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To: DOUG H who wrote (10964)	6/10/1999 9:24:00 PM
From: ahhaha	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

The MSO is in the public domain as long as they have the only road about town. We all pay taxes to maintain the roads. To pay to subscribe to have tv cable service from the MSO is to pay rent. An MSO can offer services, channels, programming, beyond the basic service and that isn't paying a rent or tax. An ISP who would like to use the roads must pay some rent too. Beyond what they pay to support the system which they take out of customer's hides, there is nothing to pay. They may charge their subscribers to maintain the account, but beyond this in order to earn money on subscription you have the competitive arena. In this arena the MSO may compete with an ISP using its system in added value services. The MSO like TCI may have its preferred delivery through ATHM. The MSO like Comcast may prefer HSA. A non-MSO user like TWX may prefer Road-Runner. AOL may be a user who prefers AOL Broadband Services. None compete on the basic delivery system. They just equally pay for it. The system like the roads does not add value, but it is valuable since the system enables the offering of added value. MSO and ISPs don't provide content. They make deals with content creators so that maybe a content is only available on a given ISP's offering on the system. It is extremely important to understand that point. Jermo doesn't seem to. He thinks in terms of ATHM creating content. He knows that isn't the case, but he thinks that way. You shouldn't. You have to think in terms of cutting a deal with say, Disney, to provide special content and you give Disney a cut of the take. You sell it on a download basis. Other MSOs and ISPs are free to bid for the Disney offering. Maybe ATHM agrees to 10 Disney offerings to lock in exclusivity for a while. There are many possibilities. What makes it work is a free market and the free market works when there is competitors and a system supported by all. QoS is merely an operational consideration of market tiering. It isn't relevant for the common and mass usage. We aren't talking here about business or specialty networks. The common use or basic service has one QoS.