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Technology Stocks : Qwest Communications (Q) (formerly QWST)
Q 93.05+3.5%3:59 PM EST

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To: Scotsman who wrote (3417)4/14/1999 9:33:00 AM
From: Mark Woolfson  Read Replies (1) of 6846
 
Scotsman,

This is happening on its own. What I think the ISP's want is to get better leverage into the cable companies to use THEIR pricing infrastructure in a different manner than the traditional RBOC usage and fee packages. This saves ISP's a ton of money in a variety of ways.

My cable company on Long Island, NY has had internet access through its system for 2 years now and has only begun to roll out services to subscribers. I get anywhere from 100Kbps-500Kbps for $35/mo. including internet access (of course). I had an ISDN line prior to this that cost me about $70/mo JUST FOR THE LINE and my average usage. I then had to have an ISP that has ISDN services. That cost me another $35/mo. So all told I spent $100/mo compared to $35/mo with cable. I got faster access and saved $780/year.

What do the telcos now have, DSL. You would think this would be different, no? Well, not enough. My regional carrier's DSL plan calls for that same monthly connect charges and a separate Internet access plan - which still mirrors the ISDN service. It seems that they cannot get away from this cost structure for whatever reason.

My cable carrier will be eating them up alive, plain and simple. I cannot imagine that this is isolated. I am sure other cable companies are doing this too. So why wouldn't ISP's want to get into the cable backbone. Right now I would imagine the resistance is that cable companies don't have the infrastructure to handle the load of an ISP and won't cater to them. Legally, they don't have to because cable TV access (the wire's original use) is traditionally sold to residential, not businesses. My cable company is having its own share of growth problems and it makes perfect sense why they would. There is simply not enough of an installed hardware base to support the demand, period. If they tried to get an ISP they would fail. Also, they would lose their ability to sell Internet access on its own.

Mark
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