[thelist] 56k users for 4 more years

[H. G. Quinn]

Gartner's conclusions may be partly based on the fact that the
cable providers do not have their staff up to snuff in terms of
installation, service, troublshooting, and maintenance.  Perhaps
also, an analysis of cable providers' projected budgeting for
the next several years has given them clues as to how fast
things will move.

Deregulation has helped life in that things are a-hoppin' in
many ways, but it's also removed the stable (stagnant in the
long-term, though) capital-rich environment that businesses that
created cabling infrastructure in the past could count on.

Many of the cable providers are also public companies that
deliver phone services, and must live in a marketplace that
keeps driving down their revenue per transaction.  How do they
cope?  Cost-cutting.  Things are so competitive that they can't
take a breath.  If they make a mistake or say they're putting x
percent of budget to do something that will only pay off
long-term, their share prices go down, which reduces the value
of whatever portion of their shares they hold themselves, which
may be in use as collateral for loans to do the long-term
projects.  They must do whatever they can to prevent their share
prices from dropping.  And we (the populace of the USA, not me
personally, though) asked for this, and we're the one who drive
down share prices when a quarter's revenue does not "meet
analysts expectations" even though revenue may be up over the
same quarter in the previous year.  Humphh.

aardvark wrote:

> saw this at http://www.dack.com/web/ ... food for thought...
>
> "bandwidth blues for years to come
>
> "Despite all the hype about DSL and cable modems, the
> Gartner Group (http://www.gartner.com/) predicts that in
> 2004, 60% of residential internet users will still connect
> with analog modems (top speed: 56 kbps).
>
> "Content providers and site developers that target the home
> market should consider this, and conserve bandwidth by
> building sites that download reasonably fast over slow
> connections."
>
> while i generally don't trust research looking this far out
> to the future of the internet and its related technology,
> it's still food for thought...
>
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--
Heather Quinn
hgquinn at attglobal.net
http://pws.prserv.net/windyhill