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Technology Stocks : The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Valueman who wrote (2141)	10/10/1999 2:23:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13582

Gerstner Speaks> Gerstner Warns Internet Change Is More Than Networks Tells Telecom 99 attendees PC computing is dead, but not PCs Margie Semilof, Computer Reseller News Technology may be the engine behind today's e-business phenomenon, but the real revolution is how every industry and each transaction will be transformed using these new tools, according to IBM's top exective. In his Telecom 99 keynote here on Sunday, Louis Gerstner, chairman and chief executive at IBM, outlined his vision of an e-business economy, encouraging his international audience to look beyond the literal meaning of this conference's theme "Join the World." Gerstner said communications technologies are helping bring business and institutions together with consumers and services, and the transformation will only accelerate with services that increase customer bandwidth, such as digital subscriber line. He emphasized that technology will merge with strategy decisions by moving into the boardroom with the chief executive. The Internet overturns existing business models and transforms market structures, he said. "This is about the transformation of every institution in the world," he said. Gerstner also warned that there is also an important public policy agenda here, referring to regulatory bodies trying to shape rules for this new medium. He said the Internet depends on open transactions, but it is not quite the phone system. The Internet "cannot be hammered into the groove of the old system," he said. Gerstner called many of today's telecommunications carriers agenda for change "remarkable" considering their long history as regulated monopolies. Those carriers, he said, are worried about whether to fight for more traditional customers or to move toward selling value-added services. He said he expects more opportunities to create partnerships between computing and communications carriers because most companies will want to provide both types of services. "I hope the sale of our digital network underscores that IBM does not want to be in the telecommunications business," Gerstner said, referring to the sale of its network earlier this year to AT&T. Gerstner would not acknowledge whether IBM would sell its PC business, but he declared that "network computing was ascendant, and the era of PC networking is over. "The PC is not dead," he said. "PCs will be joined by networked handheld devices." Gerstner said, the e-business economy gives computer and communications companies an opportunity not to drag the worst of both industries forward. He said, the worst of telecommunications is that there are too many PTTs [postal, telephone and telegraph authorities], trying to hold on to old ways. The worst of the computing industry is attempting to dominate standards. "There are still a few companies trying that don't get it, who are trying to propagate standards to exert control," he said. "They are standing on the wrong side of history." At an earlier session on Sunday, John Roth, chief executive of Nortel Networks, Brampton, Ontario, compared the previous Telecom conference in 1995 to Telecom 99. "There wasn't much talk then about the Internet," Roth said. "In fact, it probably wasn't discussed at all. Now it's probably all we are going to talk about here." Roth tossed out some statistics, including the fact that it took thetelecommunications industry 70 years to connect its first 50 million subscribers. It took only four years to reach the first 50 million Internet users, he said. Roth also outlined many of the Internet's shortcomings that, unless corrected, could reduce its potential to deliver multimedia services. He cited network speed, which is still a hindrance to running voice, lack of security, limited ease of use and a lack of universal access. The Internet's overall performance reliability is spotty and will not be trusted by consumers for e-business applications unless it has the same reputation for high performance as the telephone network, Roth said.