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Technology Stocks : Newbridge Networks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Technopeasant who wrote (5393)	7/2/1998 12:03:00 AM
From: pat mudge	Respond to of 18016

Technopeasant -- I'm not ignoring you. The truth is your post was so excellent I saved it and told myself it deserved a proper response. Your comments on the global scale of the telecommunications' market hit the bull's eye. In a recent Financial Times, there was a letter to the editor that hits a different target but equally right on: <<< MONDAY JUNE 29 1998ÿÿLetterÿ TELECOMS: A free rein in multimedia From Mr Dom Serafini. Sir, Your editorial "A new telecoms era is here" (June 25) correctly illustrates the new telecoms era, but misses a point. Because of the multimedia convergence, the role of regulatory agencies is fading. Even if the AT&T-TCI deal raises antitrust concerns and it isn't allowed to be consummated, it is only a matter of time before technology permits AT&T to arrive on its own where it is now with the TCI merger. Today, technology allows telecoms to be in the TV business, newspapers to become video centres, TV stations to be multimedia providers and cable to serve as a software producer. Soon, web-casting will allow newscasts from KING-TV in Seattle to be viewed on the internet, and any TV station to offer cellular telephony. In addition to being common carriers, satellites are now all of the above, while internet companies will act as common carriers. Anything can originate from anywhere and reach everywhere. Multimedia convergence no longer needs anyone's approval. Dom Serafini, editor, Video Age International, 216 East 75 Street, New York 100212, US >>> June 25 article: <<< THURSDAY JUNE 25 1998ÿÿLeadersÿ AT&T: A new telecoms era is here <Picture: AT&T/TCI>Ever since the US Congress passed the Telecommunications Act in 1996, there has been an eerie sense of anticipation. Some big deals have been done, but they left the basic structure of the industry unchanged. Until now. The merger American Telephone & Telegraph has just announced with Tele-Communications Inc (TCI) brings this waiting period to a close. In particular, it ends the asymmetric framework that gave America competition in the market for long-distance phone calls but effective monopolies in the provision of local services. Assuming the deal goes through, it will make AT&T, the leading long-distance carrier, into a serious competitor in the market for local telephony thanks to TCI's cable television networks. Just as important, it will give America's oldest telephone company a head-start in the battle to provide broadband data services to the home. TCI controls AtHome, the leader in the fledgling business of providing fast internet access over cable. Still, there is a long way to go before a company with its roots in the 19th century can really claim to be delivering the service that will be needed in the 21st century. Buying a company founded in the 1950s only takes it part of the way there. The issue for AT&T, and for all the competitors in telecoms, is how to provide seamless delivery of voice, data, and video to millions of homes, businesses and mobile customers - in a way that fits in with internet standards and hides the technical complexities from the user. Doing that requires handling at least three styles of business: the public servant caution of a phone company, the land-rush mentality of the cable operator, and the technological self-indulgence of the computer industry. Combining two of these approaches is difficult enough, as TCI's past history of merger attempts reveals. Combining three of them - and coping with TCI's programming subsidiary, too - will be exceptionally challenging. When very large companies merge, it is often a sign that they are seeking to recapture the momentum that made them big. In the telecoms industry, the initiative seemed to have passed to smaller, more entrepreneurial companies, such as WorldCom, which could more aggressively exploit the technological opportunities. The AT&T/TCI deal offers both companies an opportunity to regain the initiative, by providing a new level of service integration to an unrivalled customer base. But the window of opportunity will not stay open for long. Once the deal is done, the enlarged AT&T must transform the services it offers and the way it does business. Otherwise, it will be unable fully to exploit the new telecoms era its merger helps to create. >>>>