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To: Mr. Bean who wrote (3209)	10/23/1997 4:04:00 PM
From: Leo Mitkievicz	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9798

Bean <Barely on-topic BROADBAND COMMUNICATIONS STUFF> They must have reasons for doing it that way. The US telcos are all dragging their feet and will continue to do so until the cable guys kick their collective asses hard enough. Westel and Alcatel equipment for your initial rollout if I heard it right. The whole future of broadband access is in a huge state of flux. ADSL modems (one required at the company end, a different box at the end-user) are still hi-priced stuff. Economies of scale will have to bring the costs down or the telcos won't deploy widely. I view ADSL as an interim technology that will lose out as bandwidth demand grows. Down the road all-fiber networks and hybrid fiber/VDSL should be the technologies of choice. The equipment for hybrid fiber cable systems is much less costly when taken by itself, but most existing cable systems were not designed for two-way trafic and must be rebuilt almost from scratch. However these same systems need to rebuild anyway to carry more channels, offer pay per view, dial tones and so on. If a cable company offers bidirectional internet access at $40 per month and does a good job with it, they will take the market from more expensive telephone company solutions. I have not gotten deep enough into possible wireless solutions to the bandwidth problem to have an opinion yet. The same goes for access over electrical transmission lines. I try to pay a lot of attention to these areas. Somebody is going to make tons and tons of money as this shakes out, and I want to own some of it. Leo