Diversified Technologies Group. Inc.

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DTGI Article in Dallas TechBiz ...
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MobileStar’s deal with Cisco to expand wireless coverage; DTGI announces plans to target rural customers

11/20/00

By Scott Boyter

Wireless Internet provider MobileStar of Richardson is no longer the only local company involved in the technology, but CEO Mark Goode doesn’t seem to mind. He’s too busy accepting kudos from big-time industry names at trade shows.

MobileStar, which primarily targets business travelers in airports (including Love Field and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport), hotels and restaurants with its services, was selected by Cisco Systems as a partner in Cisco’s attempt to get a slice of the wireless Internet pie.

MobileStar’s involvement with Cisco (announced Nov. 13) will bring millions of dollars in funding from the networking giant and put MobileStar in front of several potential new clients. Goode said MobileStar is the first wireless Internet provider with which Cisco has chosen to align.

“Cisco about a year ago realized that a parallel Internet was going to develop very rapidly, and that parallel Internet is the wireless Internet,” Goode said. “They needed to put together a program supporting the wireless ISP (Internet service provider) market that’s emerging. The program is their way of embracing new carriers they believe will help them become more successful in the wireless Internet marketplace.

“The first question I asked (when approached by Cisco) was ‘So what?’ ” Goode said. “They said they would tell their customers about us, because they suspect that many of them would be interested in buying our service as well. They also said they would provide financing associated with the deployment of Cisco-branded equipment we already use in our infrastructure.

“It’s not costing us anything,” he said. “It’s mutually beneficial.”

An early benefit for Goode was receiving congratulations from Microsoft President and CEO Steve Ballmer at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas. MobileStar shared a booth with Cisco at the show.

Diversified Technologies Group Inc., or DTGI, is also trying to get a piece of the wireless Internet pie. The company announced Nov. 10 its intention to offer wireless Internet services primarily to rural customers.

DTGI (OTCBB: DTGI) founder John Harris said his company will probably begin testing its BulletBand wireless Internet product in the Addison/Far North Dallas area within the next month, and make its service available to customers early next year.

Harris said DTGI will install an antenna on one of three buildings in the 75240 ZIP code, providing service to companies and residents within a five-mile radius.

Ultimately, Harris, who started his company in June with $100,000, plans to sell DTGI service to small office/home office, or SOHO, customers in smaller markets. Convincing those customers to change Internet providers, he said, will not be a problem because DTGI can offer high-speed access at a lower cost. DTGI’s pricing structure, however, has not been determined.

“We’re looking at SOHOs that can use our service to deliver high-speed Internet to their local LAN (local area network) without having to install an extra phone line or cable modem,” Harris said. “The beauty of selling wireless is that if you’re in our coverage area we can come out and show you what you could have wirelessly. Depending on what building you’re in, we could demo the service that same day.”

MobileStar and DTGI differ in transmission methods as well as target markets. DTGI plans to offer speeds of either 128 kilobytes per second or 256 kilobytes per second using five-mile radius, unidirectional antennas, while MobileStar uses three kinds of antennas providing access speeds up to 1.2 megabits per second.

“There is an important physics principle that shapes the business strategy of both us and DTGI,” Goode said. “Given the same radio signal strength, I can either send a signal fast or far. Pick one.

“The data rate DTGI provides their customers is 10 times slower than ours, but they have at least 10 times the coverage area,” he said. “Physics rules in both cases.”

Response on Mr. Goode's quote was sent to the columnist as per John Harris: In reference to last quote, DTGI's basic service offering is 128KBS. However, DTGI's technology will support up to 3Mega bytes per second, which is 2.5 times faster than MobileStar.