MindSpring Enterprises (MSPG) Another ISP. Message Board

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To: BBull who wrote (306)	7/21/1998 1:58:00 PM
From: Sauron	Read Replies (1) of 1434

The key thing to understand is that MSPG may not be able to offer the high speed line to its customer. The Bell companies will offer XDSL through their unregulated subsidiary. This means that they won't have to resell it at a large wholesale discount to the likes of MSPG. The regulated subsidiary will only be responsible for providing conditioned copper lines to all comers so that they can deploy their own XDSL. The problem for MSPG is that they aren't a telephone company and to deploy XDSL on their own would mean that they would have to place expensive telecom equipment in every central office where they want to serve a customer. This is very capital intensive and is probably implausible. Additionally, the Bell companies will be bundling ISP services with XDSL so using another ISP would be redundant. I see this as a very basic threat to MSPGs entire business model. Watch out on Aug 8!