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To: KevRupert who wrote (6248)	4/4/2000 11:52:00 PM
From: KevRupert	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11568

MCI WorldCom?s Wireless Plays Run the Gamut Bloomberg News January 19, 2000 MCI WorldCom Inc., which once said customers weren?t demanding wireless services, is busy assembling an arsenal of offerings, said John Stupka, chief executive of its SkyTel Communications Inc. unit. In the past year, MCI WorldCom bought about 35 percent of Metricom Inc., which is building a nationwide high-speed wireless Internet network; acquired SkyTel, which operates a national paging and messaging network; agreed to buy rival Sprint Corp. to gain its Sprint PCS wireless-telephone network; and purchased the assets of four wireless cable-television companies. "MCI WorldCom is going to have the best array of mobile data solutions, and they?re going to complement that, then, with some really nice broadband wireless to improve service to the house," Stupka told the Bloomberg Forum. The No. 2 U.S. long-distance carrier intends to use wireless- cable spectrum to offer high-speed access to homes, small businesses and office parks in less-populated areas, where it?s too expensive for traditional cable and phone companies to string wires. To serve a 300-square-mile area, MCI WorldCom will invest about $60,000 in equipment. "That?s $2,000 per square mile to be ready to serve," Stupka said, much less than copper or fiber-optic cable. For MCI WorldCom, the best part of the expense is that it?s success-based; capital "doesn?t have to be committed until you have a customer willing to pay." Upfront costs of the new service could be significant, Stupka said, though he declined to specify exactly what the company expects. Still, he said, "it will be manageable, and if we do a good job figuring out where to place it and how to advertise it, I think we?ll quickly see revenue to match." Truly High-Speed? Stupka said MCI WorldCom?s broadband wireless service will likely bring data to customers at about 500 kilobits a second, roughly 10 times as fast as today?s best telephone modems, and will send data back to the Internet at 100 kilobits a second. And the service is "totally configurable on the fly," he said. If customers find they need more speed, the company can sell them a different package without having to install new equipment. Stupka said MCI WorldCom is confident providing high-speed data over wireless-cable frequencies will be economically competitive with similar cable-and satellite-based services. That?s because broadband wireless can be profitable with relatively few users. Broadband wireless could also be a stopgap service, Stupka said. Developers could offer it to tenants in a new office park before fiber-optic lines are laid, moving customers to other MCI WorldCom services as they become available. "There?s a tendency to think of people being wired or wireless, like you have to be one or the other," Stupka said. "(MCI) WorldCom, I think, prides itself on being kind of technology-and medium-agnostic." Only about 100 customers in the Jackson, Mississippi, area, near MCI WorldCom?s headquarters, now use broadband wireless commercially, Stupka said. The company hopes to begin operating a few other systems commercially late this year, and to be in more than 100 cities before the end of 2001, pending regulatory developments. Stupka declined to estimate how much the broadband wireless market is worth. "We find that customers are really willing to pay to avoid the ?World Wide Wait,?" he said.