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Technology Stocks : AT&T -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skywatcher who wrote (1908)	2/5/1999 2:36:00 PM
From: lml	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4298

Like I said, this issue will continue to be a throrn for T for some time, notwithstanding the FCC recent rejection to the proposal to open access over HFC plant. The ultimate answer on this issue depends upon how much competition truly develops along the last mile, & whether access over the cablecos' HFC plant is any more advantageous than over copper utilizing DSL technology. As long as DSL is viewed as competitive with cable, IMHO these ISPs don't have a sound argument. They have access to the subscriber. That's what's important. Whether its over copper or HFC is irrelevant. The premise of their argument is that cable is better than copper, and that the consumer will characteristically prefer cable over DSL/copper. Today, this is far from the truth & far from being determinate. All these guys want is right to sell their wares (Internet access) along T's and other cableco's cyber "aisles." They want "shelf space." And as this marketing analogy goes, they must compete for it by offering something unique that cable subscribers will want, or they just will have to content selling their wares in the "telco store aisles" across the street. AOL is way out of line to demand that an entire industry to open up its channels of distribution with the specific intent to take away the revenue needed by the cablecos to support the tremendous capital being invested. AOL expects that since it is everywhere over copper that it should be everywhere over cable. The cable industry doesn't work like that. The bottom line is that AOL & the ISPs already have access to the customer. If they want access over cable, then I say go out buy the cable. That's what T did.