of presence. ...

External links

• Cupertino deployment
• 1996 technical article on Ricochet's operations
• Ricochet hackers' wiki, technical specifics on the network's hardware and software