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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jack Whitley who wrote (35873)	2/22/1998 9:16:00 PM
From: Edward J. Edwards, III	Respond to of 61433

See Bold about possible growth with the Internet!! Is a Free PC in Your Future? Analysts No Longer Say No By GENE KOPROWSKI Special to THE WALL STREET JOURNAL INTERACTIVE EDITION PRICE WARS over personal computers are almost as old as the industry itself -- and the price points keep plummeting. A few years ago, insiders wondered if PC makers and associated high-tech companies could remain profitable selling $2,000 PCs. Now, the competition is to snatch computers in the sub-$1,000 market. But brace yourself. The fiercest round of cost-conscious competition is yet to come. Later this year, consumers may see the first wave of personal computers available at the lowest price point possible: Free. The move to free PCs won't come because some electronics retailer -- like the now-defunct Crazy Eddie -- wants to draw traffic into stores with an outlandish loss leader. Instead, it's coming because Internet-service providers are desperate to increase the number of customers they have in a world where on-line access has become a commodity that costs around $20 a month. After all, what better way is there to lock in a would-be Web surfer than offering them the use of a Pentium or 486 PC for free -- or close to it -- just for signing a three-year contract for Internet access? Cash-hungry service providers and their partners think this may be the best strategy yet for their industry, a way to expand the reach of the Internet beyond the technophile elite. Such plans aren't years away, either -- they're being negotiated right now. For the rest of the Article see: interactive.wsj.com