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Technology Stocks : Qwest Communications (Q) (formerly QWST) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: musea who wrote (3069)	3/10/1999 7:38:00 PM
From: Craig Wilson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6846

musea, I am reading a book "Residential Broadband, An Insiders Guide to the Battle for the Last Mile," by Kim Maxwell. It is pretty accessible to non-technical readers, but is hard going in spots. In it he discusses the requirements for things like video-on-demand in terms of storage capabilities and bandwidth. His conclusion is that HDTV, broadcast video and video-on-demand will not be widely available for at least 20 years, and that assumes build-out rates faster than we are seeing today and much more sophisticated network hardware than is currently available. It will essentially require fiber into the home and enormous storage capability locally on the network. The internet as we know it will likely not be the vehicle for this. The most likely hookup for homes and businesses in the near future probably lies in CATV cable lines linked to networks like Qwest is building, and in wireless transmission like that NXLK is building out. So I think we have some growth left in bandwidth development and deployment. Surely MCI knows this by now. Anyway, I recommend the book. Craig Wilson

To: musea who wrote (3069)	3/10/1999 8:56:00 PM
From: voop	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6846

At some point and I do not know when, bandwidth will become a commodity and we will have to get out; it will not be a wal-mart for this reason. But awfully good for 3-5 years I would think Voop

To: musea who wrote (3069)	3/10/1999 10:25:00 PM
From: Mark H.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6846

-- the "plumbing players" Jason, musea, Great dialog...to add to musea's comments on the "plumbing players", here's a few that I like to keep an eye on from time to time (no $$ yet!!) -- CPTL LVLT NOPT RCNC WCII TGNT ARTT NXLK. I think ARTT was in QWST scope at one point, they may still be looking for a dance partner. CPTL and RCNC are strong regional guys that would be a nice compliment to the QWST portfolio (personal opinion only) - I think they're at the dance too. On another note, here's a great report from BT on the status of the "Global Plumbing" (if you will). -- BT World Communications Report 1998/99. Here's a tag that wowed me... "Voice telephony, and particularly international voice telephony, continues to grow almost everywhere. But in international networks, especially, data traffic growth is reaching dizzying new heights as new applications proliferate - especially applications carried on the Internet. On the transatlantic corridor - the world's busiest international telecommunications route - Internet traffic is doubling every year, and it surpassed voice traffic by volume in September 1997. By 2000, it may account for 75% of all transatlantic traffic." bt.com In only 5 years...don't know about you, but that gets me excited...about QWST of course.

To: musea who wrote (3069)	3/10/1999 10:30:00 PM
From: mfgrep	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 6846

perfectly stated Musea. Invest in the infrastructure. Portals, tech IPO's, priceline.com's, amazon's, etc are risky perimeter plays. The core need is bandwidth. All of the previously named companies require it...in abundance. With regard to your friend's statement, "within 5 years, bandwidth will be free and content will rule the day". I am not sure that statement is entirely true. In the forseeable future long distance charges must be eliminated. How can we charge you to speak long distance if you can get on the net and do it for free! ( or as part of your $20 per month I.S.P. charge). We will pay for bandwidth whether it be directly to the provider, through the I.S.P. that we use, or through other fees that accumulate as fees usually do. Regardless of how it pans out....I know that bandwidth is as good as gold right now. Companies that wish to succeed in this internet era require lots of bandwidth to provide more glitz than their competition. More features, services, graphics, bells, whistles etc. etc. Qwest will soon have it...and it didn't cost us an arm and a leg to get it. O.K. enough of the good. I did hear something today that alarmed me. Qwest is nearing the market cap of Sprint. I haven't had time to verify this, however, it would certainly surprise me to hear that Qwest (on paper of course) is becoming a powerhouse of Sprint proportion. I believe that Qwest as of close today at $69 per share would be worth approx. 2.3 billion. What is Sprint worth???? I had certainly hoped that I started "riding this light" in its infancy. Thoughts??? Jason