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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ruffian who wrote (54072)	12/15/1999 1:08:00 AM
From: ggamer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

I separated the important line towards the end of the post. etrade.com Broadband Landscape (Broadband) : Media One (UMG), which is in the process of being acquired by AT&T (T), announced today a significant development in the future of broadband: an open, digital infrastructure for set-top boxes. The problem with cable based broadband has been that it is proprietary. This has given value to application level companies, like Excite@Home (ATHM), because it means that you get only one choice for broadband access service. AT&T has previously stated that they would allow open access, over their cable systems, to other ISPs, but each broadband system has still been proprietary technology, especially with respect to intelligent processing at the set-top level. This open system, which is being launched in Florida with a Philips set-top box, DiviCom headend system, and Canal+ Techcnologies software, means that you can get any ISP or application provider to interact with a set-top box running Java. What this means is that anyone could now develop an application that can be downloaded across the internet and installed in a set-top box to operate an application. What will be developed? Who knows? But prior to this, that type of operation would have only been possible on a PC. Suddenly, it looks like the dynamics of the next-era broadband wave have shifted. We have become convinced that broadband era will be closer to "TV meets web" rather than "PC meets TV." Exactly how that works out for existing companies isn't exactly clear yet, but this development, if it becomes accepted industry wide, would change a lot. Ever see a web site that says "WebTV users Click Here?" That's because WebTV set-top boxes behave differently, with web informatin, than PCs. But what if all set-top boxes were intelligent, and looked the same to application developers? The same kind of innovative software that came out of the open architecture of the PC would now come into the broadband set-top era. In fact, an open standard for set-top boxes would mean that wireless access could hook into the set-top box too. This is a very significant development in the landscape of the internet. It is good for AT&T, good for the unknown future broadband application developers, bad for Excite@Home (ATHM), and mixed for satellite internet providers such as Hughes (GMH), and Echostar (DISH). - RVG