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Technology Stocks : Winstar Comm. (WCII) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steven Bowen who wrote (10254)	2/9/1999 12:13:00 PM
From: Pamela Murray	Respond to of 12468

fyi Tuesday February 9, 8:00 am Eastern Time Company Press Release Virginia Tech Begins Deployment of Wireless Broadband Network Wavtrace, Inc. of Bellevue, Wash., to Supply Transmission Equipment BLACKSBURG, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 9, 1999--Virginia Tech today announced that it will begin limited deployment of high-bandwidth wireless technology, or LMDS, in the Blacksburg area in early May. This deployment, made possible through an agreement with Wavtrace, a Washington-based company supplying the technology, represents the nation's first university/private sector partnership for the deployment of a point-to-multipoint LMDS network. LMDS (local multipoint distribution service) is a wireless communications service capable of delivering two-way, high-speed, data, voice and video traffic. Virginia Tech won four LMDS licenses in last year's government auctions. The transmission equipment used at the Blacksburg site is Wavtrace's PTM 1000 system, the first wireless broadband delivery system based on time division duplexing (TDD) technology. TDD allows for transmit and receive functions to occur on one channel, a process more efficient than what is possible with the traditional airlink technology, which requires two channels, one for transmit and one for receive. Virginia Tech officials saw the LMDS auction as an important research and economic development opportunity. ''We predicted that only high-population urban markets would be of interest to the companies that participated in the auction,'' said Judy Lilly, director of Virginia Tech's Communications Network Services division. This proved to be true as over 100 rural market areas across the U.S. attracted no commercial bidders. ''Consequently, we felt important research and economic development issues would go unexplored unless we became involved.'' ''Virginia Tech chose to take an active leadership role to help ensure LMDS technology will be available and cost-effective to the region's citizens and businesses,'' continued Lilly, ''especially for those in rural areas with lower population densities where cost-effectiveness is critical.'' Wavtrace's system, which allows for efficient use of spectrum using TDD technology, provides Virginia Tech a highly cost-effective way to explore such service. ''Virginia Tech's local research testbed in Blacksburg will be used as a model for replicable deployments throughout the rest of the license area.'' ''We are very pleased to be working with Virginia Tech, a well-respected leader in the development of new wireless technologies,'' said Thomas T. van Overbeek, CEO of Wavtrace. ''We expect this project will demonstrate that a wireless solution for delivery of broadband services has wide application and that service delivery can be economically viable in urban or rural environments.'' Leading the Nation Virginia Tech is taking an interdisciplinary approach to the project by utilizing the expertise of faculty and staff from Virginia Tech's Information Systems, Communications Network Services, and The Center for Wireless Telecommunications divisions. The project involves university geographers, economists, business and marketing faculty, electrical engineers and computer scientists. With this early roll-out, Virginia Tech continues to expand its already extensive communications and advanced Internet research and development capabilities such as the Blacksburg Electronic Village, the Smart Road, and Net.Work.Virginia (a statewide ATM network and nationally recognized prototype for the next-generation Internet). About LMDS and Virginia Tech LMDS is a two-way digital wireless communications medium that can carry voice, data and video traffic. The capacity of the A-Block section of spectrum auctioned by the FCC in last year's auction is more than twice the total bandwidth of AM/FM radio, VHU/UHF television and cellular telephone combined. LMDS frequencies are relatively high in the radio spectrum, ranging from 28-31 GHz. In early 1998, Virginia Tech became the first university in the nation to participate in a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) spectrum auction and was awarded four LMDS licenses covering 16,507 square miles of Virginia, and portions of North Carolina and Tennessee. The region has an estimated population of 1.6 million. About Wavtrace Founded in 1996, Wavtrace is a pioneer and leader in the development of wireless broadband access systems, and has developed the first point-to-multipoint millimeter wave radio system based on time division duplexing (TDD). The Wavtrace PTM 1000 connects high-speed metropolitan networks to in-building networks with the most efficient and scaleable system available today. The PTM 1000 offers service providers rapid deployment, low cost of ownership, independence from the incumbent local exchange carrier, rapid return on investment and a powerful solution for market expansion.

To: Steven Bowen who wrote (10254)	2/9/1999 12:13:00 PM
From: Brian Coakley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12468

Steven, Interesting that you mention the question of whether TGNT is putting new customers on wireless or leased lines. If you recall in their early press releases they were touting themselves as the only p-mp wireless vendor. Also, their early marketing strategy, which I heard first hand in our office from the sales manager of TGNT, was that they were not going to make the mistake that WCII was making by first selling leased lines in new markets. They were only selling to customers where they had wireless links. In fact, we were evaluating WCII at the time and they could not give a competitive bid because they would not resell Bell ATlantic lines. However, yesterday in their phony press release announcing service in 4 new cities increasing their total cities to 23, this is what they said in the bottom of the release: <As it builds its local networks, Teligent is combining the latest in point-to-multipoint radio technology with more traditional network technology, including point-to-point fixed wireless and broadband wireline, to access its customers. Point-to-multipoint radio technology offers significant cost savings because it allows a single base station to serve a large cluster of customer buildings.> Seems to me they've been forced to accept what WCII learned very quickly is that to grow the business you had to use leased lines to get your foot in the door until the building could be switched to a wireless connection. 325k of revenue in 19 operational cities is $17,105 per city for the quarter. I have to believe that some analysts will start to compare and contrast the stark difference between WCII and TGNT and the significant difference in the pace of their rollouts. Add to that the disparity in licenses controlled (no need to rehash the channel pop vs population calculations, but clearly TGNT is the weak sister to WCII and NXLK in license coverage) and there is a big disconnect in the share price of TGNT. Consider these market caps: $1.8 billion for TGNT $1.7 billion for WCII $955 million for NXLK Which would you rather own (assuming you understood the dynamics of fixed wireless) NXLK or TGNT. It's a no brainer. Any way, that's my TGNT rant for the day. Best regards, Brian

To: Steven Bowen who wrote (10254)	2/9/1999 1:45:00 PM
From: SteveG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12468

checking in, I notice no discussion of WMB and SBC. Major vote of confidence for the Williams backbone and technical prowess (even if it doesn't get 271 relief approval - which I highly doubt it will, since SBC is SO far from meeting the required checkpoints) And the continuing high profile focus on BB wireless (MSFT/BTY/CSCO/NXTL/MOT) is another argument to the many investors who regards wireless as a questionable delivery medium. (from Deer Valley)