Ahhaha,
Regarding your comments on ATHM being a "superhost" for the ISP's.
From an operational point of view, I think the current cable network can support thousands of ISP's, if the point of entry is ATHM's backbone. It might work something like this
1. ATHM configures the DNS server to service multiple domains.
The client's home page would be determined by its domain
configuration. If the domain is set to "whatever.aol.com",
the DNS server will return an IP address pointing to the
subscribed ISP's home page or e-mail server.
2. Install a high speed links between ATHM's backbone and the ISV 's
3. Agreement on a billing method.
The MSO's continue to receive the same subscriber revenue, and is still responsible for the local loop
But is it possible for the pricing issue to be worked out so that what ATHM looses in subscriber revenue, they gain in service revenue? What about advertising revenue? Would the ISP's require SLA's that both ATHM and some or all of the MSO's could agree to? If someone creates a new ISP that provides nothing but bandwidth hogging streaming multi-media, would that ISP be charged on a metered basis?
I work in the customer service end of the computer industry. Just working out the operational details of linking the MSO's customer service departments with that of the ISP's (i.e., multiple SLA agreements, incompatible customer problem tracking systems, escalation paths, and so on) would create a operational nightmare (you think service is bad now!).
If ATHM started with a service bureau type of business model, I doubt that they would have been able to sign up all the MSO's they currently have. Looking at it from the MSO's point of view, why deal with multiple ISP's when you can deal with one?
At this point in time, all parties would have to agree to centralize part or all of the operations to keep cost under control. Customer service could be a separate business, as well as billing and installations. If you continue down this path to reduce the operational cost, you end up going full circle, and it starts looking like a single ISP again.
There are already a large number of cooks in the kitchen, and everyone wants to be the master chief! I doubt that ATHM could come up with a standard package that everyone could agree to.
Ted
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