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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 (7383)	6/23/2000 5:19:00 PM
From: lml	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

Hi Mike. Got write this again due to another browser crash. Those guys at AOL should did a number of NSCP users. Anyway . . . re: BUT how in the world is a telco going to be able to do TV? VDSL The telco solution, that is the ILEC solution, as manifested by SBC, will be to upgrade their DSL networks to provision VDSL to subscriber homes that will be capable of delivering multichannel broadcast video over the twisted pair. If I recall correctly, I believe that when DSL was first developed, it was intended as a solution by the telcos to deliver video over twisted pair. I believe this was the intent of the original Pacific Telesis effort at the beginning of the last decade. What SBC is doing today is laying a foundation not only to provision DSL, but also a platform upon which to provision VDSL if market factors are favorable to lead to further investment. My understanding is that VDSL technology is found in the chip, and that the provisioning of VDSL would entail the installation of new chipsets or installing additional software into the memory that is found in the line cards, DSLAMs & various switches found along the DSL platform. I defer to the more technically informed & gifted here to elaborate on this. All I know is that to provision VDSL via Pronto, SBC would required to deepen the fiber from the RT closer to subscriber premises to a point, maybe, several thousand feet from the node, and to upgrade line cards and the like. I think the bigger question is the economics & the belief that such investment is merited based upon market factors. I say this because I do not belief, at least in the foreseeable future, that the provisioning of VDSL throughout SBC's vast territory makes sense. In the lower density areas, as well as the less "enfranchised" areas, SBC may still rely upon their partnership with DirecTV to compete against the MSOs to deliver video and broadband to the home. However, I do see an issue arising when GMH launches its 2-way high-speed Internet Spaceway service in a few years. But I think that's an issue for SBC to address when they come to that bridge. Anyway, my final answer is VDSL. MMDS Notwithstanding the foregoing, MMDS does represent an opportunity for the teleco AND OTHER PROVIDERS to offer convergence to subscribers. I view MMDS as the ballywick of today's overbuilders who are now venturing into the nation's larger cities whose local leaders, being politically minded, are now imposing city-wide deployment of such services, and prohibiting the cherry-picking that they have used to playing to date. As a result, I see them looking to MMDS technology as a means of delivering "wireless cable" to the less enfranchised neighborhoods that are typically characterized by more dense development and more flat terrain, whereby MMDS deployment can be more cost effective than the more tree-lined, wooded hillsides of some of the more affluent neighborhoods. I also see MMDS presenting the opportunity of franchised MSO to expand beyond their franchised service areas into another MSO's area & leveraging off of their neighboring terrestrial network. JMO. Have a good weekend.