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Technology Stocks : AUTOHOME, Inc

ATHM 24.71

-0.8%

3:18 PM EST

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To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (4023)	1/9/1999 8:08:00 PM
From: E. Davies	Read Replies (2) of 29970

I'm trying to understand what ATHM is too. My biggest questions are: 1) What of the physical connection belongs to ATHM and what does not.? 2) What exactly is the use of the ATHM internal network? 3) How much will ATHM succeed as a content provider? 4) How will ATHM develop past the current contract restrictions to what the internet needs to be? To detail 1) As I understand it (please correct me & add proper terminlogy) HFC (Hybrid Fiber-Coax) means that fiber is run from a central point to local neighborhood coax distribution points. The MSO's owns the wires. Who owns the electronics of the distribution points? Who owns the architecture of the local network? How much of the networking is done at that point or are these points basically "dumb"? Who owns the electronics at the fiber central point? Where does TCI stop and ATHM start? I want to know most of all because when service becomes overloaded (and it will) who is responsible for modifying the local distribution to balance/divide the local nets to increase performance? It also has a lot to do with how easy it will be for someone else (like say AOL) to jump into the same space and compete. 2) I think you implied that you think the ATHM national network isn't used for bypassing the internet backbone and it's limitations. If not that, then what is it for? Only to speed up cache fetching? Isnt that essentially the same thing? I picture exactly that ATHM will become an seperate world of broadband connected too the "slow" world when necessary to access stuff outside the ATHM domain. This will mean good business as a broadband site host provider. Do you think my picture is wrong? I'm sure 2.5Gb links is only a start, how high do you think they need go and how achievable is it? I dont have enough feel for a network to guess how many users would use one link at any one time to estimate. 3) So far it's not been clear to me to what degree ATHM intends to be more an ISP (like say Mindspring) vs. a content provider (like AOL) 4) Someday TV will come over broadband internet. Its too obvious to even doubt it. The massive infrastructure required to keep a measly few streaming media channels (TV) in the midst of hundreds of thousands going on in the net just wont be worth maintaining, if nothing else the bandwith is too valuable to waste on analog. I just don't know how we get from here to there. The cable's will guard thier crown jewels with everything they have but the transition is inevitable. They cant disallow streaming media or they will destroy the whole value of broadband and thier investment in it, yet they cant allow it either or they destroy their primary revenue source. I'm guessing that maybe broadband capable of streaming media will be a "premium service" that eventually everyone will subscribe to, just like Touch Tone Telephone is a "premium service" today. I picture also someday you will rent a "cable converter" that converts IP streaming video to old fashioned analog TV. "Cable ready" TV's will mean they are directly internet capable with built in cable modems & browsers. I WANT FEEDBACK FROM ANYONE WHO KNOWS!!! Please, thank you. Eric

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