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

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (4272)	6/21/1999 8:51:00 PM
From: MikeM54321	Respond to of 12823

Re: More Sprint Consumer ION Info Thread, The 15 minutes sure runs out quickly. Wanted to add the following, slightly more critical, article but ran out of time. MikeM(From Florida) ___________________________ Sprint's Rolling Out Consumer ION Initiative KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Sprint Corp. will launch a new Integrated On-Demand Network (ION) in Kansas City, Denver and Seattle this fall, and looking ahead to a nationwide market of an estimated 45 million households, Sprint officials said Monday. With the leasing of space on local phone lines and more than $1.2 billion invested in the acquisition of wireless cable licenses, Sprint is eyeing Phoenix, Houston, San Francisco, St. Louis and many other markets for ION expansion, Kevin Brauer, president of Sprint's national integrated services said. ''In our view there is a (competitive) war out there. We want to deploy as quickly as we can,'' Brauer said. ION, which Brauer described as a ''fundamental network strategy change,'' will offer consumers the ability to conduct multiple phone calls, receive faxes, conduct videoconferences and use the Internet simultaneously at speeds up to 100 times faster than they can today. Sprint officials announced Monday the three cities where initial consumer service will begin in December. The company also said Monday that it will hire 200 people in Atlanta to staff a new ION call center. Sprint began selling the ION service to the corporate market in January. The service will be rolled out to small businesses late this year. Some have been skeptical of the new ION initiative, which Sprint plans to deliver to homes using a mix of both wireline (DSL) and fixed wireless technologies. Doubters have questioned Sprint's ability to convince consumers that the service is worth the price tag, which will be between $100 and $150 a month. Delays and problems with the ION testing have also spurred doubts about the strategy. ''We see this as being much more hype than reality at this point,'' said Mark Zohar, a senior analyst with Forrester Research. Zohar said service problems in testing and a ''patchwork approach'' to technology was a concern. Sprint officials have acknowledged difficulties but said Sprint would be back on track with its consumer roll out.