The pictures inside OmniSky's prospectus show a Palm V snapping onto a small wireless modem, with E*Trade on its screen. This was the mobile internet of 2000, years before the iPhone. The Palo Alto company had launched its service nationally only in May, after a beta test that reached about 5,500 subscribers. Users could read email, check stocks and browse a trimmed-down web from anywhere with a signal. OmniSky went public that September, as the dot-com market was already falling.

AirWeb, Renamed

OmniSky was incorporated in May 1999 as AirWeb Corporation and took its new name that November. Patrick McVeigh, Barak Berkowitz and Michael Dolbec were among its co-founders. The bet was that people would pay a monthly fee for the internet in their pocket. OmniSky bundled the modem, the wireless network access and software tuned for small screens, so a Palm owner could get online without dealing with a phone carrier.

A Short Flight

OmniSky priced its offering at $12 a share in September 2000 and listed on Nasdaq. The money ran out fast. Wireless networks were slow, the hardware was costly, and phones with their own browsers were coming. In November 2001 the company said it could not finish its financial statements. OmniSky went into bankruptcy, and in December 2001 EarthLink bought its business.

Cover: Wild Geese Flying Across Full Moon, Utagawa Hiroshige. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for wild geese crossing the moon (messages carried through the sky).