The Iceman

Steve Nicolle: Canadian export. Nortel veteran. Helmed cable OSS leader Sigma Systems until it was snatched up by Liberate Technologies. Spent some time on ice. Tempted by Wi-Fi platform developer Tatara Systems. In March, got back in the game as Tatara's CEO.

I wasn't looking for a job. After Liberate acquired Sigma, I took some time off, got reacquainted with my family and played ice hockey with a bunch of guys here in Boston who play twice a week in the mornings. I'm a forward — a right-winger. My joining Tatara was really a function of the attractiveness of this opportunity. The Wi-Fi space feels a lot like the early days of cable broadband — people believing and not believing — with the potential for the same sort of growth.

At Sigma, I learned never to underestimate the power of bundled services. Cox Communications built its own voice network against all believers. Three years and more than 1 million subscribers later, its churn rate for people who subscribed to all three services was less than half that of everyone else.

Wi-Fi networks will be built by people like Wayport and Cometa, but users will want to go to one provider for it: a cable, phone or cellular provider. The one that charges first and hardest at this is going to have a real first-mover advantage. I've kept my cable industry contacts. They're waiting. Once Wi-Fi coverage is wide enough and has decent roaming, I fully expect Comcast to launch a Wi-Fi service.

Mobile operators have the best opportunity for incremental services by integrating Wi-Fi with SMS and multimedia messaging. I could hit “#wifi” on my cell phone and a mobile operator with our platform, knowing where I am, could send me an SMS back saying, “Here are our three nearest hot spots.” Or those kiosks at the airport that rent DVDs for the flight? With Wi-Fi, I could download them from, say, an AT&T Wireless portal and not have to return the DVD when I land. It just ends up on my AT&T Wireless bill. It will be interesting to see how creative carriers want to be.

I wasn't deliberately looking to re-enter the CEO role. I thought it would be fun to be in an industry where the business models aren't exactly clear but there's huge potential. When I'm around, I still play hockey. If I was a better right-winger, I wouldn't be a CEO.