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Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Ulrich who wrote (17901)	12/6/1998 6:19:00 PM
From: Moonray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22053

Bandwith Wars: Internet capacity major theme for 1999 - study Reuters - Sunday December 6, 3:21 pm Eastern Time NEW YORK, Dec 6 (Reuters) - With traffic over the Internet doubling every 100 days, the major theme for the computer, telephone and cable industries next year will be the need to boost speed and capacity for information highway cruisers, a technology survey said. The PricewaterhouseCoopers' ''Technology Forecast: 1999,'' due to be released Monday, sees demand for bandwidth, or the communications capacity to quickly and efficiently handle voice, data and video, as the big technology issue for 1999. Comparing the movement of data on the Internet to traffic jams on Los Angeles freeways, technology experts say the biggest challenge for the industry going into 1999 will be squeezing more traffic through existing access lanes. ''We're seeing huge plays by the telephone, cable and satellite companies all struggling to be the bandwidth provider of choice to consumers,'' said Michael Katz, of the professional services firm's global technology center. In the last year, the phone and cable industries came to unexpectedly rapid agreement on standardized equipment for delivering high-speed Internet connections and set the stage for widespread use of such services starting next year, he said. ''These providers will be challenged by decreasing prices they can charge for bandwidth and meeting increasing demand -- and they're hoping that traffic goes up faster than the prices go down,'' he said. Continued consolidation in the telecommunications market will lead to the emergence of four or five global supercarriers by 2002 as well as up to 4,000 national and regional niche players, the report said. Bandwidth is also critical to the success of electronic commerce. ''Shopping over the Internet can be frustratingly slow, but increasing bandwidth can enrich the (online) shopping experience,'' said Katz. Meanwhile technology will continue to improve as its cost falls. Increasing competition in the industry will not only force consolidation but drive prices even lower in 1999. Consider the personal computer market. A year ago, the introduction of $1,000 PCs provoked even the non-techie to take a ''byte.'' Now Compaq (NYSE:CPQ - news), IBM (NYSE:IBM - news) and other computer makers have flooded the market with computers for as little as $500 to $600 ahead of the holiday shopping season. Experts also predict a wave of mergers among suppliers of enterprise resource planning software, which a growing number of companies are using to link manufacturing, payroll, customer service and other operations, both on internal office networks and through suppliers' networks. In coming years, the lines between the public Internet and internal office networks will continue to blur, which promises smoother rides for business and recreational Web users alike. More information on the report, the 10th edition of an encyclopedic survey of the computer and telecommunications industries, can be found at pwc-tech-forecast.com. (New York Newsdesk--212-859-1700) o~~~ O

To: Bill Ulrich who wrote (17901)	12/6/1998 11:43:00 PM
From: Scrapps	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 22053

Bill, just yesterday I had the folks from Pac Bell out. A repairman and another very knowledgeable person...not the type who gets his hands dirty. We talked Cable modems, xDSL, fiber and why my copper was screwed up. In about an hour...I'd gone from a 21.4K connection to 31.2K. They said they'd found a problem and did a temp fix for now. Monday or Tues. the construction crew will be out to replace a short section of the cable. Maybe I'll get the pedal to the metal yet. I went ahead and ordered the Video Capture card. Read some reviews on it and believe it should do the trick.I'd have to go to the City to find one to look at. Ordered it over the 'Net. I think there are two things which will present them self as problems. 1) The learning curve is said to be steep...and (2) a new faster hard drive may be needed...if the thing doesn't over tax my machine first. This is going to be a whole new thing for me...hope my kids help me out. Did the storm miss you last night? We got a lot of wind and rain, but no damage. Heard there was a small tornado up in the east bay.