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Technology Stocks : Data Race (NASDAQ: RACE) NEWS! 2 voice/data/fax: ONE LINE! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Marshall who wrote (27832)	2/11/1998 11:16:00 PM
From: Ignacio Mosqueira	Respond to of 33268

Today I was having trouble answering Marshall :) There many new issues that are unresolved when it comes to the internet. When you mention Sprint, for example, one immediately comes to mind. They just bought a stake in Earthlink, didn't they? Now suppose that it was in their interest to abuse the system with certain practices because they figure that aol might pay a greater price than earth link in terms of consumer dissatisfaction with long waits given their greater membership and recent price hike. I am not saying that they have this in mind but suppose that they did. What would stop them from engaging in practices which, while legal, would certainly cause traffic trouble in order to show off their greater reliability. Whats to stop them even if the result is detrimental to the majority? My point is that the bickering and cutthroat tactics to stay in business has only began to be felt. So far most players have been happy to simply promote the medium -- how much longer will that remain the case? I can not imagine that it can be very reassuring to have your level of service depend on the goodwill of your nearest competitors who are trying to stay afloat. It will be interesting to see whether the aol hike is followed by others and whether it shows up in their bottom line in future reports. Perhaps drakes can help us with the second part. My guess is no to both questions.