There aren't that many large venture capital deals these days so it's newsworthy when a $30-million financing is unveiled for an unknown company. Barrett Explore Inc., which provides high-speed wireless Internet services, received the cash from New York-based Sandler Capital Management.
Woodstock, N.B.-based Barrettt said it will use the money to expand its access business in "unserved and underserved" markets across Canada - starting with suburban consumers in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Ottawa and Vancouver.
The technology behind Barrett's roll-out will be provided by Motorola, which could pull in as much as US$53-million if Barrett reachs certain sales targets.
Barrett claims it's "Canada's largest and fastest growing broadband wireless service provider" but it didn't provide subscriber numbers. I wonder what the folks at TeraGo Networks think given they call themselves Canada's "leading broadband data communications provider" or AlternativeBroadband.com, which claims it is "Canada's only national fixed wireless internet service provider."
From what I can tell, fixed broadband wireless consists of a very small niche in the market. With the carriers and cablecos ready to battle it out for the "triple play", it is hard to see how or where wireless broadband will see its growth.