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To: Tom Tallant who wrote (16539)	10/31/1999 5:28:00 PM
From: E. Davies	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29970

AT&T Set to Argue Appeal to Oregon Open Access Ruling Monday quote.bloomberg.com Portland, Oregon, Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- AT&T Corp., soon to be the No. 1 U.S. cable-TV operator, on Monday will argue its appeal to a federal ruling that would require it to open cable lines to rival Internet access providers in Portland, Oregon. AT&T will ask a panel of three judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn an earlier ruling allowing the city and county governments to require the company to open its cable lines. AT&T will argue that Congress has already passed laws that forbid such local regulation, and that the local requirements violate the First Amendment. The appeal comes as AT&T has run into roadblocks in its bid to offer local phone service, high-speed Internet access and other services across cable lines it has acquired with two major purchases. Some local governments, including Portland and surrounding Multnomah County, have agreed to transfer cable franchises to AT&T on the condition that it open its wires to competing access providers. AT&T's appeal comes after it lost a June suit to overturn Portland's conditions. Many other cities are closely monitoring the appeal as they deliberate on transferring cable franchises. ``A lot of people are watching what the 9th Circuit does and what happens with the appeal to see which direction they should take,' said Jon Englund, director of government affairs with high-speed Internet access provider Excite At Home Corp., which is majority owned by AT&T. A ruling in favor of the city would be bad news for AT&T and Excite At Home and good news for rivals America Online Inc., MindSpring Enterprises Inc., and others. AOL and the others currently offer access primarily through phone lines, which are much slower than cable. Portland attached the conditions to the cable franchise to give consumers the same kind of choice for Internet access through cable that they have through phone lines, said David Olson, Portland's cable communications director. AT&T and Excite At Home argue that their services benefit consumers by promoting competition from other types of high-speed Internet access, such as digital subscriber line, which is offered by local phone companies. The Federal Communications Commission has been cautious about regulating anything related to the nascent Internet industry. Lawyers from the company and the city and county will each have 20 minutes to argue their points, though they can be interrupted repeatedly by questions from the judges, Olson said. Many observers will monitor the tone of questions for an insight into which way the judges are leaning. A ruling on the appeal will come in January or February. Both sides agree that no matter who wins the appeal, the case will be appealed again to the Supreme Court, which could delay a resolution until 2001. Some analysts expect a settlement before that. AT&T and Excite At Home have already held discussions with AOL and others about opening up the cable lines. ``The answer is they've got to cut deals,' said George Reed- Dellinger, a policy analyst with Washington Analysis. --Greg Chang in the San Francisco newsroom (415) 912-2992/pkc

To: Tom Tallant who wrote (16539)	10/31/1999 5:43:00 PM
From: Rascal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

<<The "advertising" value of the broadband subscriber will catapult the shares of ATHM quickly as the street will value each subscriber at 3-4 times that of its dial-up counterparts>> I don't understand this? Why would the broadband subscriber be more valuable then a dial-up subscriber?

To: Tom Tallant who wrote (16539)	10/31/1999 5:50:00 PM
From: Rascal	Respond to of 29970

<<ATHM management is also poised by their management restructuring to release substatial shareholder value with a possible issuance of a "content - e-commerce" tracking stock with the Excite brand name.>> I don't understand why this tracking stock will unlock shareholder value? The monetization of the customers by valuing them based on content and e-commerce is just mathematics. There are not enough Excite customers. And the customers that do exist are not pumping hard enough to result in meaningful advertising and e-commerce dollars. Am I missing something? <<This would enable its parent companies to allow access via ATHM pipes to other ISP's and substantially diminish future court proceedings.>> Are you saying that ISP's can contract with ATHM for the ATHM fast pipes? Why isn't ATHM doing this now? Thanks in advance. Always willing to learn.

To: Tom Tallant who wrote (16539)	10/31/1999 10:30:00 PM
From: ahhaha	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29970

You sound like you're writing for a brokerage house. You don't put your dough down for milk toast reasons. Tax selling is irrelevant. Open access is businessman's risk. I believe it's irrelevant. In fact, it's a perfect smoke screen which helps to prevent the stock from going on an April binge which forces investors to sell. Advertising value of broadband? That's part of eyeball theory. @Home advertising has made no difference in my purchasing habits in comparison to dial-up. I have them both. That aspect of ATHM, pulling through the portal, is questionable now. In several years it will be different. Tell me how an advertiser can advertise? The user has too much control over the medium. You can't be in anyone's face. What makes sense is elective advertising. What's that? Let's say you are looking to buy a small boat. You log on and search for boat manufacturers. Each boat maker has a commercial team or firm which cooks up a good video presentation of their stuff. Reviewing the various videos narrows your options to a few for physical investigation. The only benefit to ATHM is the rent for enabling high speed distribution of videos. ATHM can't get in the video creation business. That's true content from the advertising angle and it is other firms which must provide this kind of service over ATHM's network system. Hindery's departure risks that the fumble bumbling management will throw more money down the rathole for incontentancy. The stable low risk institutional satisfying strategy was Hindery's distribution concept, not content escapades. You can't even define "content" because it's just a catch-all word which seems to mean something. On examination something disappears. Att's equity position is forcing Att to expend a great deal of money while the expectation of return on expenditure keeps moving outward on every content purchase. ATHM is a sunk cost with a variable return and in light of Blue Sky and Excite?! one wonders if Att has any control over macho motivated profligacy even if it is inadvertent evolution. I wish ATHM would stop making equity investments and start using the assets they already have. ATHM is going to take a stake in an e-commerce player? It sounds good but it's crap. What is an e-commerce player? A company which has paper thin margin, vanishing equity, and no market power. You'd need bad managers and poor oversight for ATHM to chase the e-commervce windmill. Malone and Armstrong can't afford any more escapades and that goes double for chasing the great expectations built into the prices of "internet properties". But the glib crap coup de grace is: "ATHM management is also poised by their management restructuring to release substatial shareholder value with a possible issuance of a "content - e-commerce" tracking stock with the Excite brand name. This would enable its parent companies to allow access via ATHM pipes to other ISP's and substantially diminish future court proceedings". How does creating a tracking stock increase value? The same way a split does? How does it change the legal environment? The phrase,"This would enable its parent companies" is incoherent. What are you talking about? An Excite tracking stock gets around Att's legal problems? What has any of that to do with management restructuring and what management restructuring do you mean? Bell?