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Technology Stocks : Echostar Comm.

SATS 67.23

-2.7%

3:59 PM EST

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To: Jeffrey B who wrote (524)	12/22/1997 10:23:00 PM
From: Jim P Mitchell	Read Replies (2) of 1394

I understand what you are saying. Isn't it plausable though, that DISH could manufacture and supply to the consumer an antenna with a motor driven equitorial mounted base. Theoretically if this were done, you still keep the 18" size. I understand the fixed dish system as a low cost entry approach , but it sure would seem logical to migrate to a more capable antenna system once multiple satellites (slots) are in use up there. Three dishes inherently seems more expensive than a single motor driven base. Each dish has an active LNA in it making the dish cost about 100$. For the price of three stationary antennas one could afford a single nice motor driven system for less. It is not like moving a "house" as with the old 10 foot dishes, so I would expect the base and motor to be fairly low cost relative to the old systems. Could this conceivably be a future hardware upgrade? It would sort of make sense - why sell receivers and antennas capable of several satellite slots when there is only one (now two) slots to select from. The systems now are rock bottom priced, and work well. I wonder if the digital port will / could offer control to an antenna too? Who knows what will evolve, but I think there are a few elegant options available to solve this. The television picture quality and sound are superb. I like the menu system. I am also currently using their digital port to subscribe to DBC's finacial data feed. It is working great. The receiver's data connector is a bit more clumsy as compared to what I've seen with the competitor's data ports, but you only need to deal with this hopefully only once. (I had trouble removing the screw on the cover plate, and the data adapter screws are not "floating" making it difficult to install without simultaneously turning both tiny screws at once). I'm afraid they will have to improve some aspect of the connector hardware making it easier to use. Not quite the same as a connetor to a PC, but I'm sure this will not be too much of a problem for most. I guess it will all come down to financial motivation when to do things like this. A million subscribers in less than 2 years is remarkable, though it will probably take somewhat longer to get the second million everything being the same. We will also have to see what evolves with programming. For now it looks like E-III will be somewhat different by carrying business and data services. JP

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