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Technology Stocks : AT&T -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: polarisnh who wrote (2354)	5/6/1999 4:48:00 PM
From: Mark Palmberg	Respond to of 4298

"ISPs are severely threatened by the deployment by cable television companies of broadband Internet transport connections which also bundle affiliated Internet access services," Why doesn't AOL go buy its own cable company? I get a kick out of this. I've used @Home now since the end of March, and I barely ever see an @Home icon; all I care about is the cable pipe. I don't even use any of the bundled @Home software. I could've gone with DSL, but I didn't because it cost more. When I had a dial-in account I chose a local service provider, though I could've chosen AOL for less (I used it once, though, and never had the stomach to look at it again). I could be using any long distance phone company and might be paying less, but I chose AT&T because they stay the hell out of my hair, they never call me, and they're reliable. If AT&T can send me one bill for every bit of information that travels a wire either into or out of my home, I'm delighted. I'll pay for it. If AOL stops AT&T from offering me this service because they want a free ride on AT&T's cable, shame on them. Mark

To: polarisnh who wrote (2354)	5/11/1999 11:47:00 AM
From: polarisnh	Respond to of 4298

AOL turns on TV deals By Sandeep Junnarkar Staff Writer, CNET News.com May 11, 1999, 6:20 a.m. PT Internet service provider America Online today announced four partnerships to help develop its AOL TV services. The partnerships are with DirecTV, Hughes Network Systems, Philips Electronics, and Network Computer. The online giant hopes that its AOL TV product will bring interactivity to the television experience while extending AOL services through television. The company said it plans to keep many of AOL's services for AOL TV while adding new features to enhance the television experience. Financial terms for the partnerships were not disclosed. The battle to connect consumers to the Internet through devices other than personal computers is heating up at an faster pace. Just last week software titan Microsoft invested $5 billion in AT&T, giving the company the right to provide an additional 2.5 million to 5 million set-top boxes running Windows CE to power AT&T's cable systems with next-generation broadband services. Microsoft previously had an agreement with AT&T to provide 5 million set-top boxes. AOL is also planning to release non-PC devices such as screen phones to allow connecting to the Internet. "We anticipate that AOL's powerful brand will drive the acceptance and value of interactive television," said Barry Schuler, president of AOL's Interactive Services Group, in a statement. DirecTV is the country's leading digital television service provider with more than 7 million subscribers. The company will collaborate with AOL on a new service that combines digital satellite television programming from DirecTV with AOL TV's interactive television Internet service. Hughes Network Systems, the world's second largest manufacturer of the DirecTV system, and a subsidiary of General Motors, will design and build the dual purpose AOL TV/DirecTV set-top receiver. Hughes plans to leverage its industry-leading convergence expertise in the product's design. The box will be powered by a MediaGX processor from National Semiconductor. The design win for National can be seen as a validation of the company's strategy, announced last week, under which National said it would get rid of its PC processor business to concentrate on "system on a chip" processors like the Media GX which integrate graphics and modem functions into the same piece of silicon as the processor "brain." The selection of the MediaGX will also likely give some additional life to the argument that processors built around the Intel "X86" architecture will find a home inside set-top boxes. So far, the dominant players in this segment are companies like MIPS, whose chips are built around a RISC-based architecture. National and other companies, however, have said that the X86 chips are a better choice because they are compatible with most existing PC software. Philips Electronics, a provider of set-top boxes, will produce an advanced set-top box enabled for AOL TV. Network Computer (NCI) will provide the software platform for the AOL TV service. NCI's TV Navigator software will enable the Philips and DirecTV System set top boxes to display a range of Internet-based television services and content for both dial-up and satellite set-top boxes. NCI is a privately held company with several major investors, including Oracle, and Netscape Communications (a subsidiary of AOL). NCI's Connect Server will manage and administer the AOL devices connected to the network. AOL added that the technologies provide an open Internet platform scalable to support additional information appliances that will be developed in the future. The company said that the set-top boxes will be connected to AOL through built-in 56k modems over standard phone lines, and will be enabled for digital subscriber line (DSL) connectivity as well. "As consumers want to extend that interactive experience to connected non-PC devices, we will continue to deliver [our services] as connected interactivity becomes available on platforms like the television," AOL president Bob Pittman said in a statement.

To: polarisnh who wrote (2354)	5/11/1999 11:56:00 AM
From: polarisnh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4298

AOL can make all of the deals that they want with Hughes, DirecTV, Philips, and Network Computer. The deal that they will have to make is with AT&T! I know that they think that their lawyers, I mean the Senators from Virginia, are going to force open AT&T's CATV backbone for free but it is not going to happen! AOL has got to make the same kind of deals to use AT&T's coax backbone as they do to use the twisted pair and fiber that is out there. Come on Steve Case open your wallet and give Mike Armstrong his fair share!