Don't know if the rumor is true or not, but if I were the CEO of @Home, just barely flirting with profitability, and my largest shareholder, AT&T with about 53.7% stake, began to start rumors that I would be cutting cable access ISP rates by more than 50%, it would upset me, to say the least. It's already too expensive for AT&T to upgrade all those cable lines, and market saturation will take several years yet. What portion of that 19.99 do you think AT&T will let @home keep?
Let me guess, they're going to subsidize it by advertising? Perhaps Armstrong is just trying to squeeze Case to the negotiating table, but the risk is that it could send the @Home CEO into the arms of AOL, for a better deal. He's already confirmed that they are in talks, per the conference call.
BTW, my cable modem (@home) gets slower everyday, and after 5 pm it's no faster than my 56k. |
