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Technology Stocks : High Speed Access Corp (HSAC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: VeloSpeed who wrote (45)	6/7/1999 2:54:00 PM
From: Robert Sheldon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 130

By Reshma Kapadia NEW YORK, June 7 (Reuters) - High Speed Access (NASDAQ:HSAC) President Ron Pitcock said Monday that the newly-public Internet access provider was on the path of turning many of its perceived competitors into partners. Analysts had voiced concern that the company, which provides Internet access via cable lines to non-urban areas, would have to overcome the obstacle of getting a slower start to rivals AtHome Corp. (NASDAQ:ATHM) and RoadRunner in an increasingly competitive market. However, Pitcock said in a phone interview that High Speed's development model does not put it directly in competition with these companies. "The people that started off as our competitors have turned into potential partners, such as RoadRunner," Pitcock said. "As part of our development model, we are not competing with AtHome or RoadRunner exactly since they are both content-oriented and we are a connectivity company and partner with the content companies." The company, which expects to be profitable by 2002, lays the groundwork for Internet access and removes the operational burden and expenses from cable operators' shoulders. Pitcock acknowledged that in some markets AtHome and Softnet Systems (NASDAQ:SOFN) would pose some competition. However, he expects its letter of intent with RoadRunner to spark more partnerships. RoadRunner has an equity incentive to provide High Speed access to up to 5 million homes. Pitcock said he expected a definitive agreement in a couple weeks. "We also have good sponsorship from (billionaire investor) Paul Allen, Vulcan Ventures Inc. and Charter Communications. With the letter of intent with RoadRunner, we expect more of them (cable firms) to join us." The company plans to use the $169 million raised from the 13 million share offering toward accelerating the deployment of its systems. "Our 10-year plan calls for 18 million homes targeted (through its network), we already have 11.6 million homes," Pitcock said. The company currently has about 4,700 subscribers. As of March 31, AtHome had about 460,000 subscribers. The largest obstacle the company will have to face, according to Pitcock, is finding trained people to deploy their systems.