Although many seem to need concrete evidence, the kind of deal that GTE/Cisco/Microsoft/?Amati/? have in mind looks to be enormous, and today we saw only the cards they want to reveal. CAP seems to be in contention, but if you were negotiating with Amati for a good contract would you knock their competition or keep them guessing until it's a done deal. GTE wants to be standards compliant, and Amati has the fastest, furthest (18,000 feet), most advanced system. Amati probably has some behind the scenes connections to Cisco (Amati's Chairman is on Cisco Board of Directors, I believe). Who wants to invest the kind of money they're intimating, on obsolete technology? I understand that GTE has about 30 billion dollars in annual revenues. When they start putting this to work, I suspect Amati will profit handsomely. I believe the message of this conference and InterOp in general is that it is ADSL's day at last and deployment is only a question of time and logistics. GTE has assembled all the pieces, and thanks to the testing, knows better than anyone the path to success. As Pat said, it is up to the smart investor to connect the dots.
Regards,
Richard |
