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Technology Stocks : AUTOHOME, Inc

ATHM 23.72

+1.2%

12:59 PM EST

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To: Jing Qian who wrote (4585)	1/21/1999 8:00:00 AM
From: Scott Garee	Read Replies (1) of 29970

1) Money. Lack of money on the TCI side to upgrade the cable. I think a lot of the upgrade slowness is also related to capacity for expansion. Around here they have trouble just keeping up with new development. This has caused retrofitting of existing neighborhoods to be pushed back. They have to meet commitments they've made to the developers for wiring the new subdivisions, but can set their own pace for the upgrades. Someone told me yesterday that they just pushed back Plano, TX another two months. I definitely agree that subscriber expansion is being throttled by the pace of access rollout. 2) Personnel. Lack of enough technicians to go to every houses to have it installed in the upgraded area. Absolutely, but at least the people they have are good enough that I don't want to throw them out the door. I've been very satisfied with everyone I've had to deal with. The cable side doesn't appear to have big problems, but the software/computer side definitely needs help. They're hiring like crazy around here. 3) Lack of aggressive bombardment of advertisements to increase public awareness of the @Home service. ATHM advertises heavily in the DFW area. They do a lot of direct marketing by having brochures put on the door of people with access. They put them on my door twice, but every time I called they told me I wasn't connected. I finally flagged down a TCI truck and got the guy to get someone out through his chain of command. He was very helpful. They also offer reduced or free installation, demonstrations at malls, newspaper adverts, and steadily push the media to run stories about the service. I think the number one roadblock is the fact they are associated with the local cable companies. How many people like their cable company? I was really hesitant to buy the service at first because of my prior dealings with TCI. After a couple of friends started boasting of the quality I took the dive and couldn't be happier. The number one thing I like about the service is that my young children will now sit at the computer with me while I surf to kid oriented sites. Prior to the cable modem the net was just too slow for their short attention span and limited patience.

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