WinStar Communications Inc. (www.winstar.com) is developing content to fuel demand for its fixed broadband wireless services.
In its most recent effort on this front, the company recently launched a TV ad campaign for Office.com (www.office.com), a WinStar service.
"It's a destination place for businesses to work on the Net," says WinStar Chairman and CEO William Rouhana Jr.
The site targets 140 subverticle and 18 horizontal markets with content; chat; and "two forms of e-commerce," says Rouhana. On the e-commerce front, WinStar has a group of "preferred partners" that offer office supplies, computers, furniture and other equipment. WinStar qualifies the vendors, which may also offer discounts on their products to buyers on the site. WinStar says the other e-commerce feature of Office.com enables small and medium business to create their own websites, which WinStar will host and, if needed, provide transaction processing for.
Office.com is free and open to all comers.
"We want to stimulate the demand for bandwidth," says Rouhana. "If we can give people ways to use the network, it will stimulate use of the network."
Consulting firm Cahners In-Stat Group (www.instat.com) has named Office.com the number one overall online business center.
CBS (www.cbs.com) owns one-third of Office.com, providing the site with a variety of cross-promotional opportunities, says Rouhana.
Also as part of its drive to get content on the network, WinStar plans to build 50 data hosting centers in its central offices nationwide by mid year to target ASP customers. Meanwhile, WinStar has acquired a license to offer Microsoft Office to customers on a shared basis off the servers sitting on the WinStar network. According to Rouhana, only WinStar; British Telecommunications PLC (www.bt.com); and Qwest Communications International Inc. (www.qwest.com) and U S WEST (www.uswest.com), which are set to merge, are authorized to offer Microsoft Office on an ASP basis.
In its fourth quarter financial documents, released last night, WinStar reported total revenue of $141.5 million, up almost 75 percent from the same quarter in 1998. During the quarter, the company narrowed its EBITDA losses to $61.8 million, down $10 million from the previous quarter.
