Big Investor,
"I WOULD REALLY EXPECT TO SEE SOME FIREWORKS NOW.THIS IS REALLY GETTING OUT OF HAND.HOW MUCH DOES T REALLY CARE ABOUT ATHM ANYWAY.WE SHOULD FIND OUT REAL SOON."
Please elaborate.
Are you implying that T has other plans, that they may be setting the stage for opening up the gates, and accepting as many takers as they can get in the way of additional service providers? Well, they are a common carrier, now, aren't they?
That take of mine about your statements would satisfy your question about how they really "care" about ATHM. I'm only trying to understand your point. Go on, by all means.
I've maintained in the past that it's T's deck of cards, and as long as they own the deck they should be dealing from it for maximum gain. That really doesn't sit well with ATHM investors, understandably, but if there actually is enough bandwidth to go around as a result of the new segment sizing, and DOCSIS is no longer an inhibitor to openness, then the possibility exists that they may be thinking of doing just what I said.
One should not forget a very important fact of life here. And that is:
T now competes on many different fronts, and in many different dimensions. If they don't take on the other ISPs as tenants on their own cable networks, then they are leaving Tens of Billions in cash on the table for the other local providers to walk away with. Those additional Tens of Billions will derive from DSL, ISDN, POTS dialup, wireless, and other traditional forms of access revenues that would be combined in potential service bundlings that they would otherwise forfeit, if they stay with ATHM alone. T is not so much about ATHM as it is about dominating all of the RBOC regions, one by one, until they've come full circle in the way of a new broadband paradigm.
To paraphrase an old JFK line, it's not so much "HOW MUCH DOES T REALLY CARE ABOUT ATHM ANYWAY", but rather, how much do ATHM investors care about T?"
I believe it was about four or five months ago during the height of Dr. AHhaha's greatest moments here, that we discussed the potential for conflicts of interest arising in this context. The point I made at that time was this: As a common carrier it would be counterintuitive for T to leave any money on the table, in not so many words. With voice coming soon into the mix, this will count in spades.
It's not so much that T is at that stage, yet, but the stage, indeed, it is being set as we type. Think of it this way: With the whole world clamoring for Cable Access, and now that T has found a way to open the spigots to new found reserves, why shouldn't T attempt to capitalize on it while the iron is still hot? What contingencies exist in ATHM's arsenal, if this be the case? Again, conflicts of interest abound.
Regards, Frank Coluccio |
