What Did Broadband2Wireless do With Their Lunch Money?

How does a small firm waste their entire first round ($32 Million) in 5 months, with no backup plan?

August 2, 2001

by Derek Kerton

"Broadband2Wireless Files for Chapter 7, Assets Up for Sale" 

BOSTON (VENTUREWIRE) -- Broadband2Wireless, a provider of broadband
wireless services for residential and small offices users, voluntarily filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on June 12 at U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston, according to the court's records. 

The court also said that the auction and appraisal company Paul E. Saperstein Co. has been given approval to auction the Broadband2Wireless' assets, including its network. Neither Broadband2Wireless nor Saperstein could be reached for comment."

In February Broadband2Wireless raised $32 million in first round financing
from Axiom Venture Partners, Credit Suisse First Boston, GP Investimentos, Rakuten, TH Lee, and Yankee Tek Ventures."

Okay, so there's the Internet crash, there's Webvan, and then there's fiscal irresponsibility. I think Broadband2Wireless might be the latter. To be fair, their flagship product, Airora, is the kind of product that needs a lot of cash to set up. Airora is a wireless ISP boasting broadband speeds on a wireless infrastructure. For $50/mo users can get 1.5MB connections in their homes or wherever they can "see" a transmitting station. Folks, it's fair that it takes a big investment to set this kind of service up --think of Metricom's Ricochet-- but just like little boys and girls need to learn to budget their allowance, so to must little firms learn to budget their first round. A contingency plan never hurts, either. 

And while Ricochet actually exists, I've found no evidence that Airora was actually deployed anywhere. No locations of installations are detailed. The service requires a special paperback-sized modem, which was unavailable on the website, and they had no images of it. Did anything actually exist? I'm curious to see if some lawsuits are generated here.