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To: Big Dog who wrote (22441)	5/19/2000 8:27:00 PM
From: Archie Meeties	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

"use the Warren Buffett strategy of buying what you understand and use." The other strategy Buffett uses is to short companies which have "Monetized Shareholder Ignorance", which explains why he's not covered his nasdaq shorts. Subject 34385

To: Big Dog who wrote (22441)	5/19/2000 9:12:00 PM
From: gpowell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

worldlyinvestor.com An Excited Voice in the Broadband Debate By worldlyinvestor.com Staff 05/19/2000 10:35 AM Click here for printer-friendly version Editor's Note: We have received a lot of mail from readers on the most recent columns by High-Tech Stocks columnist Mitch Ratcliffe reagarding the debate on broadband. Check out the original article entitled "How Broadband is Your Portfolio." and its follow-up. The following is the reader response from an executive at Excite at Home (ATHM: Nasdaq). To the editor: Regarding your on-going write-ups: "The Broadband Debate Rejoined: DSL Vs. Cable." With all due respect, I'm afraid that Mr. Ratcliffe is talking out of school. He may have edited an IT publication, but the level of expertise it takes to understand this topic requires considerably more exposure to the technology. I have been architecting cable modem networks for five years. Additionally, I have been involved with DSL deployments for the past year, as Excite@Home has rolled out commercial and soon to be offered residential DSL services. Mr. Ratcliffe fails to grasp the benefits of a shared network. One need only look at your typical office environment, with shared Ethernet networks (even when switched) with dozens and often hundreds of computers sharing one 10 Mbps uplink pipe. Further, is Mr. Ratcliffe aware that the downstream bandwidth on a cable network runs at a data rate of 27 Mbps? When it comes to the economics, the scalability of cable modem networks is attractive. There are two main costs for both technologies -- the modem in the home, and the central equipment the modems talk to. The modem costs are essentially the same, but not the central equipment costs. Cable modems only need to talk with one larger device, but DSL modems require an identical DSL modem centrally for EVERY connected modem. A fully deployed cable deployment works out to less than $10 per subscriber in capital costs (consumer buys the modem). To give an example, a CMTS device that can cover a footprint of about 72,000 households with 4 downstream and 24 upstream channels costs about $40,000. This device can handle market penetrations up to around 7%. This comes out to a capital cost of $8 per customer. DSL deployments are almost an order of magnitude greater. Clearly cable holds its own when it comes to service scalability. Of course all this last-mile technology is moot if you haven't built out the upstream backbone network -- where everyone is sharing, even DSL subscribers. With 15,000 route miles of fiber running at 2.4 Gbps nationwide, Excite@Home has built out the infrastructure to scale all services, both cable and DSL. Lastly, Mr. Ratcliffe inaccurately states that Excite@Home can only serve a footprint of 10 million homes today. The actual number is 26 million homes. Jay Rolls VP, Network Engineering Excite@Home

To: Big Dog who wrote (22441)	5/19/2000 9:31:00 PM
From: gpowell	Respond to of 29970

The guy is a making a fundamental error in evaluating twisted pair vs HFC bandwidth, based solely on the data rates for internet service. An accurate comparison would have to include the entire usable spectrum of each pipe. But eventually we will all need massive up- and down-stream connections to support a wide range of new services to the home. The need for capacity will add up to much more than today's cable networks can deliver without ``splitting'' neighborhoods served by HFC networks to isolate homes for faster service. He is throwing this in to boost his credibility. He is letting us know that he knows that cable nodes can be split. He wants us to assume he has done some homework. Nevertheless, we already know he is a fool because he should not be making this argument at all. Now look at this comment: If, as one cable investor wrote, it costs $250 to ``split'' a neighborhood into two network ``nodes'' that serve 250 homes each>, that's great. But to deliver 27 Mbps service to every home, you ultimately have to split the network so that every home, or very small clusters of homes, has fast access, the $250-per-split costs add up fast. So, at the service-to-the-curb level, I'll stand by my claim that DSL is cheaper to install and maintain. Pathetic. The guy is making a claim about DSL deployment cost vs Cable deployment cost. However, he is using the "cost" of deploying 27mb cable service as a premise. This has nothing to do with his claim. This is a logical fallacy called a straw man argument. Reformulate into categorical syllogism: All nodes need spitting to deliver 27 mb service All node splits cost $250 All DSL deployment is cheaper than cable deployment This is an invalid argument. It's not just that the conclusion is wrong, the conclusion cannot follow from the premises. Logic is a method for reasoning properly, since it is evident from his illogic that this author can not reason properly, we cannot accept his claims. Who is this clown? Ratcliffe is vice president and editor-in-chief of the ON24 Network, a personalized financial broadcast network for individual investors. He is also longtime executive and investor in the technology industry. Ratcliffe's insights and analysis of the high-tech industry will appear twice each week. Having served as the networking editor of an IT publication and with years of coverage of this area, I do possess the technical understanding necessary to speak to these issues, despite what some readers may think. Then he says this: DSL (digital subscriber line), since It is circuit-based, is dedicated to the individual home upon installation. It is never shared and, if the hardware is capable of handling increased bandwidth, service can be increased with the flip of a switch. I guess this proves editors are the dumbest clowns around.