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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (3985)	6/1/1999 4:43:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

More talk about AT&T's Voice testing, power distribution, and resegmenting plans. Nothing entirely new, just another viewpoint. ------------ Glitches hit high-tech AT&T network test usatoday.com:80/life/cyber/tech/ctf252.htm Bugs will force redesign of $90B phone, Net plan By Steve Rosenbush, USA TODAY NEW YORK -- AT&T is redesigning its planned $90 billion voice, digital TV and high-speed Internet network to fix technological problems that could boost costs beyond Wall Street expectations. The project is among the most ambitious and adventurous in the history of Corporate America and when completed will offer new services to one-fourth of the 103 million U.S. homes. But a test of the system in Fremont, Calif., unearthed problems with call clarity, people close to the project say. AT&T will test solutions during a new trial in Salt Lake City. AT&T admits that clarity of calls becomes a problem when more than 30% of people who live along the cable line buy the phone service. Traditional phone networks, such as those operated by the regional Bells and GTE, are virtually noise-free even though they cover 94% of the households in their territory. AT&T is unable to remotely monitor the house-mounted batteries that power the phones. That's crucial, because the phones must be reliable enough to carry emergency calls. The company also is unable to monitor the phones and wires inside homes. The Salt Lake City cable design would eliminate the potential for noise by dramatically increasing the system's capacity. In California, AT&T ran fiber-optic cable to neighborhoods of 600 homes. In Salt Lake City, AT&T will run fiber-optic cable to clusters of 50 to 75 homes, increasing capacity on the network tenfold. AT&T chief technology officer David Nagel says AT&T also will experiment with a central network power system for the phones - eliminating the need for batteries. AT&T denies there have been any problems in Fremont, but says noise could be an issue if the new service is a hit. "The technology works, and it works well," says AT&T's Jerry DeFrancisco, executive vice president with AT&T's broadband cable unit. "The big challenge is scale. If we get a take rate above 25% or 30%, we'll probably have to make the network more robust." Analyst Brian Adamik of The Yankee Group says the network redesign "should alleviate some of the technological problems experienced in Fremont -- mainly the noise and power issues. What's unclear to me is how much it will cost." AT&T cable chief Leo Hindery says much of the increase would be offset because the network will be cheaper to run.