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To: Yamakita who wrote (4649)	3/29/2000 4:42:00 AM
From: Edwin S. Fujinaka	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6020

I always wondered about the Speednet deal. The announcement that Tepco was pulling out of the deal seemed like a possible bargaining tactic to me. It may not have even been a formal announcement (like the stock secondary offering). The deal was originally put together so quickly that they may not have had their ducks all lined up. It seemed as though Tepco was going to supply most of the infrastructure and still only retain 31%. I questioned in my own mind, what Microsoft was going to contribute, but it could be mostly money. I also thought that there would be technical problems since a wireless "last few hundred meters" of high bandwidth two way communication would be very attractive if the price was low enough. Perhaps the description of the service and the projected pricing was premature. The technical problems may have created some interest in the optical wireless system, but the need to have a line of sight is much less attractive than a radio frequency type connection that can penetrate walls. I think that Metricom has such a system already available at low bandwidth and is working on a high bandwidth system, but I only have sketchy information and could be way off base. In any case, I would be glad to hear that Speednet is still in the works since a wireless high bandwidth ISP could be an important part of the internet business.