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To: HECTOR RUBERT who wrote (8433)	4/22/1999 11:01:00 PM
From: sillen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

The way I see it there are three ways to provide convergent services to the consumers: 1, Phone Lines 2, Wireless 3, Cable 1, Billions of dollars were spent by ma-bell (baby bells) to build the infrastructure currently in place. Although outdated, new technologies provide the ability for companies that owns the last mile of infrastructure to begin provide more convergent services. The baby bells are betting on xDSL services and are fiercely defending their investment in the infrastructure. 2, New medium for last mile services where the infrastructure has to be built and installed at the customer premise. Great potential for high bandwidth, but "unproven" and still expensive. New service providers entering the last mile market with wireless such as Teligent. 3, Billions of dollars were spent by the cable cos to build the infrastructure currently in place. Proven technology that can handle high bandwidth, but still a bit pricey. Cable cos (TCI, COX, Comcast etc.) Going forward content providers like AOL has to realize that it is a content provider and nothing else. Open access (last mile cable) is not going to happened. If AOL needs bandwith then merge, form a partnership or buy infrastructure. I could understand if open access would be granted if the infrastructure was government owned but it's not. AT&T buying MediaOne is just the kind of action the FCC would like to see; not necessarily involving AT&T but in general. This will give the baby bells another wake up call to invest more into their last mile infrastructure. The only trouble we might have with the FCC is the fact that AT&T would have more then 65% of the cable market if the deal with MediaOne went through. If that is in the best interest of the consumer the we're ok. Overall the deal announced today is a great call by AT&T even though we might see a great battle take shape. Later Sillen