Airdata WIMAN

"I have a vision of a new technology. Years later I see it working in the field. This is a happy moment," says Uli Altvater, president of Airdata WIMAN Systems. "Once it works, I'm on to the next adventure."

Airdata WIMAN in Naples, Altvater's sixth software-based start-up success in 15 years, is shaping up to be his greatest achievement yet. His Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WIMAN) is among few front-runners in the technology race to bring business people fast, mobile, affordable Internet access.

WIMAN engineers have outpaced the nearest contender by 18 months. Voice, data and video transmissions zip around WIMAN networks at lightning speeds, clocked in nanoseconds, running free and clear of interference.

WIMAN customers save the expense of telephone lines dedicated to employee computers. Users never get a busy signal, save phone charges by making long-distance calls over the Internet, and leave phone lines open for local and incoming calls. The cost of each wireless modem is a few hundred dollars, with unlimited Internet access for $99 a month. WIMAN presents a perfect solution for small companies unwilling to pay thousands of dollars for a multicomputer cable installation. And the major U.S. telecommunications companies know it.

Attracting Attention and Getting Results

"Investors have been crawling all over this place. Engineers from the long distance carriers are flying in to spend a week intensely evaluating our technology and comparing it with the competition," says Altvater.

"They tell us our technology blows others away," says Matthew Miller, WIMAN's vice president of marketing and sales.

"This is the first sales job I've had in many years in the industry where nine out of 10 prospects call back. It's highly unusual for potential investors to fly in to see you the first meeting," says Steve Bratton, WIMAN's national sales manager. "We approached the big companies first. They've seen it all. And they tell us we're delivering what others only promise."

What WIMAN is delivering is 128k bits per second data uploading and downloading to and from the Internet. That's twice the speed of today's enhanced Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) phone line; twice as fast as Media One, the leading broadband fiber optic cable system (which still offers only unidirectional traffic and requires an outbound phone line); and more than four times the velocity of Metricom, the leading wireless Internet access technology company on Wall Street. In the fall of 1998, the team expects to deliver an blistering 512kb.

Altvater's articulate verbal download of facts and figures about his company is interrupted by a regional telecommunications company calling to make an investment offer. "This is our third offer, " says Altvater. "We're still negotiating with several others. Ultimately we'll accept two. We're looking for the best price, ability to pay, marketing power, billing services, and a big name to give us a head start with the stock offering."

Giving It Everything You Have

Altvater's unusual balance of educated talent in business management, telecommunications and data processing has given him the necessary leg up in his chosen industry. His high is developing pace-setting technologies and applying them in market. If WIMAN shareholders wish him to stay, he will. If not, he'll step out, and get busy on the next of "many more ideas."

Monika Altvater is the company's business manager, lending practical strategic support through 15 years of entrepreneurial trials, tribulations and triumphs, mostly in their native Germany. She likens the couple's corporate life to riding a roller coaster in the dark. "You never know at the bottom whether it turns right or left," she says.

The rule that gets her through? "Never give up. No matter what happens. Things always cost more and take longer than you expect. Sometimes you have to step back and look at something from a different position. Then you get a new idea and go on."

The Altvaters' philosophy played well as they sought in 1993 to translate technology developed for German Military Data Communications to Germany's commercial Internet market. Personal funds and profits from their healthy military software business provided start-up capital.

Three years and $3 million later, they had a good product, but had run out of money. A fortuitous conversation with the German Minister of Economy (Commerce) at a trade show helped them turn a corner with a grant from the German state. The next mile marker came in October 1996 when WIMAN's partners, operating under a temporary permit, secured their first private investor.

"By this time, we had four to five million dollars in, including all family assets. And the German authorities decided to deny our operating license!" says Uli. "We still don't know why. Perhaps they didn't think we were serious. Maybe they wanted to protect the state's telecommunications monopoly."

"We had no choice but to keep moving forward," says Monika. "If you fail in Germany, the personal financial liability stays with you for 30 years. There's no provision for bankruptcy. We'd involved everything we had."

Rather than pack it in, last January Uli and Monika packed up their two daughters and moved to their home in Bonita Springs. Within 30 days they had established a Delaware corporation with a Naples headquarters, hired 12 employees and applied for a U.S. telecommunications license.

"We got FCC approvals with authorization to start selling product in July 1997." Uli underscores the point. "The temporary authority that took us 36 months in Germany took us 36 hours in the United States." Airdata WIMAN's official starting gun had sounded.

Going for the Gold

Twenty regional pilot sites are now under way across the U.S. and Europe in league with partners ranging from telephone and cellular phone companies to power companies. Partners ante up their financial clout plus existing satellites, towers and fiber optic cable networks as the system's "technology backbone." WIMAN relays central Internet access to customer sites scattered throughout the expensive "last mile."

WIMAN's compact repeater station antennae are now up in Cape Coral, Fort Myers and Naples in tandem with Cellular One. Blanket coverage of Lee and Collier counties is expected by the end of 1998. Ultimately, business people will be able to tap data, voice and video from a laptop computer in their car, hotel room or anywhere within a WIMAN service area. No phone or cable connection is required. Subjection to Internet traffic jams, data delays and power surges will be a thing of the past.

The vision gets bigger. Already Matthew Miller and Steve Bratton are negotiating with a Caribbean republic to serve the entire country with wireless telecommunications access. WIMAN's technology is uniquely suited for developing countries in Asia and Latin America, where laying hund