To: David Harker who wrote (3289 ) 12/1/1998 8:21:00 PM From: Ron Kline Respond to of 29970
With all the good news coming it might just be a good one to hold for awhile... LOS ANGELES, Dec 1 (Reuters) - At Home Corp (Nasdaq:ATHM - news) on Tuesday announced a venture to offer its high-speed Internet access service to small and medium-sized cable operators, which would potentially boost At Home's subscriber base by an estimated 15 million homes and millions of businesses. No deals have yet been finalized, but an At Home spokesman said the company is speaking with several small to mid-sized cable operators at a cable trade show being held Tuesday through Thursday in Anaheim, California. ''Small and mid-size cable operators are enthusiastic about providing high-speed data services and capturing additional revenue streams,'' said Tom Jermoluk, chairman and CEO of At Home, in a press release. The venture, to be owned by At Home and small to medium cable operators and technology suppliers, will be called At Home Solutions. At Home said anticipated benefits would include consolidated buying power, accelerated deployments of high-speed data services, advanced set-top box and cable-based telephony services, and increased revenue through local content, advertising, and transaction revenues. In addition, the venture will enable small and mid-sized cable operators to defray the significant costs associated with high-speed cable Internet services, by delivering full turnkey broadband solutions for residential and commercial customers, financing and installation of all equipment needed to provide the services. At Home, which develops an Internet access service via high-speed cable modems, hosted a press briefing at the conference hosted by California Cable Television Association (CCTA) to announce the initiative. At Home now has 18 cable partnerships, which represent about 60 million homes with cable, out of 106 million total homes with cable in the U.S. and Canada. Out of those partnerships, At Home has 210,000 subscribers to its service.