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To: KENNETH DOAN who wrote (23304)	6/20/1999 4:46:00 PM
From: Jenne	Respond to of 41369

The technologies they offer vary. In a very few rare cases, including Bell South's Atlanta network, customers get the ultimate in high-speed connections -- fiberoptic lines hooked into the computers by cable modem -- generally for $40-$59 a month. In contrast, the telcos are offering asynchronous digital subscriber lines (ADSL) that use digital coding to squeeze extra data through existing phone lines. Both cable and ADSL typically transmit at close to, and even above, the speeds of the T-1 lines favored by businesses, or more than 50 times faster than an ordinary 28.8kbps modem. An estimate by Forrester Research puts the number of people using cable modems at 13.6 million by 2002. Another 2.2 million are expected to be on ADSL. Dell cares not a whit about who eventually wins the broadband race -- from his point of view, it's irrelevant -- though he admits to sharing Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's belief that cable may emerge triumphant, although he adds: "The telcos are far behind, but they are being motivated to catch up and, in some instances at least, catch up they will." While some on Wall Street and at the broadband companies talk of controlling this pipeline, throwing advertising at users and directing them (for a fee, of course) to most favored Websites, Dell is skeptical. "Sure, some of the cable companies did manage to change the rules of the game and achieve some of this for a few years, but I just don't think it will happen this time around with broadband. The simple fact is that it will be very difficult for the guys who provide the physical Internet connection to control the content. It will be about as difficult as it would be for your phone company to tell you who you could and couldn't telephone." BARRONS Michael Dell