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Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lucky888 who wrote (31662)	4/21/1999 11:34:00 AM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 122087

Flodyie questions is Steven Fisher of Dakota is related to Richard Y. Fisher Diana's old CEO? , said Steven Fisher, president of Dakota, at 201 W. Wisconsin Ave. And yes Dakoda Carrier Systems ( That $30,000,000 deal) is in Wisconsin which smells fishy since Diana was also their at one time. The original deal with CYOE was done through Dakoda LLC. I smell rotten meat. dslnet.com Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel September 29, 1997 Milwaukee Firm Sells Faster Way To Reach Net New technology beats T-1 speed while using existing copper phone lines By Lee Hawkins, Jr. Of the Journal-Sentinel Staff A Milwaukee company hopes to make a profit selling technology that helps businesses across the nation fulfill their need for speed. Dakota Services, Ltd. in May became the state's only provider of digital subscriber lines, or DSL. The technology brings more bandwidth to companies seeking faster access to networks such as the Internet and on-line banking systems. DSL is a faster alternative to the T-1 lines commonly used by businesses seeking faster connections. It's digital, so it's clearer than T-1's analog signals, and it's less expensive because it transmits data over existing copper telephone lines. Faster transmission speeds improve full-motion video and allow quicker downloading of graphics, said Steven Fisher, president of Dakota, at 201 W. Wisconsin Ave. Although DSL is said to be able to deliver data at 45 megabytes per second - 30 times faster than T-1 lines - it hasn't reached that speed, said Joe Cox, vice president of marketing for the company. "The product and the equipment is just not ready yet." At this point he said, DSLs can achieve speeds of up to 2.5 megabytes per second, about twice as fast as a T-1 and 100 times the speed of a 28.8 modem. Cox said, DSL technology is about 30 percent cheaper than T-1 access because businesses don't have to install a dedicated line. "Instead of needingmore expensive T-1 cables, we are able to provide the same speed of access over a standard pair of copper cables. The copper infrastructure is in place nationwide." Dakota, which is doing business in Wisconsin and about 20 other states, must reach interconneciton agreements with local service telephone companies nationwide to deliver the service. The company must be licensed as a carrier in each market it enters. For example, to use Ameritech Corp's Milwaukee lines, the company had to be licensed as a local exchange carrier by the state Public Service Commission. Although its DSL service is new, Dakota Services is no start-up. The company has been in business for five years and employs about 10 people here. The company declined to divulge revenues. Although Dakota also offers such services as wide area network deployment and system, configuration, it is now focusing primarily on selling the DSL technology. "In terms of (DSL) customers, we're approaching the double digits," he said, "But as with any new technology, there's an educational process involved." One of the hurdles, said Dakota President Craig Anderson, is that prospective customers tend to misunderstand the company's core business by thinking of it as an Internet service provider. Dakota has the ability to sell Internet access, he said, but its real business is selling bandwidth. Dakota is working with Exec-PC, the state's largest Internet service provider, to connect businesses to T-1 and DSL lines. Another drawback, he said is the technology's limited geographic reach. The signal must be routed through a "port," or station, and the company has only one locally - in downtown Milwaukee. The company can sell the service only to businesses within four miles of its central office. "I expect to be using both T-1 and DSL because there is the distance restriction with this type of technology," said Greg Ryan, president of Exec-PC. "You can only go so far with this type of connection." But, Ryan said, "the technology is new and exciting because it's going to allow high-speed connections without doing a lot of rewiring of your building. "I like the fact that you can use the same telephone line for both voice and high-speed data simultaneously."