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 : NorthPoint Communications Holdings, Inc. (NPNT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: OpusX who wrote (333)	11/19/1999 10:59:00 PM
From: Tom Tallant	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 786

COMMUNICATION: Ruling will eventually lower the price of high-speed service. November 19, 1999 By KATE BERRY The Orange County Register Federal regulators paved the way Thursday for cheaper access to high-speed data Internet services by requiring local phone companies to open their phone lines to data carriers. The decision will eventually lower consumer costs for high-speed services by at least $20 a month. It also will mean several large technology companies in Orange County will reap a windfall by selling parts for digital-subscriber line, or DSL, technology. The Federal Communication Commission ordered the dominant telephone companies — Bell Atlantic Corp., BellSouth Corp., SBC Communications Inc., the parent of Pac Bell, and U.S. West Inc. — to share their copper phone lines with businesses that offer data services. This line-sharing means customers who want high-speed data services from a company other than their local phone carrier won't have to pay for a second phone line, which typically costs $20 to $23. Consumers also would not have to wait weeks for a second phone line to be installed, since the copper lines would simply be split to carry both voice and data transmissions. Several Orange County companies, including Conexant Systems Inc., a Newport Beach chip maker, and PairGain Technologies Inc., the Tustin-based telecommunications equipment marker, expect to gain from the ruling by supplying an array of parts that go into every high-speed data hookup. "This is very good for Pairgain," said George Zimmerman, the company's chief scientist, who called the ruling "very, very positive." The ruling is expected to spur consumer demand and increase competition for high-speed Internet products, including those offered by cable companies like Cox Communications Inc. But it could take years for consumers to reap the benefits. "You're not going to wake up tomorrow and get cheaper, better service," said Christopher Rose, vice president of business development at Flashcom Inc., a high-speed data provider in Huntington Beach. "It won't be immediate." Local phone companies and data carriers will immediately begin haggling about pricing, contracts, and how to share the copper lines going into consumers' homes, he said. (In a separate ruling, the California Public Utilities Commission ruled Thursday that Pac Bell must lower the wholesale costs it charges competitors for using certain elements of its network. For example, the cost for a data loop to competitors offering high-speed data services will drop to $12.67, from a whopping $148.96.) FCC Chairman William Kennard said the ruling sought to encourage competition and promote residential use of DSL technology. The technology allows simultaneous transmission of voice and data by splitting the spectrum on the customer's existing phone line. "If the incumbent is able to split its loop and offer both data and voice itself, it ought to be able to split the loop when the consumer wants to buy services from one provider of voice and one provider of data," Kennard said. Local telephone companies, which already offer high-speed Internet services to subscribers on regular phone lines, said the ruling could potentially jeopardize customers' regular phone service. But the ruling did not come as a surprice. The ruling won ringing endorsements from national data carriers NorthPoint Communications Group Inc., Covad Communications Group Inc. and Rhythms Net Connections Inc. These companies, known as competitive local exchange carriers, or CLECs, have fought to break the phone companies' control of copper wires into the home. "Another barrier to DSL access has been dropped," said Rose at Flashcom, which works with telephone companies and data providers. "What has throttled the market for high-speed data is really the availability." HOME PAGE TODAY'S NEWS ARCHIVES AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS & FINANCE •Today's Stories •At Work Extra •City Resumes •Legal Line •Legal Notices •Marketplace •Special Features •Technology & Computing •Work Avenue CLASSIFIEDS COLUMNS COMMUNITY NEWS CRIME, COURTS & LAW EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT ENTERTAINMENT FUN & GAMES HEALTH & FITNESS LIBERTY ONLINE LIVING & SHOPPING POLITICS & GOVERNMENT REAL ESTATE SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY SERVICES & PROMOTIONS SPORTS & RECREATION TRAVEL WEATHER --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: OpusX who wrote (333)	11/19/1999 11:36:00 PM
From: ahhaha	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 786

There's a good one by a guy named Gary Anspach. He was a NYC broker. Must be retired by now. There's no reason in the world to be involved with options. You are in capital markets to make a superior return. It is very reliable in any market to do that as long as you hold growing companies. Options imply trading and trading is a loser, even in a market like this. These guys jumping around are shooting themselves in the foot. You have to hold during a general or specific translation. As soon as you get that option you are hostage to expiration and so you are locked into trading, into changing a position at an arbitrary time not necessarily of your choosing. Who wants that tyranny? Anspach will tell you very much the same. He will say, "Number one, never buy an option. Number two, never buy an option." Like me he was a stockbroker and he learned by observing the public over decades. I learned that way, and from the public standpoint, and from being an MM on the PSOE. Even Livermore gave up on options in the early '20s soon after he penned his book. It's a shell game.

To: OpusX who wrote (333)	11/22/1999 12:06:00 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 786

from schwab * Telecommunications giant SBC COMMUNICATIONS INC. (SBC: 50-11/16, - 13/16) and PRODIGY COMMUNICATIONS CORP. (PRGY: 34, + 1-7/8) will combine their consumer and small business Internet operations in a deal that will give SBC a 43 percent equity stake in Prodigy, the companies said on Monday. The deal will enable Internet access provider to tap SBC's $6 billion capital investment in high-speed DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) technology , and will spur both companies' rowth, they said. Under the terms of the deal, SBC will make Prodigy its exclusive retail consumer and small business Internet access service provider to the approximately 100 million people in its service area. Prodigy will assume management of SBC's current 650,000 Internet customers, bringing Prodigy's managed subscriber base to more than 2 million, the companies said. ]chris