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Technology Stocks : IATV-ACTV Digital Convergence Software-HyperTV -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: art slott who wrote (5455)	7/9/1999 11:02:00 AM
From: art slott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13157

Broadband's almost here, say execs by: no_where_to_go_but_up 19429 of 19437 cbs.marketwatch.com SUN VALLEY, Idaho (CBS.MW) -- The agenda at the Allen & Co. conference was supposed to be about our prosperous but troubled society, but the biggest buzz among the 200-plus executives was over the imminent arrival of broadband Internet service. "There has been a lot going on since the Telecommunications Act was passed in 1996. (Broadband service) is getting rolled out even as we speak," Sprint (FON: news, msgs) Chairman William Esrey told CBS.MarketWatch.com. He said Sprint is on track to offer broadband to small businesses in major metropolitan areas by the third quarter and will start offering it to residences in Seattle, Denver and Kansas City by the end of the year. AT&T (T: news, msgs) is making similar moves, he noted. "You're going to have cable modems, you're going to have fixed wireless, you're going to have DSL. We're right on the cusp. It's coming fast." Liberty Media's John Malone (LMG.A: news, msgs) thinks the presence of fiber optics in major metropolitan areas creates "a dominant communications infrastructure that has a very large incremental cost advantage over any other technology." Where there is no fiber, Malone sees wireless services playing a big role, both on a temporary basis where fiber has yet to be installed and permanently in areas where it will never be cost-efficient to install cable. Malone estimates fiber now runs close to 40 percent of U.S. homes, while wireless still has limitations in quality, capacity and its requirement for a clear line of sight. What does that mean to the battle between cable companies and local phone companies to provide services in the home? "I don't believe ultimately that DSL (offered by local phone companies) will give quite the quality that these other technologies give, but for many, many people it's probably enough," he said. Oprah Winfrey's focused on Oxygen Media Inc., the network for women. Asked how big a role she planned to play personally, she replied: "Huge. I see it as the next level. I see what I've done for the past 13 years, five days a week, owning the block, that this is the next level. I see that five days a week as a little, teeny, tiny, infinitesimal network ... (that) has created its own base of influence," she said. Winfrey said the group is having its first board meeting after the Allen & Co. conference concludes. "The future's so bright, it just burns my eyes. The possibilities are enormous. It's like the invention of electricity all over again." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: 07/09/1999 07:50 am EDT as a reply to: Msg 19428 by no_where_to_go_but_up View Replies to this Message Related Links Quote & News Profile Research Insider