[IP] Re: Why Helio Didn't Connect

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

________________________________________
From: Brett Glass [brett@lariat.net]
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 6:29 PM
To: David Farber; ip
Subject: Re: [IP] Why Helio Didn't Connect

At 04:20 AM 7/3/2008, Robert J. Berger wrote:


>The "money" quote:
>
>"If you look at wireless as a whole, it's represented a net
>destruction of capital for venture capitalists," grumbles William
>Frezza, a general partner at the Boston venture capital firm Adams
>Capital Management.

This is because the VC's typical style of investment and management
-- going for big, short term gains and then selling out -- doesn't
work in industries where one must patiently and gradually build
infrastructure, trust, and customer loyalty.

Our wireless ISP has been in business for 15 years, and has been
building out infrastructure slowly for that entire time. We've
faced huge hurdles -- including anticompetitive practices which are
yet unchecked (e.g. denial of direct wholesale services by the
major backbone providers and price squeezing on backhaul -- an
issue which now goes before the Supreme Court). We've also faced an
inability to obtain licensed spectrum due to poor regulatory
policy, even though fixed wireless broadband is our country's only
hope of avoiding a broadband duopoly and also the only way we can
roll broadband out to all citizens.

Our company is persisting, stubbornly. And we are making a profit,
though not the ROI which a VC would demand. But ours is a long term
strategy rather than one which relies upon cashing out in a few
years. This is why ventures like DigitalBridge and the "new"
Clearwire will likely fall by the wayside while we muddle through.
We're in it for the long haul, we're innovating, and we're not
burning through a VC's money at a breakneck pace. In my opinion,
America needs, wants, and should foster the development of more
small, local broadband providers -- not large ventures that have,
again and again, crashed and burn.

--Brett Glass




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