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Technology Stocks : America On-Line: will it survive ...? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: William A. Schramm who wrote (10684)	7/20/1998 2:35:00 PM
From: Sam	Respond to of 13594

From BT Alex Brown tech conference, analyst comments... Pittman mentioned that the Company has been engaged in broadband tests both on the cable modem and xDSL (advanced telephone line) side of the equation. While it is difficult for us to predict which technology will be more successful from a consumer standpoint long-term Pittman's comments left us with two impressions: (1) The Company has little to fear from the rise of broadband access into the home. Conversely we believe that AOL will become an essential media provider and brand for any access infrastructure provider serious about reaching the mass market broadband world. (2) The Company may be leaning towards xDSL implementations of broadband access in favor of cable modem broadband solutions based on our belief that consumers will be able to more readily adopt xDSL broadband access because it does not require a new and unique type of wire into the PC (even if it is just a split off an existing cable wire). Remember, we are taking about our parents here not Silicon Valley early adopters. For now, however, we live in a midband (56K) world. In a Company press release today AOL announced that it was now offering 56K access on a new standard (V.90) which both Rockwell and U.S. Robotics support. The new standard should simplify the connection process for consumers while marginally lowering the costs AOL incurs in maintaining two mid-band connectivity standards. We expect the Company to have V.90 fully implemented by the end of the summer. S.