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Technology Stocks : COM21 (CMTO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pat mudge who wrote (137)	1/7/1999 11:35:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 2347

>>With telcos, it's different. If they advertise a service, they have to deliver. << That's an historic perspective, IMO, which only holds true for the staunchest incumbents. This is a fascinating dilemma that the incumbents are about to enter, if they pursue a VoIP alternative operating over "always on" technologies, to switched voice. Today, Next Gen Telcos and Integrated Communications Providers (ICPs) are advertising now, and delivering when they can. It's all part and parcel of the new age of "reality"spawned by Internet Timing and free software demos. That's where the old and new models show strong evidence of departing. Whereas it took T seven years to prototype and then field test their DDS services some years ago, today we have star-burst technologies being field tested by actual end users during the first commercial releases. The more it looks like software, the more likely it is that it will unfold this way. VoIP looked a lot like software when it first was introduced, and it is getting more so every day. Isn't this the way that T unpacked their initial VoIP service this past Spring? They field tested it under a commercial service offering for what? 7.5c to 9c per minute in Boston, Atlanta and San Francisco, before it was ready for "prime time"availability across the board. This is something that T would have been loathe to do just a few years ago. It's the way companies [think that they] are forced to do business these days, in order to stay from getting caught up behind the 8-ball. I don't think that entering the VoIP space through Cable Modem and DSL (two techs that are no "always on," as opposed to attractive but still chargeable Class 5 pricing schemes) will allow T or any other large player to easily extricate themselves from the new-found efficiencies, and liberalized state of being that end users will enjoy, under IP and other forms of packet networking. Only time will tell if and/or how they are able do it, and maintain respectable margins at the same time. Regards, Frank Coluccio