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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (15699)	6/30/2006 3:47:19 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 46821

Taiwan to spend US$9.24 bln on wireless broadband access June 29, 2006 [FAC: A back of the envelope says that it will cost the Taiwanese roughly $1,540 per end user, or about the same as the estimate to purchase the first mile fiber connection discussed in the Frankston article in Msg# 15699 (linked above), which I posted a little while earlier. This is not to suggest any kind of comprehensive economic assessment of what it would take to make those connections viable in either scenario, but only that I found the similarity of these approximations striking. Thanks to Gordon Cook for the pointer.] (Asia In Focus Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) TAIPEI, June 30 Asia in Focus - Taiwan's government will spend NT$300 billion (US$9.24 billion) from next fiscal year to provide wireless broadband to six million Internet users, Vice President Annette Lu said Thursday. Addressing the participants in the 2006 Digital Cities Convention Taipei being held June 28-30, Lu said that as one of the nation's major development plans, the Cabinet will build 3,000 access points in 25 cities and counties to achieve its goal. * She also said the central government's operations will be completely computerized now that Taipei City was ranked first in the Intelligent Community Forum's list of the world's top seven intelligent communities earlier this month. * Also speaking at the convention, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou said that gaining recognition as the world's No. 1 intelligent city does not give the people of Taipei the right to feel complacent, because other cities might soon catch up. SUMMARY Taiwan to spend US$9.24 bln from next fiscal year to provide wireless broadband to six million Internet users

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (15699)	6/30/2006 5:48:32 PM
From: tech101	Respond to of 46821

"While saying they are doing us favors, ISPs are really offering us services they can bill for. Nothing is aimed at helping us, while everything is aimed at creating a billable event." -- This is part of what RBOCs has been doing during the past two decades. All the remaining they have been doing is to block competitions and innovations using their political power and the $200 billion tax credits/incentives received from the government. "a Verizon or a Comcast does us a favor, they say, by licensing rights to a movie and allowing us to buy or rent it over the Internet. We could buy the rights ourselves, but who would know where to even go? And wouldn't Verizon, as a big buyer, necessarily get a better price? When you have a preferred or exclusive provider versus a competitive marketplace, prices are always higher, not lower. In this case the ISP isn't doing us a favor, they are forcing us to buy from them something that we might well be able to buy from someone else for a lot less." -- Content owners have to share 50% of the revenue with MSOs (perhaps VZ and T in future, too). Or, you can say, MSOs have to share half of their revenue to content owners to carry the movies, TV channels, .... Since now there are unlimited video channels from the Internet, and it doesn't cost hundred millions to own a TV station, why the content owners and end customers need the middleman? Will we see the price come down because we can view the contend directly from its owner without a middleman? No thanks.