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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (2721)	1/12/1999 8:51:00 PM
From: ftth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

Hi Frank, I have way too many posts to catch up on, but quickly skimming it raises some questions: GUARANTEED MINIMUM 1.5 MbPS? That's a little misleading....what happens if you connect to a server incapable of serving anything close to that rate? Guaranteed...or what? double your money back? If so, sign me up now!!! Interesting marketing angle though (the guaranteed rate part). In a head to head battle with a cable modem or 2-way wireless service, and no differentiating features (e.g. spoon-fed content pages,email), cost is the only factor. They need to muddy-up this choice and make it difficult to equate them by not making the services have the same capabilities. This will be an interesting battle where advertising dollars spent on name recognition (e.g. @HOME) will prove their value, or lack thereof. Seems to me the most important thing @HOME should concentrate on now is not getting any more blemishes due to poor customer service, because in a head to head battle, the one with no reputation wins out over the bad reputation. Wonder how many homes really have a dual service option in the planned rollout area. Wonder how many homes in the current rollout area currently are served by a telco ISP (I think this would be a better indicator of available market than the # homes served by a # of CO's since this isn't likely to be a "first step" to internet access for many). I can't imagine this rollout will go smoothly or speedily. Planning to do and actually doing are worlds apart. The only people this press release will sway are jittery investors. Can't imagine this would generate a panic reaction from the cable modem camp--it's still just hot air. Still, it would be prudent for them to get the data I mentioned above and see which of these folks they could serve, and send out a few mailers. dh

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (2721)	1/13/1999 10:37:00 AM
From: Steve Parrino	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

Here are the headline and link to the ADSL story in today's Dallas Morning News: Firm plans high-speed Net access Southwestern Bell expects to start selling service in Dallas in March dallasnews.com According to the article, Dallas is scheduled for service in March "in neighborhoods where it believes it can sign up the most customers, then make it available in other neighborhoods over the next few months." Guess I'll have a new measure of what kind of neighborhood I live in. @home has been trialing in the tony Park Cities here. Coincidentally, AT&T/TCI goes for Dallas City Council approval to transfer the TCI franchise agreement to T today. The local T executive has an Op-Ed piece in the paper urging council approval. He also responds to ISP calls for AT&T/TCI to open its network to them by saying users have choice - phone lines, wireless. I don't know what the city council will do, but, according to the T exec, 600 councils across the country have approved their deals. Frank, and Denver, thank you for your many informative posts. I agree with Denver, this is a top-shelf thread.

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (2721)	1/13/1999 11:57:00 AM
From: DenverTechie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

First of all, Frank, I think the market's reaction yesterday to SBC's announcement yesterday on @Home's stock was way out of proportion to the actual "news". Second, I think that ADSL's shortcomings have been well documented previously on this thread. It is no "silver bullet" for high speed access. Don't want to go over all the problems again, but we all know they are substantial. Third, the impact on cable modem service will be to raise the bar on customer service, which has been probably the cable modem service's Achilles Heel. I totally object to the way the press characterizes the services as simply "dedicated service" for ADSL vs. "shared service" for cable modems. We all know it's not that cut and dried. These articles like the one you posted contain so much hype and hyperbole you might think they were written by ex-White House speech writers. The cable industry has known for some time now that their lead time in front of ADSL roll out was limited. I have advocated that they achieve maximum market share as quickly as possible, and I think they have done that, as much as possible. Some of the service glitches you've seen are because they wanted to get market share as fast as possible. Why? Because in the communications services business, market share is king. It is vital to survival. People rarely change their service provider unless: a) the customer service is so horrible you've just got to change b) the price difference is so big the change is compelling (sometimes not even then if the service has been great) c) the technology makes the old service pale in comparison (digital satellite video vs. analog cable) In most cases, service churn is minimal for services like this. Since cable modems have been pegged to achieve up to 80% market share by 2002 by various research organizations, I think the ADSL announcements will have maybe a 5% impact overall. Look at this article on the subject that came out today. zdnet.com To answer the equipment question, yes, SBC was part of the Alcatel ADSL procurement consortium.

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (2721)	1/13/1999 8:21:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 12823

All, this tutorial comes courtesy of Stephen Temple on the VoIP thread. Judging from the illustrations and charts, it appears to be a rather comprehensive depiction of most of the known last-mile technology profiles, or At least those which have been popularized for residential use. It's appropriately titled, "The Last Mile: Where Telecommunications Slows to a Crawl, " by Don M. Flournoy and Thomas N. Scott. veda-home.com I recommend this to those who need a good primer on the subject. I'd be interested to hear critiques and comments as to its accuracy, as well as the authors' editorial slant (can't escape that) one way or the other. Enjoy, Frank C.