Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stak who wrote (58795)	6/25/1998 5:55:00 PM
From: Steve Porter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

stak, Great news for me as a COMS investor. COMS has agreed to supply TCI's cablemodems. If this gets sped up it can mean WILD revenue for COMS.. Steve

To: stak who wrote (58795)	6/25/1998 11:54:00 PM
From: Jeff Fox	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

stak, re:"AT&T Consumer Services" Great news for cable customers of TCI - maybe. It all depends on what AT&T eventually charges for service. Us Intel fans are spoiled by a company with the mindset of continuously falling prices. AT&T has no such culture. They are born of the regulated utility. The joker in all this is at what cost will be the new two-way cable infrastructure. There are no less than three brand new layers of equipment for full service cable: 1. Home - here you need a so called cable modem to recover the tcp/ip traffic from your new cable service. This converts to ethernet and plugs into an NIC in your PC. Let's not forget the new settop box for the living room. Now how are these to be combined? I can see some kind of box on the house wall bristling with plugs, an "innie" from the street, and several "outie" cable taps running to a separate set top boxes (one for every TV) - then the TV, and finally an "outie" 10baseT connection running off the net master PC. 2. Down the street is the cable mux that gathers up ten to thirty house feeds and connects to a backbone fibre. 3. At the office all this is reversed. There has to be multiple TV source inputs and multiple digital feeds. Now I'm no expert - but all this sounds expensive! I am guessing $500 or more per customer served. Add a NIC to your $1000 buck PC and you see this isn't cheap anymore. The old AT&T culture really, really liked expensive plant as they used it to justify high prices on a cost plus basis. I am sure they are salivating to do just this in areas where TCI has a cable monopoly. Best I remember cable companies just about always have service monopolies. I'm just afraid its going to be expensive at the outset and only get more expensive as time passes. Just look at cable TV fee history. Jeff