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To: Thomas Mercer-Hursh who wrote (50068)	1/25/2002 2:25:45 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 54805

High-Speed Internet Lobby Appeals to Cheney By Robyn Weisman, www.NewsFactor.com Friday January 25 01:49 PM EST Executives from some of the nation's largest high-tech firms descended on Capitol Hill Thursday to lobby Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) and other government leaders to increase their support for building more broadband networks. The group, the Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP), includes CEOs from such companies as Dell Computer (Nasdaq: DELL - news), Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO - news), Intel (Nasdaq: INTC - news) and Motorola (NYSE: MOT - news). Several of the CEOs were present for meetings with Cheney and Dennis Hastert, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, among others, according to news sources. Like several other lobbying groups that have come to the forefront in recent months, CSPP advocates loosening regulations seen as hobbling the construction of broadband networks; increasing the amount of bandwidth available for wireless Internet; and wiring more residences for high-speed services. Dell CEO Michael Dell told news sources that he and his fellow CSPP members believe a strong commitment toward reaching these goals exists at the highest levels of government. 100 Million Households? Both CSPP and another lobbying group, TechNet, are promoting the objective of wiring more than 100 million U.S. homes and small businesses with high-speed broadband access by 2010. CSPP members said that without the federal government's intervention, the U.S. risks falling behind many other industrialized nations, such as South Korea (news - web sites) and Canada. But Giga Information Group research fellow Lisa Pierce told NewsFactor that she is skeptical of CSPP's motivations. Pierce said that many lobbying groups are springing up to press for increased government action on the broadband issue, but she noted that all the groups represent the supply side. None seems to represent consumers. Pierce pointed out that in areas with broadband access, the highest usage rate she has found ranged between 20 and 25 percent of all potential Internet subscribers. "Somebody needs to ask the question if whoever went to all this trouble to wire up these 100 million homes, would the take rate be 25 million?" Pierce said. "And why isn't [it] being left up to the markets to decide?" Will Taxpayers Foot the Bill? Pierce noted that the same corporate leaders who are pushing for government intervention on broadband are usually heard urging government to stay out of their businesses. But if these measures were to pass, taxpayers would have to be involved. "Someone has to pay the federal budget, individuals like you and me," Pierce said. "Somebody should ask the question, and there should be debate about whether this issue takes greater precedence over Medicare, Social Security (news - web sites) and some of the bigger issues in these uncertain economic times." In other words, should taxpayers foot the bill to help boost the stock prices of some of these suppliers? New Technologies Pierce went on to say that a few companies are presently researching compression technology that would be significantly faster and more cost-effective than broadband. She added that these companies should know within the next 18 to 24 months whether this new technology will work on a commercial level. If the mathematicians succeed, broadband will become obsolete, so subsidizing it would be a colossal waste of time and funds. Indeed, said Pierce, subsidizing mathematicians at three or four companies would be a lot easier on taxpayers than what CSPP and others are proposing.

To: Thomas Mercer-Hursh who wrote (50068)	1/25/2002 3:39:27 PM
From: EnricoPalazzo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

Speaking of AOL, I heard some reference recently that AOL might be interested in buying Red Hat, the Linux house. Interesting, no? Seems like a stretch. AOL has lots of competitive advantage to be used in a battle w/ MSFT... creating technology isn't one of them. The only reason I can think of for them to buy red hat is the same reason that I think they bought netscape--to buy grounds to sue Microsoft, and hopefully get the courts to handicap their biggest rival.