To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (69 ) 6/7/2000 2:59:00 PM From: lml Respond to
Hi Frank:The problem with this approach is that it calls for multiple, time-consuming and opportunity-depriving, upgrades over time, which tends to aggregate costs in a way that could best be described as Gestalt in reverse. what they will do, instead, is play chicken with each other. By this I mean they will each look at the other's performance and do a kind of arbitrage on how bad they can remain without suffering any consequences (such as subscriber churn). Message 13748331 Instead of the MSOs working their way through another four or five upgrades until they realize that they've reached the theoretical limits of coax and RF schemes over same, I think that some of them should be considering a more optimal base technology now, and simply bite the bullet. In the end they will have saved money, but more importantly, they would have enabled a host of far more dynamic applications than they are willing to permit (or could support) at this time, and create additional revenue generating opportunities. HDTV over regular RF-based cable is a thorn, for the bandwidth that it consumes and the ad displacement factor which it creates when multiple less demanding commercial channels cannot be aired in its place.
