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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 (8877)	10/14/2000 10:43:37 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12823

Hi Mike, hopefully this will answer a couple of your previous questions. "fiberless has been around for a very long time..." My clients were using ALS (American Laser Systems, Inc.) units in 1985 to support treasury and mainframe hyperchannel applications up to the T1 rate. In 1988 I examined a T3 variant from Isher, Inc. In '96, I recommended and oversaw the implementation of a 155 Mb/s ATM model from Silcom for a university. It was dubbed the Sky Fiber, and it doubled as a 100Mb/s Ethernet configuration for campus LANs in an alternate mode. Yes, fiberless has been around for a while. Perceptions concerning eye safety and reliability, and heretofore inferior optics were partially responsible for the slow uptake, to answer a previous question. As to why and what Terabeam has that others didn't? A means, like others employ now, to administer multiple flows from a single hub node to muliple end points, dynamically, instead of p-p. Most of all, however, it's been the attention from the publicity that they've received. The attention they've received is, IMO, the result of some well-orchstrated events and that probably would have elevated any other unit the same way, given the following that Goerge Gilder has now. I'm still waiting to see how this one works out in the market place. If, by the time it debuts, they could stand up to the others who did not receive an equivalent amount of, er... coverage -- for lack of a more suitable word. Remember Iridium? And Teledesic? I recall the 800+ bird constellation that Teledesic was to put up, initially. I still have the video that their chief scientist sent me when I was arguing the feasibility of the venture vis a vis fiber creep into the continents, attached to last mile wireless systems. Then they backed off to ~300 satellites. Now it's less than that. And they are reneging on some of their commitments to partners and would-be industry customers. It's easy to paint a picture. It's far more difficult to make that picture come to life. Both Teledesic and TeraBeam will launch. But my guess is that their deliveries will be less spectacular than either had previously projected. Also, both will come into their own at a time when there will be plenty of competition for them.