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Technology Stocks : Winstar Comm. (WCII) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kingpin who wrote (7683)	8/12/1998 1:43:00 AM
From: Bernard Levy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12468

Hi Kingpin: Regarding the advantages versus disadvantages of the one vendor versus multivendor approach for P-MP, here is my take on the pros and cons. The one vendor approach has the advantage of simplicity of installation. All installation crews are trained very uniformly, no hub information needs to be kept track of (remembering the exact configuration of each hub), installation times can be predicted accurately, retrofits are easy to perform. This is the stuff that attracts the Legg Mason analyst. However, the NT equipment deployed by TGNT uses QPSK, which carries about 2 bits/Hz/sec. The P-MP equipment under development by P-Com allows 64-QAM, which will carry 6 bits/Hz/sec (operating conditions such as rain, cell size, etc... are more constrained, however). Nevertheless, if WCII ultimately deploys a system with 3 times the capacity of TGNT's per 100MHz channel, it will have a big advantage. The story on the wireless ATM side is even more compelling, since certain software systems may have features others don't. For example, the Hughes announcements mentioned the Hughes software allows LAN to LAN interfaces, i.e. to set up virtual private networks, which may be handy for some customers. In this respect, I do not believe TGNT has only one wireless ATM vendor, since there was an announcement this Spring that TGNT was testing Netro's wireless ATM software (Netro is a small private company started by some P-Com veterans). So, with its one-vendor approach, TGNT buys extreme uniformity and deployment speed, but it places itself at risk of deploying an inferior system. Unlike what was suggested by the Legg Mason analyst, once the P-MP system is deployed, you don't just ''fine tune it.'' On the hardware side, if NT's equipment underperforms P-COm's, TGNT would have to replace its hardware. There is also an issue of time to market. TGNT and WCII cannot afford long delays in deploying P-MP equipment. WCII will be in effect setting up a competition among its vendors. This should keep them motivated. Another thing I have to say is that P-P links probably require more manpower for installation than P-MP, and thus are more costly in both hardware and staff time. So, its network will probably have cost WCII more than TGNT's. The advantage, however, of deploying P-P right away is that you get the customers. Best regards, Bernard Levy