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Technology Stocks : 3Com Corporation (COMS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Barkat who wrote (23200)	10/26/1998 6:33:00 AM
From: drew myers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 45548

October 26, 1998 Cable-Modem Operators Try to Pique Interest in High-Speed Internet Access By SCOTT THURM Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Cable operators and makers of cable modems are trying a new strategy to pique consumer interest in high-speed Internet access: selling, rather than renting, the modems to computer users. 3Com Corp., Santa Clara, Calif., said it will offer cable modems designed to meet new industry standards that consumers may buy and install themselves. 3Com said the modems will allow users to access the Internet at about two megabits per second, roughly 35 times faster than typical modems. The company will sell the modems for about $360, including a card that fits inside a user's computer, through computer retailers under its US Robotics brand. A year from now, standard cable modems from 3Com and other suppliers likely will be available inside new personal computers. The offering could alter the high-speed Internet business, and give cable operators a leg up over the phone companies. Until now, cable and phone companies have been renting modems to consumers as part of monthly service packages, and dispatching crews to install the devices in homes. Cable crews will still need to check customer connections with the 3Com modems, but the visits should be much less complicated, less time-consuming and less costly. Tele-Communications Inc., the nation's largest cable operator, said it will require consumers to buy their own modems at electronics stores when it starts offering cable-modem service in Spokane, Wash., early next month. Susan Marshall, vice president of TCI.net, the company's Internet-service provider, said Spokane will be a test of how consumers react to buying, rather than renting, modems. "There's a pretty significant debate going on" within the industry about consumer preferences, she said. "It's a real challenge for us marketing-wise." Past experiments haven't always been a success. "The mass market doesn't seem like it's going to buy just because you put it in a store," said Paul Bosco, general manager of cable products and solutions for Cisco Systems Inc., which is providing technology for cable modems marketed by Sony Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., General Instrument Corp. and others. 3Com's modems are among the first consumer offerings under new industry standards designed to let products from different manufacturers work together. Earlier cable modems worked only with other equipment by the same manufacturer. At least six other companies, including Cisco's partners, are making cable modems for the new standards, and analysts say the competition should help lower prices. 3Com, Cisco and the Bay Networks division of Northern Telecom Ltd. are competing to supply cable operators with the distribution equipment for their plants. Cable companies have been marketing high-speed services more aggressively than phone companies, offering faster connections at lower prices. But the standards, and the new modems, will not help cable companies with their other big challenge: spending billions of dollars to upgrade aging plants to carry information as well as television programming. Cable companies offer high-speed modem service to fewer than 20 million U.S. homes, of which roughly 350,000 are subscribing, said Michael Harris, president of Kinetic Strategies Inc., a market-research firm in Phoenix. As an example of the challenge, AT&T Corp. has said it will spend $3 billion on TCI's plants, if its pending acquisition of the cable operator is completed.

To: Barkat who wrote (23200)	10/26/1998 10:31:00 PM
From: joe	Respond to of 45548

Barkat, >>COMS chart sure looks beautiful, I could stare at that thing for hours. I say a move down to 29 or so may be in the cards. There is just to much "this is the break-out" type of posts all over. I have seen it plenty of times, the get rich quick folks always seem to cough it up, but then again, some have paid their dues fairly good on this one.<< I suspect that you're still looking at the beauty of the COMS chart. Still see breakout? Funny about the word "breakout". Seems like ancient times ago (month ago) that 31 1/2 - 32 was the hardest resistance to break out of. Ever since, we have had escalating numbers as resistance. For some people, breakout has already occured. For others, it still a ways to go. 29 of course may be in the cards and hopefully, if it happens, we can anticipate it before it hits us over the head unexpectedly. I feel pretty confident though, that going back to 29 or whereever is because of either a) profit taking, b) market crash. NOTE, these two things have nothing to do with the company, which was the primary reason it use to go down. So, how confident do you feel of a Market Crash (or severe pullback), or a massive pullback from profit taking? good luck tomorrow, joe