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Technology Stocks : America On-Line (AOL)
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To: Ed Forrest who wrote (22486)6/16/1999 12:34:00 AM
From: E. Davies  Read Replies (1) of 41369
 
Could you expand on the above statement.I gather you support ATHM and T,correct?

I am long both AOL and ATHM (more ATHM). Suffering much with both. I agree with @home that opening access to other ISP's at the physical level (bypassing @home) is impractical in many ways.
I would much rather AOL and ATHM come to an amiable agreement to work together, for the life of me I don't know why Case is so stubborn that he won't.

One of the very fundamental problems with multiple ISP access is the limitation of the physical connection. In dial-up or DSL everyone gets his own wire that can go to his own ISP. Very natural.

In cable everyone in a fixed physical area *shares* the wire. Making sure there is enough bandwidth for everyone is a task that requires careful and constant coordination between the cable operator and @home. @home has had to place limits on the upstream bandwith (which most dont use much of) because there just is not enough to share if someone "abuses". Downstream bandwidth is also tight, but a little less so.

@home wants to provide quality broadband service. Ignore for the moment that they dont always succeed, that is the goal. What happens when 15 other ISP's use the same bandwidth at the same time? Will *they* place limits on the upstream? Will *they* coordinate with the cable operator to make sure a segment of wire is not oversubscribed?
Its hard enough for @home alone to provide service, imagine how hard it would be for anyone to succeed with any random number of ISP's needing to work together.

What if *they* don't care if service is regularly say ~100k? @home would have to tolerate the same quality, since it is *the same wire*.

This leaves out many many more complex technical issues. AOL/GTE cannot be so stupid as to not see them. Sad to say, but they are merely playing political games.

Forced "open" access in cable would only serve to destroy it. I cant help but think that is exactly the goal.
Eric
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