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

To: E. Davies who wrote (13173)	7/31/1999 7:40:00 AM
From: Educator	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

"I hate to tell you but for some odd reason I think Portland Oregon may be the last city in North America to get cable Internet service." I think that would serve them right...hehehehe. It would be too bad if the public had to suffer because of the city council. I haven't followed the baseball umpire strike too carefully, but you know what you have to do when you make your bed. If you sign a resignation letter, you should be prepared for its acceptance. Here are my thoughts on price cutting of ATHM service. First of all, I am not a businessman. I am only looking at this (hopefully) with some common sense. I will begin with a question. Does ATHM's price vary from city-to-city? It seems to me I have read about a range of subscriber fees. I don't have a problem with different prices across the country. The price of gasoline and Cheerios certainly differs in each place, so why shouldn't the subscriber price? Let the economics of the area/competition determine the fee. I know the cost of installation does vary. I liked the fact that TCI@Home waved that in my area. They did set August 31st as a deadline for that promotion. I would guess that date would be extended. Many of you have mentioned that the cost of an extra line and AOL or some other ISP is basically the same as the price of ATHM. That was true in my case, and I'm sure it is in other areas. We have a waiting list in my community. Not a huge list, but 700 or so. If I were TCI@Home, I would not lower the price ($39.95) unless the waiting list went to zero, or competition increased. At this time, people are willing to pay the price, so let them pay it. The waiting list might grow as word spreads about the advantages of broadband. The best advertisement is word of mouth. I am a little concerned with a glut of subscribers all at once (if the monthly price were cut). Growth that is too rapid may be difficult to provide good (hopefully exceptional) service. My TCI@Home service is not perfect, and it appears as though troubleshooting is an everyday occurrence for them and me. I was down this week for one entire day. There have been other times that I was unable to connect for short periods of time. Disconnecting my modem sometimes helps. I don't get too thrilled about crawling under my computer desk to disconnect my modem's power cord every day. It is something about being over-the-hill. I will also say that navigating on SI with ATHM is no faster than with my dial-up ISP. That is more than likely a site problem. I do notice that I am able to zip around my online brokerage site much faster. Downloads are much faster, which is nice. Let us not forget that people want a reliable ISP more that anything else. What good is speed when you can't get online? People do not want to encounter busy signals or these strange messages I get when I cannot connect with ATHM. Even though one line was occasionally busy with dial-up, the second number attempt would usually connect. I do not even remember a day that I could not connect with my former ISP. There may have been a time or two, but it has been forgotten (old age again). I am beginning to miss my dial-up connection, and am contemplating signing up again as a backup. I get impatient when not being able to logon. I ran into a colleague today. She would not have even heard of ATHM a month ago. Now, she not only knows about it, but also told me she must call them soon about an installation. It has been on her list to do, but keeps forgetting to call. She said that many of her friends have the service and are very pleased. She has only heard good things. ATHM has been a topic of conversation in her circle of friends. That is good. Maybe someday ATHM will have the same brand recognition as AOL. That's the end of my meaningless dribble. Have a great weekend! Ed