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Technology Stocks : Advanced Radio Telecom (ARTT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Obewon who wrote (624)	5/6/1999 10:41:00 PM
From: Obewon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1176

Spent alittle time this afternoon at the ITEC tradeshow going on in Seattle the past two days and talked to representatives of both WCII and ARTT. I first scoped out the competition since they had a much larger presence at the show (large eye-catching booth near the center at the intersection of two aisles plus a sponsored "theater"/conference booth on the floor). Had a nice conversation with Greg Olsby, one of Winstar's sales representatives. We talked alittle about their presence in Seattle (50 buildings, up from 15 last year). They bought out one of the better local business ISPs, Northwest Nexus, back in January to establish themselves in the area. He claims that right now they are seeing no real competition from ARTT in the area since ARTT doesn't have the money currently to expand its presence in Seattle. (More on this later.) Greg mentioned that ARTT's top sales manager recently left to join Northpoint Communications just last month. He also mentioned that last year he and two other he knew had interviewed with ARTT. One of the three was hired. Greg said the lack of financing was a major factor in his decision and he specifically mentioned that ARTT would run out of cash next month unless something is announced. (How he can be sure I don't know.) Having gotten all the info I thought I could get, I headed over to the ARTT booth. The ARTT booth almost the same size as Winstar's but was located along the east wall of the conference hall. My conversation with the ARTT people was much less informative as they became very wary about saying anything concerning the rumors surrounding the company. They did mention that they are ontrack to sign up about 250 new businesses this quarter and following quarters. Wouldn't reveal anything about what ARTT is targeting as their next market after Norway. Based on these comment, I have to guess that ARTT is not expending into new buildings as fast as Winstar. They did mention that there were rumors of four separate deals that had been proposed but they didn't know what the company was negotitating or with whom it had talked. Unfortunately, I just missed the seminar they gave on "wireless and the last mile" (which incidently occuring in the Winstar-sponsored "theater"). Obewon