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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (1642)	7/23/1998 12:06:00 PM
From: DenverTechie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

Since my company does a lot of work with TCI, the purchase by AT&T is a huge deal. We (and I) view it as very positive. This is more of a long term solution than a quick fix to the problem of getting to the last mile for AT&T. Why? Because cable telephony technology is not mature enough or cost effective enough presently for mass deployment, and IP telephony is still in its infancy. And those are the 2 ways you use the HFC network to get customers in the local loop. However, data service using cable modems is good to go now. IP telephony is a possible entrance for second line/teen line but not good enough for main line/life line service. So this purchase is a long term play. Don't look for immediate benefits, there will be few. But it does make AT&T the country's biggest cable operator overnight. I know that GTE did a lot of xDSL work in the last few years. I think they may have become disillusioned with the CAP vs. DMT standards fight, problems with the DLCs and distances (GTE tends to have more suburban and rural areas than the Bells) and other factors. HFC, for all its failings, like limited and noisy upstream bandwidth, is a solid cost effective platform with advanced technology like cable modems that work and its great for video. In fact, the advantages of HFC for providing video could be why GTE is exploring it now since xDSL is not well suited for video. I'd like to hear your thoughts about this also.