June 16, 1997
Microsoft-Comcast deal should open up the Web's fast lanes
By Bob O'Donnell
For those whose work demands that they spend much of their day cruising the digital
autobahn known as the Internet, the snail's pace of development on the information
superhighway's fast lanes is a continuous source of frustration. Watching, waiting, and
hoping for quantum speed jumps in 'net access speeds is enough to try anyone's patience.
In fact, slow Web access is a problem that the entire computer industry is starting to
face and needs to address. The combination of increasingly faster computers and corporate
networks along with the complete integration of the World Wide Web into our computing
experience is making fast 'net access a critical part of our day-to-day work. I would even
argue that fast access is the No. 1 performance problem facing the industry today and will
be for several years.
Unfortunately, the computer industry doesn't own the pipes that connect individual
computers and LANs to the Internet: the telephone and cable companies generally do and
they don't have the same interest in making fast, inexpensive Internet access a reality.
The phone companies actually have a real disincentive to implement technologies such as
Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) because they make so much money on T1 lines.
From their perspective, ADSL offers T1-quality speeds for a fraction of the price, which
only serves to reduce phone-company profit.
Cable companies, on the other hand, have had to deal with tremendous infrastructure
costs in converting their systems into fat, two-way data connections. Although progress
has been occurring, it hasn't been at the pace that the computer industry wants or needs.
Hence, Microsoft's $1 billion investment in Comcast. (See "Microsoft/Comcast
deal may speed development of big pipes".)
With the investment, Microsoft obviously hopes to encourage all the major cable
providers to speed up their work in implementing cable-data solutions both for PCs and
Internet television products, such as WebTV. And by buying its way into the cable
industry, Microsoft probably will succeed in influencing a large number of "pipe
owners."
In the recent past, Microsoft has made public statements about staying out of the
communications business, but without this investment or another one like it, the company
might have been stuck idly watching as many of its core Internet-based technologies slowly
withered away because so many users lacked sufficient bandwidth.
The company obviously realizes how critical it is to increase overall bandwidth to the
'net and it's clear now that it is willing to make some bold moves to ensure that the
necessary developments happen. Frankly, this deal shows Microsoft taking the kind of
industry-leading role that a company in its position needs to be taking as computers and
digital information play an increasingly important role in our overall society.
And if Microsoft's strategy works, we'll all ultimately benefit by finally getting
access to those "currently under construction" fast lanes that are tantalizing
us now from the Web.
©
Copyright 1997, by InfoWorld Publishing Corp., a
subsidiary of IDG Communications, Inc. Reprinted from InfoWorld,
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