WINSTAR LESSONS

There hasn't been much news coverage of Winstar Communications since the company filed for bankruptcy back in April. Maybe because its plight from that point on was fairly predictable. Or because when one company has a highly publicized failure targeting a niche market using fixed wireless technology (Teligent), everyone assumes that others are soon to follow. Winstar's road to liquidation may not be littered with many newsworthy tidbits, but it is interesting to consider that the business path this company chose is not that unusual when it comes to communications pioneers. Of course, Winstar and others did have the additional challenge of struggling in the midst of an unforgiving economy. Some pundits have said that Winstar has especially suffered because its business was built on the premise that the capital markets — rather than customer sales — could fuel its expansion plans. That might be true. Even this strategy isn't so uncommon. Mobile wireless service providers once rushed to market without ensuring all of the kinks in their business plans were ironed out. Wireless carriers today are making network intelligence providers a little richer because they are working with them to figure out how to control the basics — quality of service, churn, customer care and network security. Unlike Winstar, many mobile wireless carriers have succeeded — despite the fact that they are just now taking a real hard look at the end-user experience. Must have been a case of being at the right place at the right time.