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To: P.M.Freedman who wrote (987)	1/21/1998 1:22:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 1629

Price is key to fast Net links Strategy: Big 3 in PCs want phone firms to offer rock-bottom monthly fee. BY JON HEALEY AND TOM QUINLAN Mercury News Staff Writer As they construct a plan to turbocharge Internet connections, Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp. are focusing on the single issue crucial to the effort's success -- the price. The computer industry companies can deliver only a portion of the needed technology, the high-speed modems. To realize the rest of their package, they are seeking to convince major telephone companies to offer ultra-fast Internet connections at a rock-bottom monthly fee. If it succeeds, their effort would slash the cost of the emerging ''digital subscriber line'' (DSL) service by at least 75 percent in the Bay Area, into the neighborhood of $40 per month. And if that price proves enticing, the computer industry plan could transform the business of Internet service. A wholesale shift of customers to the phone companies' Internet services probably would spell doom for many small- and mid-sized competitors. SL technology uses an ordinary copper phone line to transmit digital packets of data at high speeds to the Internet or corporate computer network. Once a connection is established, it remains open -- the user never needs to dial in. Meanwhile, the phone line can still be used to make calls because the digital data does not interfere with the dial tone. Microsoft, Intel and Compaq have been talking not only to Pac Bell's parent, SBC Communications, but also to the other four regional Bell telephone companies and GTE Corp. A main topic has been developing a standard for a slower but more flexible version of DSL, which would allow consumers to buy computers and modems that work with any of the phone companies' networks. Sources said the three computer companies have advocated charging consumers as little as $40 a month for DSL-based Internet access. That's at least twice what consumers typically pay for conventional-speed access -- but it's about the same price charged for high-speed access via cable TV modems, which are expected to be the major competitor to DSL.

To: P.M.Freedman who wrote (987)	1/21/1998 1:23:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 1629

The version of DSL championed by the Microsoft-Intel-Compaq team has a top speed of 1.5 megabits per second, or 30 times as fast as the fastest conventional modem. Even though $40 a month for that kind of performance is low by current standards, virtually everyone could come out a winner, some observers noted. ''With DSL, Intel and Microsoft get something that demands the most powerful versions of their products,'' noted Richard Doherty, founder of the market research firm Envisioneering Inc., in Seaford, N.Y. ''The Baby Bells have wanted to get into the ISP business for a while, and now they have the chance to be 'mega ISPs' with the ability to handle millions of users without installing new wiring.''