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To: Jay Lowe who wrote (4889)	1/29/1999 10:20:00 PM
From: Keith Hankin	Respond to of 29970

My partner ftp's a test file to our web server via ISDN and gets 158Kbytes/sec. He's impressed. Given that the top speed of ISDN is 128Kb/sec, this guy is getting about 9-10 times compression. Given that 1-4 times compression is more typical, he's more likely to see 16-64Kbytes/sec for most files.

To: Jay Lowe who wrote (4889)	1/30/1999 2:22:00 AM
From: Jay Lowe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

Email from Nick Licata, Seattle City Council [From the Fools ATHM board] {quote] Thought y'all might be interested in this extensive reply I received a few weeks ago from Nick Licata, representative of the Seattle City Council who works on Cable issues. My original email requested that Seattle not interfere with the development of the Cable infrastructure by placing restrictions on the AT&T/TCI merger. If you want to email him yourself, his email address is: Newell.Aldrich@ci.seattle.wa.us Here is the email: Eric, In the current regulatory environment, unfortunately, it's difficult for municipalities to place conditions on cable companies unless it is done when changes in ownership take, or when terms of contract are not met. Your advice to wait for events to develop might work if it were possible to; unfortunately, the city has a mid-February deadline to take action (even though the FCC won't act on the proposed sale until Spring of this year). And given how slowly TCI has proceeded, here and I think we're left with little choice. Portland didn't reject the sale per se, they conditioned it on universal access for Internet Service Providers (ISPs). This means allowing all internet providers equal access to their line, the same as occurs in the currently deregulated telephone environment. TCI can now prevent equal access, even for a giant company like AOL. Other cities, such as Denver, and King County, are looking at an equal access provision. TCI is threatening lawsuits. I have not been impressed with TCI's efforts to rewire Seattle. They had three years to do so and with less than 60 days left on their contract they notified us that they still had not completed half the households in Seattle. This is totally unacceptable. In addition I've received numerous complaints from their customers that they have not provided decent service. I will be working closely with Council Member Tina Podlodowski, Chair of the Public Safety, Health and Technology Committee, to look at all the alternatives available to the city, including canceling TCI's contract and looking at the possibility of a City owned cable facility. I've contacted the City of Tacoma, which runs its own cable system, and asked them to brief the Seattle City Council about their system, which runs in competition with TCI. This briefing took place Monday, January 4, and was very informative. City Council staff will be working with Tacoma to obtain more information of their system's financing, planning, and operation. Sincerely, Nick Licata PS Below is a summary of the TCI issue I wrote in my Urban Politics email newsletter that I sent out on Sunday, January 3, 1999. TCI -CABLE TV & THE CITY Last month TCI informed the City that it would not be able to meet its contractual obligation to rewire the City by the deadline of January 31, 1999. They had 3 years to do the job and 60 days before the deadline they informed the City that they were only half way there. Ever since then, City Council has been hearing from hundreds of citizens about TCI's services and charges. Let me say that I have yet to receive just one heaping praise on them. According to the conditions of TCI's contract the City could impose a $10,000 monthly fine on them until they meet their obligation. To a multi-billion dollar company this is equivalent to tossing a dime in a tin cup. Especially in light of the announcement last June that AT&T and TCI would merge, creating a $48.3 billion company to provide a one-stop shopping place for local, long-distance, Internet and cable services. The city is now faced with a number of choices. First we must decide how to respond to TCI's request for an extension of 9 months to complete their rewiring. In evaluating this request the City must also consider all other options. One such option is to duplicate Tacoma's City Light "Click! Network" which now provides cable TV to its citizens for a $9 monthly rate. Tacoma began constructing its publicly owned cable network in December of 1997 and now has 15% of the city wired. They have also launched WorldGate Internet Services (Internet over cable TV without a modem) with a price of $9 per month. At this Monday Morning City Council Briefings, Click staff will be describing how their system works and how it compete with TCI in Tacoma. While most constituent complaints mention TCI's failure to provide a sufficient number and choice of channels, another major issue that looms on the horizon is the relationship between cable and the Internet. A new era of local cable television is dawning. It will soon provide a medium for two-way interactive video, telephone and Internet services. There are over 25 million Internet subscribers in the nation right now and that number is growing exponentially. The City Council must look at the pending AT&T -TCI merger as an opportunity to provide our community competition to both telephone services and high-speed Internet access. But if we don't take an aggressive, pro-consumer stance then we may face an unpleasant reality. Unlike telephone companies, cable companies aren't required to open their networks to Internet companies and others. To access an alternate Internet provider, consumers would have to pay twice -- once to TCI and once to their Internet provider. Right now TCI is only offering Internet service through an exclusive contract with "@Home". None of the other Internet providers will have access to TCI's cable. We could condition the transfer of TCI's cable network to AT&T like Portland has done. The City of Portland voted 5 -0 and Multnomah County 4 -1 this past month to require TCI/ATT to allow open access to Internet Service Providers as a condition of the transfer of control. In other words they have requested de-coupling the cable infrastructure from anyone exclusive Internet Provider.This will allow for open access and competition. I'm obtaining copies of their legislation and plan on sponsoring similar legislation at our Council.