AUTOHOME, Inc Message Board

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : AUTOHOME, Inc

ATHM 23.81

-1.1%

3:59 PM EST

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (18030)	12/18/1999 2:16:00 AM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (2) of 29970

No one has come up with a widely accepted interface (which was referred to as the point of interconnection, or POI, in the Canadian paper I posted two days ago) approach thus far that will satisfy all of the players and all of the regulators It struck me tonight that it seems that in the next two years @Home and the cable partners are going to have to jump through a lot of technological hoops to make OA work. Making it work may in fact reduce the quality of the connection and provide needless complexity to something that is already complex enough already. All this rigging would be understandable if it improved the experience for the final customer or user. In fact it seems these hoops seem to have more to do with preserving what might very well be an (dare I say) obsolete business plan, what we refer to as an ISP. Having run a small business for twenty years, I've both implemented changes in my own business plan and had to deal with these changes from my customers and vendors. It is natural to have to evolve the plan because technological change makes it necessary. Lines of work appear and disappear, services appear and disappear. All of this has a discontinuous effect on the final customer and frequently causes great discomfort while they adapt to the changes even when they have been clamoring for a new or additional service. The problems that SI has had in implementing the "New" SI interface is a perfect example of this. Most customers will put up with this kind of disruption if they ultimately feel as though the changes are to their benefit. The changes that they have the most difficult time accepting are those that you try to force on them that stem from your needs. Your need to make the business more profitable or satisfy a personal or employee related concern. Customers see the difference between these two kinds of changes right away and rail against the ones that aren't imposed for their benefit. OA tries to present itself as largely about giving the customer a better experience by giving them a choice in ISPs on the cable internet. What becomes apparent on closer examination is that it is largely about preserving the existing business model of the ISP. I have to ask myself with all that is going to have to be worked on and tested in the next few years along with the additional cost of implementation (which is already higher than we imagined for the first phase rollout) worth it for me as a customer or is it something we are going to have to bear to keep a bunch of businesses in business that would be better off quietly following an extinction or evolutionary path. I know, easy for me to say because I don't run an ISP business, but my own business faces this level of extinction/evolution as well because of the advent of digital asserting itself into traditional photographic processes. I've had to evolve my own business to accommodate this change and I have to tell you it has been painful....but I can't legislate in my own field of work to keep these changes from happening, nor would I want to if I could. Regulation is attempting to take the place of the more natural selection process here. I have to say it serves no particular benefit to the end customer and imposes a great deal of pain on the original providers of the service, this pain will of course be passed down to the customer in higher costs. I know you tend to be agnostic when it comes to political issues surrounding the technology you follow. Can you give me one really good reason why these changes needed to implement OA are going to make my experience as an end user better or more efficient?

Report TOU Violation

Share This Post

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next