Broadband's almost here, say execs
by: no_where_to_go_but_up 19429 of 19437
cbs.marketwatch.com
SUN VALLEY, Idaho (CBS.MW) -- The agenda at the Allen & Co.
conference was supposed to be about our prosperous but troubled
society, but the biggest buzz among the 200-plus executives was over the
imminent arrival of broadband Internet service.
"There has been a lot going on since the Telecommunications Act was
passed in 1996. (Broadband service) is getting rolled out even as we
speak," Sprint (FON: news, msgs) Chairman William Esrey told
CBS.MarketWatch.com. He said Sprint is on track to offer broadband
to small businesses in major metropolitan areas by the third quarter and
will start offering it to residences in Seattle, Denver and Kansas City by
the end of the year. AT&T (T: news, msgs) is making similar moves, he
noted. "You're going to have cable modems, you're going to have fixed
wireless, you're going to have DSL. We're right on the cusp. It's coming
fast."
Liberty Media's John Malone (LMG.A: news,
msgs) thinks the presence of fiber optics in major
metropolitan areas creates "a dominant
communications infrastructure that has a very large
incremental cost advantage over any other
technology." Where there is no fiber, Malone sees
wireless services playing a big role, both on a
temporary basis where fiber has yet to be installed
and permanently in areas where it will never be
cost-efficient to install cable.
Malone estimates fiber now runs close to 40
percent of U.S. homes, while wireless still has
limitations in quality, capacity and its requirement
for a clear line of sight. What does that mean to the
battle between cable companies and local phone
companies to provide services in the home? "I don't
believe ultimately that DSL (offered by local phone
companies) will give quite the quality that these
other technologies give, but for many, many people it's probably enough,"
he said.
Oprah Winfrey's focused on Oxygen Media Inc., the network for
women. Asked how big a role she planned to play personally, she replied:
"Huge. I see it as the next level. I see what I've done for the past 13
years, five days a week, owning the block, that this is the next level. I see
that five days a week as a little, teeny, tiny, infinitesimal network ... (that)
has created its own base of influence," she said. Winfrey said the group is
having its first board meeting after the Allen & Co. conference concludes.
"The future's so bright, it just burns my eyes. The possibilities are
enormous. It's like the invention of electricity all over again."
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Posted: 07/09/1999 07:50 am EDT as a reply to: Msg 19428 by no_where_to_go_but_up
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