This, from the Motley Fool, is just hysterical, in light of all the chatter about how cable rules and regular old dialup (via AOL) sucks.
(Full disclosure: I'm an ecstatically happy ATHM cable modem owner and a long-time AOL user, and long AOL stockholder.)
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@Home via Phone
Plus, eAmazon.dabomb.
by Jeff Fischer (TMFJeff)
ALEXANDRIA, VA (June 3, 1999) -- @Home changed its name to Excite@Home last week after the completion of its merger, but databases still list the company as @Home (Nasdaq: ATHM). So, let's continue to call it @Home. After all, writing Excite@Home requires more bandwidth.
What's up at @Home? Leverage, baby.
The company is reportedly considering offering good old, slow mo', dial-up Internet access in order to address -- ta da -- the majority of the online market.
Most of the world is still using telephone lines for Internet access, and over the next five years -- at least -- much of the world will continue to do so. The use of high-speed cable access will soar, but tens of millions of Internet surfers are using and will continue to use telephone lines, too, while thousands more sign up each day. (So far, about 60 million Americans dial up through phones.) @Home could target its new dial-up Internet service to Excite's 28 million registered users and elsewhere. Everywhere.
But why bother, you ask, if the next big thing -- long term -- is high-speed cable access?
Well, for many reasons.
Think about what America Online (NYSE: AOL) has done. It's beautiful, really. AOL offers nearly-global access -- and charges for it -- by leveraging communication networks that have been in place for years. AOL didn't spend billions to build its distribution network. The network was already laid (with great ugliness) via telephone poles the world over. AOL provided a service that could be accessed over telephone lines and then it charged for it. That's somewhat like using train tracks that other companies laid down, for free, and then charging people to ride the tracks with you, too. Doing this, AOL has reached Coca-Cola-like distribution at relatively little distribution cost.
@Home could sell regular dial-up access to millions of as-yet unsigned customers as well as to existing Internet Service Provider users by offering the potential to easily switch to high-speed cable access when a user is ready and when it's available. (What other dial-up ISPs currently offer that promise?) Many customers might not need cable (or be reachable by cable) for a handful of years. Why ignore them in the meantime? Plus, @Home has over 400,000 high-speed users who would appreciate dial-up access when they're away from home.
The quickest route to providing dial-up access might mean an ISP acquisition for @Home, though rumors regarding such a move have not surfaced. Indeed, the idea of dial-up access at @Home is still only rumor. Albeit a good one, I think. And logical. |
