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Technology Stocks : Orckit (ORCT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kevin Hay who wrote (1410)	8/6/1998 4:16:00 PM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1998

Kevin -- I'll let the technical folks answer the nic questions. Looking into the future, computers will have the necessary connections built in so they won't be needed. I'll let the pros handle the bottleneck questions, too. As for modem options, USWest and other phone cos, ISPs, and so on, will probably deal with one supplier and that will mean you can have it in any color as long as it's black. Costs won't stay static. As competition heats up, you'll see them come down. I don't know where you're located, but if there's an ISP offering ADSL, then USWest isn't your only choice. I'm not sure the first rollouts are rushed, but it's not surprising those handling customers aren't fully up to speed with information. You're far too knowledgeable for 99% of them, I'm sure. I've found it takes about 3 questions to stop them in their tracks. Hmmmm, I can hear them saying, this person has more questions than I have answers. . . It probably wouldn't hurt to leave them a list of queries and let them get back with answers later. For comparisons, check out GTE and PacBell's websites. I think you'll find prices and requirements listed. Good luck. :) Pat

To: Kevin Hay who wrote (1410)	8/7/1998 11:37:00 AM
From: Doug Soon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1998

Hi Kevin, I have ADSL running as a test/beta site for about 5 months. I'll try and answer your questions. $40 a month sounds good but you have to ask how much bandwidth you are getting. I am noticing some companies are charging up to $200+ for 2.0 Mbps service. Faster is much better. Some telcos are wholesaling to smaller ISPs to give you "choice". You need a "nic" because your PC will behave as a node on a network using TCP/IP in much the way as a PC is part of a network in most offices. Yes, there are still bottlenecks, but they are largely less dramatic than using a regular dial-up modem. For example, if a site you are accessing is unusually slow, it may take 30 seconds to download a page instead of the usual 3 seconds. With my ADSL, instead of the <1 second download of the same page, it may take 4 seconds. You can have more than 1 computer if you use a hub. Each PC then has their own IP address. A permanent IP address is better if you want to do web hosting or share your resources with friends etc. ADSL is truly a new paradigm in how you will use the net in the future. My PC is online 7x24. I am used to getting 2.8 Mbps bandwidth most of the time. New "high bandwidth" sites are being set up now that include music and streaming video. A download limit of 500 MB/month will be exceeded easily once users get on to streaming video. On the downside, as a beta/test site, I experience regular downtime incidents. This even feels like my office where the network goes down for an hour every week or so. There needs to be an aggressive build out of backbone resources though. Even with everybody using dial-up modems the 'net today is choked frequently. With any amount of users getting hooked up to ADSL the demand for bandwidth will stress an already overloaded system. ADSL is definitley going to be a great product depending on how it is marketed. I would want the highest bandwidth available but would be hesitant to pay $200/month and have limited download limits. Accessing the 'net at speeds >50x that of dial-up is very seductive and addictive. Hope this helps. DS