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Technology Stocks : AUTOHOME, Inc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: M. Frank Greiffenstein who wrote (25650)	9/20/2000 11:06:12 PM
From: Ahda	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

cbs.marketwatch.com Would you tell me what in blazes is wrong with Athm after reading this. Or is it use my line and all is fine deregulate i got you mate.

To: M. Frank Greiffenstein who wrote (25650)	9/21/2000 12:59:13 PM
From: Rob Pierce	Respond to of 29970

What kind of cheap bastards are out there, Rob? The masses of humanity, I suspect. Just as "free" Internet access has attracted a segment of the population that is more willing to tolerate ads than pay for an uncluttered screen, so I suspect that there are many, many people who would bail on their dial-up ISP for a faster (though throttled) cable modem connection (even ISDN speeds might be enough) if they could get it for $5-$10-$15/mo. added to the cable bill. Just another "premium service" like HBO or Showtime. Users who get a taste of cable-modem speeds seem to rarely be willing to revert to dial-up. If you can rope mass-market users into cable-modems quickly then it's likely even ADSL deployments won't drag them away. NXTV's VDSL solution used by Qwest in Phoenix might be the only thing that could compete, and it's not cheap to deploy - yet. ADSL vs. cable has been a marketing war over Internet access. Both solutions have their advantages and disadvantages. But it's only a war over data, and both sides are still collecting customers. Satellite vs. cable has been a different marketing war. Again, both sides have their advantages and disadvantages. But, like cable, satellites are expensive to deploy, and thus subscription prices remain comparable. NXTV's VDSL is the first >land-line< product I've seen that strikes directly at the cable co's meat and potatoes: delivery of television. Unfortunately, the copper VDSL runs on is already deployed, though some may need replacing. Fiber may need to be deployed from the CO to the neighborhoods as well, but the telcos are doing that anyway. This potentially gives the telcos a cost advantage if they decide to deploy VDSL, and it also gives them the ability to deploy (relatively) quickly into new markets. Add some equipment to a CO and reel in the subscribers. I suspect the success of QWest in Phoenix at ripping TV subscribers away from Cox, and the painful marketing costs Cox incurred to keep even more subscribers from defecting, has many other cable executives really concerned. What if this fight were to happen in New York? Chicago? Philadelphia? LA? Delivery of TV that bypasses their expensive cable plant? A plant that they're expecting to pay for with years worth of future subscriptions? Oh nooo, nooo, that would be BAD. VERY bad. They'd want to nip that in the bud >very< quickly. Lose too many subscribers to TV-over-VDSL and the ability to pay for their expensive fiber upgrades becomes much much more difficult. Low-cost cable modem access (still provided by ATHM, probably) might be just the ticket to fight back with. RP