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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (7301)	6/13/2000 3:38:00 AM
From: lml	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 12823

Hi Mike: I think where we are "missing" each other is with respect to timeframe. My comments were gear with a more futuristic vision of where I see things headed as opposed to how things are today, which IMHO, is certain to change. For starters, when I used the term "control" to describe Internet provider (as opposed to plain ol' service provider (ie. access), I was referring to how content is going to be playing an increasingly important role of how a consumer choose his ISP. Going forward a few years, it is MO that content is going to be king, & that the AOL-TWX model is going to be the model to be emulated by others who seek to lure subscribers onto their service. They will do so by offering proprietary content not found elsewhere via other gateways to the Internet. It is important to distinguish between the ISP & the SP as you have prudently pointed out. I view the SP as an ACCESS provider, providing customer ACCESS to whatever, wherever, whoever, but more importantly, providing the converse, providing whoever ACCESS to the customer. That relationship will be cherished & will form the underpinning of the e-commerce platform. IMHO, the SP that holds or controls ACCESS to that particular customer will be in a position to "resell" that access to the ISP that wishes to provide a gateway for that customers access to the Internet. More importantly, that ISP will compete with others on the SP's platform for the customer's business. Which ISP will the customer choose? I think its all gonna be about content, & the ISP that is capable of delivering proprietary content not found elsewhere (ie. certain TWX programming available only on AOL) is going to be the ISP that succeeds & gets the customer's business. And what about the home page? Will there be freedom of choice with respect to the home page, much as what we say today, or will providers of proprietary content streaming bits over an SP's infrastructure slowly migrate their content onto the consumer's "chosen" home page? As I see it, your "home" page in the future is gonna be less "yours" & more "theirs." The demand pull model of the Internet will slowly migrate itself toward the broadcast model whereby what is "broadcasted" to your "home" page will be uniquely "yours," it will nevertheless be controlled to some extent by the ISP, & thereby the distinction b/w the two.