RTev,
I guess T/TCI are well aware of the negative publicity, they are definitely working on. The recent five months service free deal in Bay Area is a good example. The broadband is new and data transmission is subject to higher quality media than the analog one.
At first, technicians thought the outage was tied to high-speed networking equipment from Santa Clara-based 3Com Corp. But the intermittent outages and speed drop-offs continued even after 3Com engineers adjusted their equipment, prompting AT&T to look for problems elsewhere in the cable network.
Johnson said that the two cable networks that serve the six cities appear to have been certified for Internet service before they were ready. To provide two-way, high-speed data communications, cable operators have to eliminate signal leaks, noise and other types of interference – something they don't have to do as rigorously to broadcast television signals.
I really want DSL to be widely available soon, so I can see the competition speed up for the broadband deployment. There are two reasons for it.
1) Does cable modem, packaged with other cable services, really provide better deal for consumer as most of us here believe? If the answer is no, then why are we holding toilet paper such as ATHM? I don't have DSL available in my area, but the confrontation has started in Bay Area, and that will be fun to watch.
2) Are DSL and all the infrastructure deals really a savior for AOL? My problem with AOL is not because it does not have a broadband solution in place, although many analysts had that reason as the only concern. My concern with AOL is that it violets the Rule #1 of Internet, and that big mistake should eventually come back and haunt them - I start to see the sign of it. But, Case is not your typical guy, you can never rule him out. We will see.
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