Looks like we are about to do the 6th (??) round of the oscillation. I suppose we can now hold a few more shares than usual, safely and ride them back to 9, and then drop the extra just in case there is one more round.
A little perspective on the stock
quote.yahoo.com
versus the fundamentals
quicken.com
Now if Kealy would just stop making an idiot of himself and demonstrate that he can forsee earnings more than 2 weeks out we might break out of the trading range. He must really be pissing off the analysts trying to help him.
multichannel.com
AT&T's Business Unit Adds Cable
to Arsenal
By BILL MENEZES September 27, 1999
Pursuing a market that cable has historically underpenetrated,
AT&T Corp. is using its hybrid fiber-coaxial plant to create a
new suite of broadband-data offerings for businesses.
The AT&T Broadband Business Services lineup will initially
rely heavily on digital-subscriber-line technology using regular
copper phone wires, while MSO unit AT&T Broadband &
Internet Services continues building two-way 750-megahertz
cable plant.
But as it plans with consumers, AT&T's business broadband
plan is to offer bundled voice, data and video services over
cable as the company progresses toward making two-way HFC
coverage ubiquitous in major markets and in some second-
and third-tier cities.
"AT&T traditionally has served the corporate customer," said
Manish Malhotra, manager for the Broadband Business
offering. "Now that we have access to cable facilities, it's a
matter of offering the customer the same business-quality
service and support we offer to customers across various other
options."
Cable's association with business historically has been with the
likes of entertainment and hospitality sectors, such as bars,
restaurants and hotels. Even with major operators feverishly
upgrading their plant to two-way to provide services such as
high-speed Internet access and telephony, the idea of
fostering a business-oriented cable market has been slow to
take off.
"The cable industry talks about 'homes passed' with good
reason -- that's where they have plant," said Michael Harris,
president of consulting and research firm Kinetic Strategies
Inc. "With business customers, you're talking about lots of
'new-build' propositions. Across the board, the justification for
serving businesses and the idea are further along than the
reality."
Cable has largely stayed away from serving businesses
because of entrenched telco competitors, the cost of running
cable out to business areas without guaranteed revenue returns
and a product lineup limited to one-way or telco-return
functions without the ability to guarantee customers
bandwidth.
"HFC at this point is not considered to be a business-class type
of offering," said Jon Atkin, competitive-local-exchange-carrier
analyst for investment firm Ferris, Baker Watts Inc.
But AT&T said that's about to change, partly because of its
new identity as a cable operator and its ability to leverage its
existing customer base, rather than gambling on green-field
build-outs.
"A lot of our customers who today don't buy any services over
cable infrastructure are coming to us and asking us how we
plan to leverage that infrastructure to meet their needs,"
Malhotra said. "Broadband -- especially IP over broadband -- is
a big need."
AT&T Broadband senior vice president of business sales and
marketing Chris Coles said the MSO sees corporate demand
not only for high-speed data and telephony, but also for digital
video, with its proliferation of channels devoted to financial
news, health-care information and other relevant topics.
"Packaging all three together, you have the value of the
customer escalating substantially from the historical video
model," Coles said. "When you get to that level of valuation,
just on the revenue side and associated cash flow, you're
much more motivated to go places you haven't gone before."
Furthermore, about one-half of the businesses targeted by
AT&T already have access to or are connected to its cable
plant, Coles said. Many are home-based enterprises that
already buy legitimate business services such as White and
Yellow Pages listings -- a profile that makes them strong
data-service prospects, he added.
AT&T will begin market trials of cable-based business services
next month in six metropolitan markets: suburban Chicago;
Dallas; Denver; Portland, Ore.; the San Francisco Bay area;
and Seattle. General availability in AT&T's two-way markets is
planned for the first half of next year.
AT&T is also exploring the possibility of reselling two-way HFC
access from other operators in certain markets. But for now, the
focus is on its own plant, Malhotra said.
Although it will not be prominent in the product branding,
Excite@Home Corp. -- which offers its own DSL-based @Work
broadband-data services to business -- is working with AT&T to
provide services on the cable side, such as specialized
content.
AT&T's DSL service is currently available in nearly 20 major
markets, with another 26 expected to come online Oct. 15 and
more than 100 targeted by year-end 2000.
The carrier offers DSL over its own AT&T Local Services unit --
primarily from its Teleport Communications Group acquisition
-- and through new contracts with competitive digital carriers
Covad Communications Group Inc. and Rhythms
NetConnections Inc.
Malhotra said AT&T was targeting small businesses that want
high-speed Internet access and larger corporations interested
in telecommuting access for their remote workers -- a strategy
where coverage will dictate which broadband platform will be
used.
For example, potential large customers interested in
broadband typically will provide AT&T with a list of maybe
10,000 employee addresses and phone numbers, asking which
broadband services can be made available to those locations.
"At least over the next few years, we still don't see ubiquitous
access for either DSL or cable," Malhotra said. "But both
certainly get us to extended coverage in a certain area. Then,
there are large metropolitan markets where we have both DSL
and cable. The strategy there is that in a single market, we
need both technologies."
Being able to offer both platforms in a single market also gives
AT&T greater technical flexibility. This means it can offer a
solution based on a variety of factors affecting each platform.
Those include the customer's need for fixed bandwidth, the
customer's preference for symmetrical or asymmetrical
bandwidth, the distance from the customer premise to the
nearest telco central office and the condition of the local
copper phone loops.
AT&T gains a time-to-market advantage by getting DSL
service from Rhythms and Covad, which are already colocated
in hundreds of telco central offices nationwide, and it was
talking with other CLECs and data CLECs about further deals.
"It's still going to be awhile before all of the HFC assets are
going to be two-way-capable," Atkin said. "Meanwhile, DSL is
rapidly reaching all markets."
Harris said AT&T could get some mileage by positioning the
cable solution as a product for a broad range of small
businesses that might want speeds faster than
integrated-services-digital-network lines, but without the
expense of leasing T-1 lines.
"They have some education to do about the value proposition
of that solution," Harris said. "It's different, but not necessarily
inferior for folks who can't afford a more expensive option."
The DSL providers give the company greater entry to
customers such as large national and regional enterprises with
significant operations in second- and third-tier markets,
Malhotra said. |
