Metro Round-Up: No GO; Riverside, Calif., Proceeds; Illinois Bus-Fi

Go? No: Go Networks, a metro-scale Wi-Fi equipment maker acquired in Jan. 2007 by NextWave, is being shut down. Go announced their technology on 3-April-2006 at the height of interest in the municipal Wi-Fi market, at which point they thought their beamforming, MIMO gear would take hold. They believed they could provide superior coverage at far lower cost, especially when factoring in the need for fewer utility poles. As far as I can tell, they never had a huge win, and then the easy market evaporated.

It’s amazing to me that the four independent metro-scale firms have survived this long; all are privately held, and so we know only what’s publicly announced about their well being. BelAir has scored the Minneapolis and Cablevision networks, and thus perhaps has its future assured. Trapeze appears to have developed alternative markets. For Strix and SkyPilot, the future must be uncertain, although I must stress that I have no particular knowledge of either companies’ financial or sales situation. SkyPilot’s only big win was with MetroFi, which is now gone missing; Strix has some international deployments that are perhaps what drives the firm, but domestically they were paired with now-dead Kite.

Along those lines, Riverside’s network deployment has stalled, but is resuming buildout: AT&T had partnered with MetroFi to build Riverside, Calif.’s metro-scale network, and it’s taken a while to build. The article doesn’t mention MetroFi, but says “the original contractor has gone outt of business,” and AT&T has hired a new firm. The network should be largely complete by the end of 2008. AT&T said that they had 17,600 unique sessions (not users) in August.

Illinois bus system adds Wi-Fi on express buses: The Madison Country Transit system put Internet service on 40 express buses. Service is free, but filtered.

Portland’s MetroFi Nodes Still Hanging on
Wee-Fi: Wi-Fi Robot Attack; Silicon Valley Plan Proceeds
MTV Laying TRL to Rest
(E! Online)