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To: Stuart C Hall who wrote (831)	1/20/2000 11:47:00 PM
From: Greg S.	Respond to of 10713

To paraphrase a couple of articles I've read, the companies that made the most money when the TV became a commodity were not the television networks or the TV manufactures, they were the cable owners. Now in my own words, in the realm of connectivity when a revolutionary new appliance comes out, the early stages of its use offer high margins to those that manufacture the appliance and those that provide content for it. But after a while it becomes a commodity, and if it is widespread than popularity has caused content for the appliance to become so widespread that the margins are not high (except for the rare few companies that make outstanding content). However, as the appliance evolves it demands more and more bandwidth and hence those who manufacture the bandwidth are never without demand or margin. The weakness of the appliance/content market (high supply) becomes the strength of the bandwidth market (high demand). Although I haven't, I think you can trace this theory all the way back to the printing press. Fiber optics is quite obviously the future of bandwidth. I just read a press release that MCI Worldcom and Nortel have successfully tested the transmission of a terabit of data (1 million megabits) over a single optical fiber-optic, in one second. Amazing. So as long as you can switch the data fast enough (calling all switch/router manufacturers ..) you can connect literally 600,000 T1 lines over this one fiber. Of course, being tech-savvy, it's not like you guys don't already know this. ;) And it's not like the market doesn't know this, even if its taking notice is recent. But I'm curious what you guys here think is the growth potential of the major fiber optic players how you perceive the market is valuing them. Corning (GLW) certainly got its fair (or unfair ;)) share of attention today. BTW I used to live in Corning, NY when I was 4. They used to have another great glass company called Vitrix where you could watch them blow glass .. very cool. I wonder if it's still there. -G

To: Stuart C Hall who wrote (831)	1/21/2000 12:07:00 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10713

Nice to hear from you. I wonder who it was who bought GERN two years ago. Anyway, I am not going to argue the stocks that you have pointed out because you know more about them than I. So I hope that you are right. Keep in mind that to become a MSFT, SUNW, or even ORCL, not only the company has to fully dominate its niche, it must also establish strong barriers to entry. And of course, its niche has to be a very very big "niche". I think a few years ago I owned some QLGC. But I've been out of that area of the market (both professionally and investment wise) for too long. I'll let you know what I think if I get a chance to check them out. good luck, ST