DSL Prime News Briefs

DSL news from around the world.

by Dave Burstein DSL Prime [July 3, 2003]

e-mail

• Will Strauss of Forward Concepts writes "With Verizon charging zero for present ISP clients who access their new payphone-based hotspots in NYC, some per-session charges elsewhere of about $10.00 will soon drop to the $1.00 to $2.00 level." He's recently published a survey of the Wi-Fi market by Dan Sweeney, who's done some very strong work at America's Network.

Briefs

• Verizon is doing near saturation advertising in New York for DSL with MSN8, with the new radio spots emphasizing the #35 price. SBC is heavily advertising their $29.95 price. One report says they are offering that price to any user who requests it and signs up for 12 months, not just new customers. The advertising and price will presumably improve their new subscriber numbers this quarter, but progress should be measured against their peers (NTT, FT, and Bell Canada), not their previous dismal results.

People

• Masayoshi Son, president of Softbank/Yahoo BB, was part of a group who joined Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi hosting a visit by South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun.
  
  
• For job ads, visit the DSL Prime website.

Wall Street

• Anton Wahlman wonders what the market will be for video on demand once more homes have TIVO boxes, which the cable guys are starting to deploy in the millions.
  
  
• Doug Shapiro of B of A has expanded coverage from cable to "entertainment," picking up Fox, Viacom and Disney. I met Doug when he briefly added DSL, picking up Rhythms, NorthPoint and Covad when their market caps were in the billions. He made a strongly negative call on them, a hard move to begin but prescient in hindsight.

Copyright 2003 Dave Burstein.
The DSL Prime Newsletter is reprinted with permission.

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