cable modems [Re: Intra/Inter - was Inet-II]

Tue Oct 15 16:01:27 UTC 1996

Really Ken, just because you consult to PacBell, you shouldn't be so
obvious in your posturing.  :-)

Cable modems by themselves don't don't the performance problem, in fact,
that's what @Home has been talking about for sometime now, and why we
believe you have to build an intelligent network architecture, not just
dumb pipes.  

Some folks do believe that just fixing the loop will fix system
performance, and they are clearly in the wrong.  However, I will venture
to say that unless you do something like what we're doing, it doesn't
matter if the loop is ADSL or Cable or laser, it's not going to end up
running very fast.  This is not just a loop problem.

As for the hype machine, KPCB has a pretty good track record (Sun Micro,
Intuit, Netscape, etc...), and I am very pleased in my interactions with
those guys.  They have an excellent reputation in the VC community.

As for @home and it's financials, I deal with lots of analysts, and they
seem to really like us.  Our service is up in Fremont in commercial
service, and we're turning on a bunch more cities (we have 3 other
regions in test as I type). (Not really hype-like to actually field real
service ;-)) Just look at some of the industry analyst reports for cable
folks, they have been very favorable...

Of course, the RBOC's could have fielded drastically cheaper fast
services ages ago, but that would have canabalized all those nice leased
line products... :-)

					Thanks,
					  Milo