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Technology Stocks : George Gilder - Forbes ASAP -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Cooper who wrote (643)	8/16/1998 2:38:00 PM
From: Scott C. Lemon	Respond to of 5853

Hello Bill, > I am no George but I would bet that AT&T will be one of the biggest > losers of all! What are they relying on again?...There name! I too have been debating what will happen with AT&T. There are numerous forces at work that are going to effect them tremendously ... > How much are they spending to upgrade their network? They are like > a huge bug that is about to be stepped on. What's in a name anyway? I actually think that they are going to be successful with two areas, and I just don't know about the other ... 1. Wireless/Cellular - AT&T seems to be well ahead of many other carriers in providing Cellular Telephone. I use their services and am impressed with coverage, service, and features. With the new "One Rate" program they have jumped ahead of others by dropping the artificial "roaming" and traditional "long distance" charges. A truly mobile person has no "home" area and is making global calls. I think they are way ahead here. 2. Last Mile - I think that the AT&T play for TCI is a good move for AT&T as it gets them back into the last mile and numerous households. For many people AT&T still is a good name and they need to capitalize on this. Not many people these days care where Nike makes it's shoes ... AT&T could end up running long distance and much traffic over others networks ... but the name still carries weight. And it would also be amusing to see the biggest telco who got broken up and lost their copper into houses come right back into the fray. Imagine that they lost copper twisted pair, moved to fibre long distance which became outdated, and then moved back to new coax into the house. 3. Long Distance - From what I have been reading AT&T is taking a bad hit on long distance. Their market share is down and their network needs considerable work. I wonder if they are just looking to "punt" and start to lease bandwidth on other fibre that they will lease. I have ready that AT&T buried much of it's old fibre and it's going to be very costly to replace. What not shift long haul traffic onto others fibres and focus on the "last mile" both fibred and wireless? I'd be very interested in others comments ... Scott C. Lemon