Is "Webnet Global Communications" a legit company? If so their 3dh technology is amazing.

One of my relatives went to one of "Webnet Global Communications" seminars and is wondering if she should invest in this company or not. After looking over their website at "http://www.webnetcwn.com/Corporate/default.asp", I am a bit skeptical. Their IP phone and 10mp internet is outdated already or old news. The only thing that is to conceder is there 3dh or holographic projection TVs.

This company screams scam since it seem similar in nature to some of those phony alternate energy companies.

So, I am wondering if there is away to properly find out if this company and its 2dh TVs are legit or not?

If it is legit, is it worth investing in?

Or, should I advise my relative to avoid this company.

On a side not if this company is legit, their 2dh TV technology is really cool and worth a checking into.


[edit on 8-5-2008 by halfmask]

The 3d projection technology is licensed by them. I don't think they developed it or own it. They seem only interesting in selling it to consumers or integrating it with other verticals. How will this company find the capital to compete with the Sony's, Hitachi's, and every other television maker once this technology is widely licensed?

Then there is this:


Which is a pretty safe place to put your investments if you are into that kind of thing.

...BUT...

This company has been around for 3 years and has no real technology of their own but they perform metropolitan WiFi mesh installations in Canada. So far this business is their bread and butter. Everything else they have on the website are pie-in-the-sky business ideas.

In America, big companies such as Earthlink are running mesh operations in several cities and losing money doing so but maybe things are different in Canada.

Here, municipal wifi is a failure because the companies expect that people will pay as much as they do for DSL for very nebulous and variable wireless service. Then the companies refuse to even discuss the really important things with customers.

Like...
How fast is it during peak hours?
Does it still work when the power is out?
Is the latency low enough to use voip and gaming comfortably?

..so no one signs up.

On Earthlink's Troubles

Jon

EDITED TO ADD: When a company has "Seminars" my mind instantly screams SCAM.

Then I found this:


From my point of view, this looks like a company that plans to sell as many licenses as it can to as many gullible investors as they can find before the whole house of cards collapses, declared bankruptcy, and the ex-CEO walks off to retire with his mansion and big yacht.

Wait! Don't want to own a "territory" and make a "royalty"? Well then, WebWhatever Corp. has another exciting opportunity for you!


Now you too can own a store selling things that nobody has ever heard of to people who don't understand how to use them.

They seem to want to take on every big corporation. They plan to compete with the future television makers with their 3d projection not-exactly-new-technology and then compete with large ISPs and cable companies for internet access and finally compete with the mobile phone companies by providing internet-based mobile phones.

And their grand business plan to enable all this competition? Oh yeah, they are going to sell "territorial" licenses to investors and sell turn-key business opportunities.

Right? Pure pump and dump - in my opinion.

[edit on 5.8.2008 by Voxel]

From what I see of their licensing structure, it looks REALLY sketchy.

Their most interesting product does not even exist yet. They offer only a 2 page PDF on the 3DH which contains no hard information of any kind, mostly promises of how this will change the world and a possible demonstration at some point.

The only thing I see that you can purchase directly from them is a license (huge red flag) which allows further revenue from future sales of more licenses. They talk of all this amazing technology, yet it primarily consists of VoiP, Wireless, Video Security, WebNet Homeland Security IP Mobile, and IPTV. Notice that they have not developed any of these products, they offer no information on any hardware itself, only vague promises that they are poised on the edge of a multi-billion dollar industry (which is pretty well crammed to the brim with well established companies fighting for market share). These deals always sound very promising and the pressure they place on people to join is usually formidable, they prey on peoples fear of later regrets if they miss that ground floor opportunity.


I would not touch this one with a ten foot ethernet cable.

Wow, thanks for the very imformitive replies systemiK and Voxel.

This is why I am glad sites like ATS exist. Good place to find advice from informed and knowledgable people on the fly.

Thanks again you guys.

I will tell my relative to avoid investing in this company.

Hi, I'm a telecom and wireless industry analyst, and these guys cold-called me by chance to ask if I wanted to invest $5,000 in their business. So, not only are they asking investors to pony up for regional franchise licenses, and for retail franchises, but they are also asking investors to fund the head office.

Seems like a company that is not interested in taking any risks of their own.

I looked over the "exec team" and laughed. They have 10 officers that are C-level. Ten chiefs, and how many indians (well, one actually). There are also two President-level guys. Most of these guys have questionable educations, like "attended UBC" but no mention of graduation. Their backgrounds are not very telecom or wireless, overall, though there is a dab of experience. It seems more like retail, printing, and marketing experience...of the sort you would need to sell a dubious business plan. In my daily work in Silicon Valley, I review about 10 startups a month for investment purposes, so I know how to look at companies. This one stands out as extra-dubious (not a scam for sure, but something smells fishy).

I fully understand wireless technology, yet their site doesn't really speak of it at all. It throws around enough buzzwords to indicate that someone there has the skill to BS about wireless, but normally we'd see far more information. I won't say what is missing here, since they might just read it and add it, then look more legit. I can only say that there are vast holes in their technology story.

At one point they say subscribers will connect with CPE or Ethernet. Well, CPE (customer premise equipment) needs to be a little more specific, and Ethernet is a wired technology, so how does that fit their story at all?

They talk about WiFi, but don't specify which version, and they have stats all wrong. They under-rate DSL and dial-up, and basically lie about the speeds of those options, then overstate the speeds of their solution. Standard marketing lies, I suppose. Sadly.

As others have said, the company owns no patents, no unique technology or solutions, nothing that can't be done or replicated by any other firm large or small. Much of this has been done by others already, some successfully (Vonage VoIP) some to failure (muni WiFi).

But the last straw is the most important. Everyone in the industry has seen the prospects for Muni WiFi fade from 2005 to 2008. From being a hot idea, it has become a dead duck. Many networks have failed. Companies gone bust. Cities left hanging with partial networks that failed to deliver. The WiFi technology was not up to the task. The biggest marquee city, Philadelphia, is currently trying to salvage their broken deployment. The biggest service provider (a competitor with Webnet), Earthlink, tried a half-dozen cities, found the costs far greater than expected, the technology not up to the task, and bailed from the industry. And this company has far more resources than Webnet. Earthlink thought so little of the market that they paid Dallas a $5Million fine instead of finishing the muni WiFi project. OK, so a recognized ISP brand, with customers around the country, that tried muni Wifi, chose to pay $5M to get OUT of this business, now WebNet wants YOU to pay to get into it.

Muni Wifi, experts agree, will now exist mostly as infrastructure to support municipal operations - NOT as public access ISP.

Hey, maybe these guys are just better than Earthlink and the others. Maybe they have a better business model and plan. Maybe spreading the investment risk onto franchisees and shareholders is a better way to finance a rollout. And maybe with their great plan, rolling out in Canada, the US, and the EU all at once isn't too ambitious for a nobody company.

But to me this looks either like a legit company with dumb ideas that are bound to fail, or a scam to get your money in a pyramid franchise sales deal that ultimately fails.

reply to post by Anonymous ATS

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Wow thanks Anonymous ATS. This is another nail in the coffin for this one. The previous replies where enough, for me to convince my relative not to invest in this company. Yours just solidifies it for others who come across this company who happen to look through ATS.

Thanks everyone for the in sighting replies.

As someone who used to work for WebNet Global i can tell you that this isnt the correct form of due dilligence.
the one answers talking about WebNet not working because muni wifi doesnt work is fine and dandy..... too bad they are not doing a muni wifi but actually working with Hopling technologies out of Holland and putting up numerous larger than most hot spots... to make it all work..... it is becuase of the equipment they use that makes them different from all those companies that failed at something completely different...

Now for if it is a scam i can tell you no because i worked in the dealership in abbotsford previously and they have real emplyees selling real products to real customers.... is it going to be a good investment though... maybe not... and the only reason for that is because the CEO has an ego that will break the company down and he only hires people who he can control..... which we all know that YES MEN do not ever make a company grow but more just keep their own necks safe from being fired.

if you want to do due dilligence then ask people who actually know what they are talking about.... alot of the other answers are useless and have nothing to do with WebNet because they are doing something completley different than anyone else has done.

If you are looking fro great services than check them out... but as an investment it is high return..... but very high risk (still works... but high high risk)

Wow you are all very fast to jump the gun and assume the worst.

The company has service in several cities in Canada already... they have the largest wifi network in North America...

They have a physical retail store in Abbotsford, BC

The 3DH technology is already in use at Boeing and in use by Disney at Disneyworld or DisneyLand... can't remember.

They have two presentation centres to show the 3DH - one in abbotsford and one in Las Vegas.

There are no companies in the USA deploying wifi networks succesfully. Within the next 12 months they will have a very big presence there.

They have been featured on CNBC almost 2 years ago.

They have a large interest position in 3DH corporation who owns many patents on the technology...

They are also the exclusive distributors for all 3DH vertical products.

They have 300+ employees and have been around for almost 4 yrs now with an IPO planned for the end of the year.

They will be launching an IP Mobile phone that will replace cellular phones.

Just a heads up. It is illegal for anyoen to say that a private company is for sure going public. you need to use the correct terminology of "positioning itself to go public.... anticipating going public"

I work at WebNet, my internal knowledge is not unlimited but I can tell you that our CPE's are wireless transreceivers that are based on medium-power 802.11g devices over 2.4 and 5.8ghz (Wi-Max soon) as well as VoIP devices and security products. We work very hard to keep your data private and secure.

I don't know of any Ethernet solutions, that is misinformation, we are wireless.
Our public websites are typical marketing driven junk and not updated as often as they should be

We will be rolling out some new internal systems this coming week and summer that will increase our ISP and VOIP handling capabilities. Our backbone is high speed fiber optic. I was told that each of our Access Points have battery power backup.

If power goes out at your house that is beyond our scope we are not a power utility, to my knowledge our current customer premise VOIP/ISP devices do require external power to operate, with possible exception to the security systems.

How fast is it during peak hours?
Our service should meet the advertised bandwidth you’re paying for, if it doesn’t, feel free to call technical support.

We are scheduled to offer some very unique ISP and VoIP services this year that will knock your socks off, I can't tell you what they are because that would destroy our competitive advantage.

Most of the investor income goes into infrastructure deployment and support. I am underpaid by about 10k per year but I like working here because of the friendly co-workers and learning/working with new technology. I am not just another number here.

I have seen a major re-organization to the chain of command here over the last few weeks (for the good).

Some of our C-Levels have worked at Rogers and Telus before, because of our smaller size we can develop and deploy new services and support faster than them, this is cutting edge technology.

I have built some of the very systems our subscribers use; we are improving them a bit each day. Everyone I have met here is legit (to the best of my knowledge).

We are still in the infrastructure and backbone deployment stage.
I hope you invest or I am out of a job…

If you have questions just call.
I doubt the senior people from WebNet ever read this board.

My wife and I attended a Webnet seminar last night. 3dh is definately a intresting technology, but the actual webnet company seemed "shady". Like when they said, "Here is some information about patents" and you look at the bottom of the page and it has a weblink to www.blogspot.com...

Yah, really trustful information. I can see how some people in this world may look beyond that. Also I have looked around on the internet at the actual 3dh company and EVERYTHING that has to do with business seems to be in 2005, there is no new information about that company.

The sales team really seemed like scammers/hawks. I know its your job to get the person to sign, but I think alot more people would be intrested if they didnt have to "Sign before the end of the month cause its gonna be over". End of the month my a55, we could have gone in for a seminar right into June, so thats a nice lie.

reply to post by Anonymous ATS

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Actually they are no longer selling Licenses
so you actually didnt even have until the end of the month.
but hey if this is how you do due dilligence is ask other peoples opinions and just think that what they think about a company they know nothing about at all is the end all be all answer then you are definitely the smartest investor i have ever heard of (have fun with your mutual fund seller... oops i mean advisor.....)

If you have questions or you dont like something that doesnt mean its bad.... thats what they used to think about people who were not white or christian back in the early days..... yep that was wrong too.......

I have been to the 3Dh presentation and have done my due dilligence. I have found that they are collaborating with Disney, have customers such as boeing, look up their press releases, yes they are dated 2005, that is most likely because one of the reasons why 3Dh partenered with webnet.

Webnet is a marketing tool. 3Dh is a production tool. Companies like 3Dh need other companies to deliver their product to the market.

You would not multitask a graphic designer as a sales rep and have him leave the post.

So to me it makes a lot of sense.

I would definitely recomend this to my friends. Have you not seen the direction that many movie directors are going... 3D.

I also know that webnet is a debt free company. So that is why they are able to maintain themselves.

As far as hardware, they do own part of the manufacturing company that makes their hardware which is located in holland. Look up hopling technologies.

I think my 2 cents worth will rise up like my shares.

reply to post by Anonymous ATS

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I have invested in the company last summer. I was told that they give out cheques every quarter. I have yet to see them. Has any investors received any cheques in the mail from the company?

My grandparents have invested in this stock so I am constantly checking out information on the company, wondering what is up. They were receiving checks until last December or so I think.

Personally I am not sure what to think. Over the last few years my grandparents were told webnet was getting ready to go on the market in spring, then summer, then winter etc.. for 2 years. Now they say end of 2008. I don't know enough about it. I do know they have their store in Abbotsford that showed off the 3dh technology, but I haven't seen anything personally.

Hi I'm Joe Anonymous that just read this WebNet is a fraud post and since I don't want bad info on the company online I will post all these replies saying it's legit...

Ok.. to many anonymous posts and it seems that it's from the same company. Being an internet provider changing IPs would be easy. Here at where I work we have a plethora of IPs.

So... saying that and seeing all the "WebNet" is legit replies I would be extra cautious.

My 2 cents

I have seen that 3dh technology elsewhere and it's not from them and it's not called 3dh. I'm trying to find out who is working on that.

reply to post by Anonymous ATS

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I have been an investor for 3 years and have seen a total of about $170.00 dollars from them. Nothing for quite awhile now despite phoning them many times. I would suggest other investor start phoning them regularly and let's see what happens