netBlazr's $1M in funding means it can take a wireless shot at Comcast, Verizon

Flush with about $1 million in its pockets, Boston-based WISP (wireless Internet service provider) netBlazr is just about ready to offer some serious competition to wireline incumbents Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ).

David Friend, co-founder of online backup firm Carbonite, recently fattened the WISPs's coffers with $675,000, bringing its total funding to $1 million, after determining netBlazr's wireless high-speed technology is ready for prime time.

"It's just in the last few years that the technology has gotten good enough that this works really well," Friend told the Boston Business Journal.

netBlazr has been around since 2010, having graduated from the Boston-based MassChallenge startup accelerator program. The company describes itself as an "Internet-only alternative" without the need to bundle with other cable services.

"Our view was to use wireless technology to do a run on monopoly providers," Jim Hanley, netBlazr's co-founder and CEO said.

The company plans to offer small businesses Internet for $99 a month and up and residential customers for $39.95 a month with speeds it promises will support streaming HD video.

For more:
- read this Boston Business Journal story

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