Oh, what a week!

It sure was an interesting week.

Pager outage leave managers in lurch Network World, 5/25/98 Excite Declines To Acquire Food Processing Company Excite press release that probably should read "Excite declines TO BE ACQUIRED... Channing Tells Hubby to Get Lost After Decades of Sexless Marriage Fox News. Microsoft vs. DOJ: The untold story Network World, 5/25/98. CA stock and financial news

Just when people were forgetting the AT&T frame-relay collapse, we had that satellite spin out of control, which resulted in hundreds of politicians not being able to receive pages from their lobbyists here in the nation's capital (where it was quickly dubbed "Pagergate").

We also had Netscape announce that it had signed a deal with Lycos and Infoseek to provide "consumer information" services on Netscape's home page (the next great "gateway" to the Internet). And who can forget that bold, yet bizarre bid for Excite (valued at $1.3 billion) by former president George Bush's former fish and oil company Zapata (valued at $240 million).

And we all found out more than we needed to know about Carol Channing (like 1+1 is most assuredly 2, and not 3). And just when you thought it couldn't get any weirder, word slips out that while it is not presently under consideration, the idea of dropping the DoJ's anti-trust litigation against Microsoft in exchange for Bill Gates solving the Year 2000 issue was certainly "innovative." (I'm not sure if this indicates that our public officials really don't have a clue about the scope of the Y2K issue, or if this means that Gates really is God....).

And for those of you praying to win that $195-million PowerBall lottery last week, the real winner was Charles Wang. When the price of Computer Associates stock closed this past Thursday at over $53.33/share for the 60 th straight day, Mr. Wang qualified for a corporate bonus of $550 million.

And in sleepy Washington, DC (where Hizonner Marion Barry just announced that he would NOT be seeking re-election, which undoubtedly means he will be drafted to run anyway), we had the annual publishing of the Better Business Bureau's "Inquiries and Complaints" list.

The top ten winners were 1) Auto Dealers, 2) Telephone Companies, 3) Auto Repair Shops, 4) Dry Cleaners, 5) Home Remodeling Firms, 6) Computer Sales/Service Firms, 7) Mail Order Sales, 8) Moving/Storage Firms, 9) Home Furnishing Companies, and 10) Landscape/Mowing Services.

PEPCO Subsidiary Joins RCN Corporation to Bring Washington Area A Single-Source Package of Telecommunications and Cable Services

While it is worth noting that the number-two slot was held by the Telephone Company, it is also worth noting that none of the top ten slots were held by the cable company or the power company. This is important in that we now have a new competitive access provider here in the Washington area - the power company. Little known Potomac Electric Power (a.k.a. PEPCO) has partnered with phone company RCN (of Princeton, NJ) to use PEPCO's right of way services to help launch a new bypass company - Starpower.

What PEPCO brings to the table is very clear - miles and miles of fiber optic cable and right-of-way around the metro area (power utilities have an estimated 30-40,000 miles of fiber). And despite the word on the street that the power utilities are too busy with their own deregulation issues to actively pursue the networking market (something many of them failed to accomplish in the mid-80's when "bypass" was also a hot buzz word), I do think that this type of partnership (existing provider with utility right-of-way) will become a popular trend in 1999.

Offering their services at just below market rates (presently using leased lines from Bell Atlantic and Internet access from Erol's - a subsidiary of RCN), they have signed up over 800 subscribers in their first week of operation. With local service priced beneath Bell Atlantic, long distance service priced at under 10 cents per minute and unlimited Internet access at under $18/month (Erol's used to be under $10/month), they expect to quickly build a base of support that will ultimately lead them to provide cable TV as well.

Interestingly, it appears that both consumers and competitors are jumping for joy. Consumers like the alternative provider in the market (a potentially hungry market if you can believe the BBB rankings posted above) and will undoubted enjoy the fact that the present network is really provided by Bell Atlantic and Erol's (two fairly well-known names in this area).

Competitors, on the other hand, also claim to be enjoying the competition. Why? They recognize that Starpower - like many other CLECs, CAPs or bypass providers, will probably not have a significant impact on their business, while it will undoubtedly give them an opportunity to lobby for greater competitive freedom (i.e., protection) in their business due to the leveling of the playing field. Right. Everybody loves the idea of competition, but nobody seems to like losing very much.

We'll probably have to wait a while to see if Starpower has any real staying power. I suspect that it will, along with a host of other companies that will begin to take advantage of bundled "information" services, much like Starpower has bundled their local, long-distance and Internet services into a nice, low-cost package. With cable TV and paging sure to follow shortly, there will be plenty of interest among the residential community they are targeting (let's see 10-321 try to offer cable TV...). Of course, there is risk associated with any startup. And with hundreds of CLECs and Internet providers emerging each year, there are bound to be a few failures here and there.

Of course, this is all a pointless argument if you are an auto dealer. But there is hope for those sales reps everywhere. With all the new entries into the market, my guess is that next year auto dealers will be number two - right behind the telecommunications companies.