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Today's report from the staff of Broadband
Week
• Qwest Piles On AOL-Time Warner
• Enron Shuffle
• More From Streaming Media West
• Ballmer Dreams In Streams
• Broadband Briefs
Qwest Piles On AOL-Time Warner Add
Qwest Communications International to the gang of broadband telecommunications heavyweights weighing in with eleventh-hour concerns about the pending
America Online-Time Warner merger. The question is how much weight those objections along with others from
AT&T and longtime merger opponent Walt Disney Co.
will carry as the Federal Trade Commission winds down its deliberations ahead of an expected vote tomorrow on the deal. The Denver-based carrier hand-carried a letter late Tuesday to FTC chairman Robert Pitofsky reiterating objections that Baby Bell U S West - which Qwest acquired this past summer - has to the merger. Specifically Qwest is complaining that TW's
cable plant constitutes a monopoly facility for broadband communications and that the merged company likely will tie high-speed cable Internet access to AOL as the ISP. "The concessions offered by Time Warner to date are grossly inadequate and further support Qwest's position that there remain significant risks to competition in the emerging market for broadband Internet access service," read the letter signed by Steve Davis, Qwest senior vice president of policy and law. Late reports conflict over whether the FTC is leaning in favor of the merger in return for a variety of concessions to open TW's cable plant to multiple ISPs. Although the commission reportedly is likely to approve the deal based on agreed-upon concessions, stories are circulating today that Pitofsky is having some doubts.
Enron Shuffle
Jeffrey Skilling is being elevated to the CEO suite at
Enron, replacing longtime chief executive Kenneth Lay on Feb. 12. Lay, who will remain as chairman of the board, in his 14-year tenure as chairman and CEO helped shepherd Enron from the energy-focused behemoth created by the merger of Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth into an era as a diversified energy and broadband communications provider.
Skilling's glad to have Lay remain on board; recent whispers had the chairman taking a position with an incoming George W. Bush administration. "I am particularly happy that Ken and I will continue running the company together and that he has put the rumors of his possible departure to Washington, D.C., to rest."
Skilling has been with Houston-based Enron since 1990 and was a key executive in the company's use of risk management products and forward contracting for energy and for bandwidth.
More From Streaming Media West
Broadband Week associate editor Karen Brown reports from San Jose, Calif., that Streaming Media West is a playground for the latest in digital media, and this week's show has seen a birth of sorts. After months in a stealth mode, Aerocast had its formal christening party on the show floor Tuesday at the San Jose Convention Center. The broadband streaming media services company may look like the hoards of new content delivery startups throwing up display booths, but it has a better-than-average pedigree: it has backing from
Motorola Inc. and Liberty Media Corp.
through its Liberty Satellite and Technology Inc. subsidiary.
In beta tests now with undisclosed network operators, Aerocast claims it can cut streaming video content distribution costs to one-fifth of today's going rates with its web of servers placed at local distribution points such as cable headends. Armed with MPEG-4 and digital rights management technology from its Motorola partner, Aerocast also promises to do so at data rates between 300 kilobits per second and 1.5 megabits per second.
Plans are for Aerocast to launch commercially in the first quarter of 2001, with content partners gathered through its ties to Liberty Media.
Ballmer Dreams In Streams
Even if the stock market is not, Steve Ballmer is a bull on digital media, Brown reports. The president and CEO of
Microsoft gave a crowd of Streaming Media West attendees a combination pep talk and Microsoft product demonstration while unveiling the company's new Windows Media Player 8 on Tuesday - hammering repeatedly at the idea digital media has yet to peak. "The digital media phenomenon is absolutely one of the engines that will fuel increased interest, activity and excitement on the personal computer," Ballmer says.
The hour-plus infomercial-esque presentation included a team of Microsoft leaders demonstrating everything from the newly minted Streaming Media Player 8 and the still prenatal Whistler operating system due out in 2001 to the gaggle of devices now available.
Among other predictions, the Microsoft front man said digital content would not just be confined to movie clips and animation. Businesses would increasingly look to streaming media for corporate training, company announcements and employee information. "The enterprise market has literally doubled every year of its existence," Ballmer says. "There will be a day, I promise you where every corporation will view it as routine to communicate with its employees via streaming media over the corporate intranet. I think that should already be routine."
With all of the impacts predicted for streaming media, Ballmer says Microsoft will invest $200 million yearly in technology, marketing and partnerships in the digital media space.
Broadband Briefs:
- High bids reach a total $591.8 million in the third round of the Federal Communications Commission's re-auction of 1.9 GHz spectrum to personal communications services and cellular phone operators.
- ISP Prodigy Communications announces a deal with Microsoft to develop a Windows Media Player "skin" for its DSL subscribers.
- Avid Technology's Internet Solutions division and Broadwing Communications plan to work together on delivery of a high performance streaming media hosting service to enterprise customers.
- Digital Island will provide its Footprint content delivery services for e-business applications to Compaq Computer's company Web site.
- Hotel broadband services provider NXTV is buying four MediaHawk interactive entertainment and Internet systems from Concurrent Computer for installation in Los Angeles-area properties.
- Metricom has certified Novatel Wireless' Merlin wireless PC card modem for use on the Ricochet 128 kbps wireless mobile data network.
- Lucent Technologies is introducing a new intelligent optical-data networking platform based on its WaveStar Lambda router, which it says will enable service providers to offer bandwidth-on-demand and other new services.
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