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

To: John Trader who wrote (12213)	5/12/2002 5:43:21 PM
From: EJhonsa	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12823

Also I think the last mile bottleneck and the special interests of of organizations such as the Motion Picture Association of America are making it difficult to move forward. That just about covers it. 1. Phone companies don't want to cannibalize T1 sales, so they limit their DSL offerings. Or, like Bell South, they reprice it so that you have to pay $200/month to get 700 kbps. 2. Phone companies don't want to cannibalize T3/SONET leased-line sales, not to mention PBX voice services, so they limit their Ethernet offerings. Or, like AT&T, they reprice it so that it's only 15-20% cheaper than traditional offerings. 3. Cable companies want to preserve all the spectrum they can to make sure their customers can access all the Jerry Springer, Survivor, and pay-per-view WWF fights that they need, so they allocate only a bare minimum for Internet access services. 4. Cable companies want to preserve local ad revenues and want to make sure that TV ratings aren't hit by their customers browsing the web, so they hold back on the deployment of advanced set-top boxes that can offer TV-based web browsing, non-VOD streaming video, etc. 5. Music and film studios feel threatened by the concept of their coprighted work being downloaded online. So they sue the hell out of every P2P firm they can get their hands on, try to bribe Congressmen into enacting legislation that destroys traditional concepts of consumer privacy and "fair use", and make sure to offer no legitimate, subscription-based alternatives to the existing P2P networks. 6. Music studios want to collect royalties from online radio broadcasters in spite of the fact that traditional radio broadcasters don't pay them royalties because, well, they want too. So they use a clause in the poorly-drafted DMCA to force the issue, and in the process stand to put both numerous independent Internet radio broadcasters, and the online wings of a number of traditional broadcasters off the air. 7. TV broadcasters and their content providers feel threatened by what they perceive to be the loss of control that comes from streaming their broadcasts online. So they refuse to do so, and sue the hell out of any third party that attempts to. 8. Cable TV operators feel the value of their services threatened by the prospect of cable TV stations streaming their content online. So they force any and all stations whose channels they carry to agree not to provide online streams, and to keep the amount of video content they offer on their sites to a minimum. It's a vicious pincer movement - one side cuts off the supply, the other does the same for demand. Cable TV companies, in particular, seem to be playing both roles at once. And with both Washington and Silicon Valley asleep at the proverbial wheel, nearly all parties concerned are able able to get away with their actions. Perhaps certain wireless technologies - both mobile and fixed - will eventually succeed in cracking at least the supply side of the equation, but given the present capital-spending environment, I definitely wouldn't hold my breath over it. Eric

To: John Trader who wrote (12213)	5/16/2002 12:45:30 PM
From: Rob S.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

<snip>Regarding the last mile, I am hoping the UWB (Ultra Wide Band wireless technologies for internet access) movement takes off as some are predicting. If bandwidth demand were to greatly increase in the next couple of years, then maybe the industry will soon find a way to fix the business models and other issues that are holding down this sector. </snip> Whether UWB or a combination of "2nd generation" WBB technologies broadens the pipe to the user is just a question of time imo. UWB holds great potential. It has an uphill battle to prove that it does not conflict with existing spectrum uses if it were to "take off" to become used widely. If things were a bit different, if UWB had come along a bit earlier and was not the technology being used in the exploding WLAN area, then I think it would evolve rapidly to encompass large area networks using low power devices that posed less of a threat of interference. System topologies, such as tiered wireless connected edge servers/network managers and wireless mesh networking could make it all work.