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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rande Is who wrote (4063)	6/6/1999 6:58:00 PM
From: MikeM54321	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

Re: AT&T / Portland Decision Rande & Thread, One final rant from me concerning this issue. Plus I wanted to put the dollar figures down for the Last Mile record. I think if more voters knew the figures, then there would be a lot more political support for AT&T's plans. The local phone market is a $100 billion industry. It's huge. Of this, fully $25 billion are simply access charges to the long distance companies. Out of this $25 billion, AT&T pays the locals $12 billion. This $12 billion expense is nearly a quarter of AT&T's overall revenues! It's substantial to say the least. So AT&T steps up to the plate and says the ILEC's aren't going to keep getting the $12 billion every year. So they spent billions upon billions acquiring properties, did the largest bond offering in history, and is currently spending over $1 billion per year just on upgrading TCI's cable plant alone. It's a four year, $5 billion commitment! When it's done, the consumer not only has an alternative local phone carrier, but they also have a competitive broadband access technology, and digital television to boot. Obviously this will do two(maybe three) things. Force the ILECs to finally deploy their DSL broadband access technology (which they literally have been sitting on for five years), AND reduce local phone service charges. And who knows, if VDSL proves to be viable, then they can also compete with AT&T and outbid them for Television service too. I would call THIS a, "hands down win," for the consumer. Now we have some local city commisioner in Portland Oregon claiming his ruling to force AT&T to share their future multi-billion dollar cable plant, stopping their rollout in Portland a, "hands down win?" All I can say, is thank goodness the FCC has come to their senses and not let the lobbying efforts of AOL, ISPs, and ILECs confuse them. Hopefully the FCC can step in and somehow overule Portland's local action. MikeM(From Florida) PS BTW, my AT&T spending estimates above does not even include AT&T's two most recent cable plant purchases. Nor does it include the deal they are working on with Time Warner. Those figures haven't been projected yet as far as I know.

To: Rande Is who wrote (4063)	6/6/1999 8:31:00 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

Rande, Thanks for the clarity. This Oregon ruling is just a bump in the road for them, in my opinion. I concur. 1)Panner's ruling is a summary judgement and will set no precedent. The 9th Circuit will have no choice but to remand. 2)Clearly the control of T's plant is under Federal Jurisdiction, due to ICC clauses, (no typo). The volunteers at Mt. Hood CRC can play any games they want, but they cannot control activity that is on the FCCs turf. 3)The FCC wants a 'hand's off' policy. And local telephone competition. 4)As Frank, ahhhaha and other technicals have suggested, the MHCRC volunteers haven't a clue as to the practical aspects of what they are requiring of T in regards to colocations. Best, Ry