Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : AUTOHOME, Inc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: red_dog who wrote (12780)	7/20/1999 10:47:00 PM
From: E. Davies	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

Just finished listening to the conference call. It was very upbeat. Here are my list of "cool things" I learned: 1) 65% of AOL users who sign up for @home cancel their AOL account. 2) The "free AOL" program seems to be working quite well. TJ said that AOL subscribers seem to be willing to sell their allegiance to AOL for only $20-$30. All they want is some time to change the e-mail address. 3) The @home churn rate is less than the death rate (2%). People are refusing to die because they have @home! 4) July is showing good results for Excite due to the new voice features which seem to be liked. 5) @home is planning to have promotions in the physical stores of some of the businesses that are in the Excite Mall. 6) TJ said very clearly that there are many talks going on with other major net companies and that any deal done by them with AT&T will be done through ATHM. 7) Re: Open access in Canada. "You can legislate it all you want but there is still no way to implement it". They are not worried in the slightest. 8) They stated they are open to going into DSL into residential areas but that it is a low priority because there is such a small footprint not covered already by cable (including RoadRunner). Looks like they are making sure not to compete with RoadRunner in any way. Hmmm... Eric

To: red_dog who wrote (12780)	7/20/1999 11:01:00 PM
From: Ron Dior	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

Sorry if this has been posted already: Tuesday July 20, 9:38 pm Eastern Time FOCUS-U.S. localities back open cable Internet (adds FCC chairman comment, paragraphs 9-10) By Aaron Pressman WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) - The cable industry suffered another setback in its effort to keep exclusive control of new high-speed cable Internet lines, as a leading municipal association on Tuesday backed open access for competitors. Congress and federal regulators have so far allowed cable operators to keep competing Internet service providers off their high speed access lines, but a few local governments have prohibited such exclusive practices. The National Association of Counties, meeting Tuesday in St. Louis, approved a resolution backing the right of local governments to require open access and urging the Federal Communications Commission and Congress to adopt similar policies. ''It is essential that local government franchise authorities have the authority to require that all cable companies provide open access to all Internet service providers,'' the resolution said. If the FCC or Congress act, ''the outcome should be an open access system that encourages competition between ISP providers,'' the resolution said. Cable companies have argued open access requirements would be hard to implement and deprive them of revenues needed to pay for upgrades to their lines that allow high-speed service. Their arguments have swayed the FCC and Congress but a federal court last month upheld the right of local regulators in Portland, Oregon to impose an open access requirement on AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T - news) as a condition of the company's purchase of Tele-Communications Inc. Last week, regulators in Broward County, Fla., adopted a similar measure and Miami and San Francisco may soon follow. The issue is sure to arise across the country as thousands of local governments assess AT&T's planned purchase of MediaOne Group.(NYSE:UMG - news) The county vote did little to change the opinion of FCC Chairman William Kennard. In a speech in San Francisco, Kennard reiterated his opposition to regulation of Internet on cable. ''There is no sign that as this nascent market matures that the cable operator has an incentive to deny ISPs access to their platform,'' Kennard said. ''It is not clear that the perceived benefits of mandating open access outweigh their apparent economic and technological costs.'' Internet companies like America Online (NYSE:AOL - news) and MindSpring Enterprises (Nasdaq:MSPG - news) along with public advocacy and consumer groups plan to lobby the local governments for open access. They welcomed Tuesday's vote by the counties. ''County officials understand the concerns and needs of their citizens,'' said Rich Bond, co-director of the OpenNet Coalition that includes AOL and MindSpring. An AT&T spokeswoman said the policy backed by the counties would slow the deployment of high speed Internet service, which also allows cable companies to compete in the local telephone market. ''As FCC chairman William Kennard has said, the information superhighway won't work if 30,000 different localities each establish their own rules for Internet access,'' the spokeswoman said. ''It would also slow the development of competition in local phone service and the roll out of new high-speed services to consumers.'' The issue arose after cable companies began offering Internet connections over cable wires at speeds 50 to 100 times faster than ordinary connections over telephone lines. The cable companies required customers wanting high-speed access to buy Internet services like e-mail and Web page hosting from a provider owned by the cable companies, like ExciteAtHome Corp.(Nasdaq:ATHM - news) or privately-held RoadRunner. Customers could reach any Web site but must pay for the cable company's service provider even if they would prefer another provider like MindSpring. Telephone companies are forbidden from requiring customers using their lines for high or low-speed Internet access to also buy Internet services from a phone company affiliate. techstocks.com Ron Dior