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

To: Secret_Agent_Man who wrote (5557)	10/14/1999 11:09:00 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12823

Bill wants ADSL: Gates urges acceleration By Paul Taylor in Geneva Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, believes that the world's telecommunications network operators are under-estimating the demand for high-speed, internet-based services. And yesterday he urged telecoms industry leaders attending the Telecom 99 show in Geneva to accelerate the deployment of so-called broadband technologies. Mr Gates said he believed that consumer demand for new high-speed internet services like DSL - a technology that turns ordinary copper telephone lines into a high capacity data highway - would soar. Microsoft wanted to help accelerate the uptake of broadband services in Europe in partnership with traditional network operators, he said. The US software group has made a string of high profile minority investments in cable and telecoms network operators. But Mr Gates emphasised that Microsoft had no interest in becoming a communications supplier itself. "I hope I have made it 100 per cent clear that we are not in the communications business," he said. Rather, it was dependent on forming strong partnerships with telecoms companies. "This combination, I would say, is very similar to the collaboration that existed between the hardware industry and Microsoft in creating the PC business. Companies like Intel and Compaq were key partners in those years. Today I would say our work with telecommunications companies is equally important as those kinds of partnerships." His company's software could help communications companies build new revenue streams, for example by outsourcing business applications, video conferencing or sharing contact lists. "These new services will also help these companies because customers will have a reason to stick with you," Mr Gates said. Because the cable TV infrastructure was relatively less developed in most European countries than in the US, he said DSL would be crucial in providing consumers with broadband interactive services. "DSL has to be part of the picture because the big telecom companies are the key to communications in Europe. If you are going to make DSL really big in Europe it is going to be BT, DT, France Telecom, Telecom Italia. The big carriers are key partners for us and so there is a very active discussion with those carriers now about how can we make DSL successful." Mr Gates demonstrated a prototype mobile phone developed in Microsoft's Seattle labs that ran the company's CE operating system, connected to the internet via a digital GSM wireless telephone link. Computer users, he said, should not have to worry about transferring files or messages from one machine to another when they travel.