Fractals of Change

First Impression – FCC Rules for the 700MHz Auction

The FCC has issued rules which will govern the auction of valuable radio spectrum which could make a huge difference in the price and quality of communications in America. The glass is definitely half something: I’d say closer to empty than full but there are some things to like and some hope for competition.

The decision is a compromise. Republican Chairman Martin was joined by Democrat Commissioners Adelstein and Copps in setting some open access conditions for 22MHz out of the 62MHz which will be auctioned. Republican Commissioner Tate reluctantly went along with these conditions and Republican McDowell voted against them. The Democrats were happy to get what they got; if they’d held out for more, they probably would have lost even these concessions to openness. They’re declaring victory.

The rules require that the winners of this band allow the use of any application, access to any content, and access by any device to their networks – with a carve out for network safety. This step is being compared to the Carterphone decision of many years ago which did unleash a wealth of innovation by forcing the old AT&T to allow foreign devices on “its” network. However, as Commissioner Adelstein says in his statement:

“Of course, as with so much of the Commission’s work, the devil will be in the details. It is especially important that today’s item gives consumers, device manufacturers, and other interested parties a right to seek redress if the C-block licensee seeks to discriminate against them. I believe that this case-by-case approach strikes the appropriate balance between preventing harm to the network and giving teeth to our anti-discrimination mandate. Justice delayed is often justice denied, the old adage says, and that is why I am happy that we announce today a 180-day shot clock for Commission enforcement decisions.”

Led by Google many advocates of more competition pushed for a requirement that the winner of this spectrum also allow open interconnect (too technical to explain here) and be required to offer network access at wholesale. Google had promised to bid for the block if these requirements as well as the open access requirements above were in the rules. Adelstein laments that this didn’t happen:

“…the Order does not go far enough in one important respect. We all know that America’s broadband performance leaves a lot to be desired. To me, the culprit is clear: a stultifying lack of competition in the broadband market, which in the words of the Congressional Research Service is a plain old “cable and telephone . . . duopoly.” A 22 MHz block of 700 MHz spectrum is uniquely suited to provide a broadband alternative, with speeds and prices that beat current DSL and cable modem offerings. Maybe this can happen yet in this spectrum, but by declining to impose a wholesale requirement on the 22 MHz C-block, the Commission misses an important opportunity to bring a robust and badly-needed third broadband pipe into American homes.”

Nevertheless, the first statement by Google lobbyist Richard Whitt on his blog post the issuance of the rules are conciliatory and praise the Chairman and the Commission. Could be that Google will bid after all. If Google gets this swatch of spectrum, they have much more incentive to actually use it to break the power of the telecommunications duopoly than the duopolists themselves have (obviously).

The “use it or lose it” provisions are a farce. The licenses are for ten years. For the big blocks winners “must” cover 40% of the population within the block within four years and 75% by the end of the license term. Guess where those big blocks’ll lie fallow. For the smaller regional blocks 35% of the area has to be covered within four years and 70% of the area by the end of the term. And, if you bid and don’t meet these requirements…. (no drum roll).

If you don’t meet the four-year requirement, the target for the end of the term gets pulled in to eight years. If you don’t meet that, you lose the unserved areas. Big deal.

A cynical view is that Verizon and/or at&t could easily afford to buy this spectrum and not use it at all. For eight years they get to stop anyone else from providing effective competition to their existing landline and wireless networks; that’s worth a lot. Probably they’d blame the lack of buildout on the open access requirements that the Commission did approve.

Verizon Wireless Pacmans Rural Cellular

Chomp, chomp, chomp. The announcement that Verizon Wireless plans to buy the much smaller Rural Cellular Corporation and transition Rural Cellular’s GSM customers to Verizon’s CDMA network is bad news, especially here in Vermont. It’s also further evidence of rapidly disappearing communication competition in America. There’s something particularly arrogant (confident?) in Verizon Wireless making this announcement on the presumed eve of the FCC’s determination of the rules for auctioning 700MHz spectrum.

The deal is a good one for Rural Cellular stockholders – they receive a 41% premium over their company’s closing stock price lat week; can’t blame them for accepting. Verizon Wireless explains that it’ll reduce charges it has to pay when its customers roam into territories where Rural Cellular has a CDMA presence and Verizon doesn’t and that it’ll also save through other “operating synergies” (that’s corporate-speak for layoffs of redundant employees in a merger).

One problem with all this from a Vermont POV is that the only cellular competition we have here currently is between Verizon Wireless and Unicel (Rural Cellular). Both have done a pretty good job covering our rural areas. I have Verizon and Mary has Unicel and, in most places, one or the other of us can get a usable signal. Unicel’s EDGE network provides usable mobile data service. Verizon’s 1xRTT is slightly better and its EVDO, expanding out of its first deployment in Burlington, is quite good. It was good to have a choice; it was good to have competition; it’ll be bad if we have neither.

Note that at&t wireless (nee Cingular) does not operate here. That’s why you can’t get an iPhone with a Vermont address.

Another loss is in technology variety. In Vermont Rural Cellular operates a GSM network – the standard used through most of the world. Verizon operates CDMA as it does everywhere. Mary’s GSM phone can go to Europe and make calls; my Verizon phone can’t. Verizon says that it will continue to operate Rural Cellular’s GSM network but only for the roaming customers of other carriers and that it’ll “transition” its own new customers to CDMA (new handsets which won’t work in GSM countries).

Unlike the sale of Verizon’s landline assets to FairPoint, the Vermont Public service Board can apparently not say “no” to this merger and make it stop. Wireless is much less regulated than landline service. The FCC does have review authority – any guesses on how that’ll go? – and presumably the deal is subject to antitrust review by the Justice Department. A good outcome might be a requirement that Verizon divest the Rural Cellular assets in those areas where they are its only effective competition.

I’ve been critical of Verizon for attempting to divest its landline assets in Vermont and am being critical of Verizon Wireless (owned jointly by Verizon and Vodaphone) for wanting to buys assets partly located in Vermont. Is that inconsistent? Don’t think so. My concern is that the proposed Verizon/Fairpoint deal gives us a good preview of what’ll happen to the wireless assets in Vermont once there is no longer competition. Under-investment’ll lead to poor service and substandard returns and further under-investment. The successor to a landline monopoly which does not deliver good service to most of the state should not be a wireless monopoly.

Meanwhile, when the FCC votes today on auction rules, I hope that it notices that these must be set to prevent Pacmen at&t and Verizon Wireless from gobbling up the 700 MHz spectrum and preventing competition to both their wired and wireless duopolies.

WISP Displaces DSL

In an email on another subject, online friend and wireless wizard Craig Plunkett mentioned that Fire Island Wireless, the wireless ISP (WISP) he runs, is starting to displace DSL. Tell me more, I asked.  He responded (decoder for non-nerds follow):

“Grabbing DSL customers is getting a little easier.  First, I think the DSLAM in the CO is maxed out, and VZ isn't adding any more ports.  Second, it's a marine environment, which means getting a clean pair all the way back to the CO is problematic, especially in the far western communities, which are about 3 miles from the CO as the crow flies.  We are price competitive on a yearly basis, with the exception of the CPE and installation cost.  But we have an affluent audience that demands connectivity and has to upload content ( lots of media and advertising folks).  Plus we can deliver higher bandwidth on both the up and download side. We don't do SLA's or provide public IPs (yet), but we get people online @ (1.5u/1.5d)  And we're local, we follow up and take care of our customers.  Our reliability is also increasing to be better than DSL.  And once we get folks to plunk down for the CPE, we have them for a few seasons at least because they've made the investment.  Usually, we get a call when a DSL person is experiencing an outage, and if we can do the install quickly, we've got 'em.  That's the case in my latest signup.  Plus our customers sing our praises and we get lots of word of mouth referrals.  I have one block of them in Kismet that I call "The Faithful"  They actually roped me into this, reviving the infrastructure when the original guys went bust...”

Decoding: a DSLAM is a box in a CO (telco central office) that squeezes DSL into phone lines. DSL is not where Verizon wants to spend its capex so this kind of stuff doesn’t get upgraded. A “clean pair” refers to copper wire; DSL is fussy and Verizon isn’t investing in copper either if they can help it.

CPE is customer premise equipment. It’s stuff you need at your house in order to make the service work. Interestingly, since Fire Island Wireless is WiFi based, you can get on to the service without buying any equipment if you are within one hundred feet of one of their increasing number of hotspots and have a WiFi-equipped PC; but, if you’re further away, you need to buy $300 worth of CPE to hook up. Obviously you have to want what Fire Island Wireless has to offer (and have the money) since DSL doesn’t have this kind of up-front cost.

SLAs are service level agreements, telco-talk for a level of service which is actually guaranteed in some sort of way. No one else is giving retail customers SLAs that I know of so Craig doesn’t need to feel bad; just continue to give good service.

1.5u/1.5d means that Fire island Wireless lets you upload (send) at the same 1.5 megabits per second that you can download (receive). This is an enormous competitive advantage compared to DSL which typically only provides 128 kilobits per second of upload capacity. As Craig points out, upload speed is currently more important to some people than others but it’s getting increasingly important to all of us: after all, we have to post our questions to candidates on YouTube. Seriously, we do “have” to send videos to people we care about, do online backup, and share all kinds of big files.

Noteworthy that plain old-fashioned better service is an important part of the attraction. The part about grabbing customers who are still waiting for Verizon to show up and fix things is great.

Projecting dangerously from this one data point, the economics of WISPiness could be improving. If prospects within the range of a radio include not only those who can’t get DSL or cable but also those who need something better than DSL, than wireless Internet access just got a much bigger addressable market and should get more subscribers per radio faster.

Ubiquitous Power for Traveling Nerds – The Cigar Lighter Inverter

Reader Omar nailed it: “The one power source that I think is consistent around the world is the 12v power (cigar lighter in older vehicles) in most vehicles.” It’s an incredibly ubiquitous standard. It shows up in boats as well as cars; but, for some weird reason, airplane seats with power use a different plug.

So the answer to my question of which one device does a nerd who has been forbidden to bring his twenty-piece power adapter kit need to take instead to assure that his or her electronic toys can be topped off with electrons is – drum roll – a twelve volt inverter! There are lots around; I’m not recommending any particular brand. You can see that the one pictured here hasn’t even been freed from its bubble-wrap; but note that it does come with an adapter for airplane seats.

Note that this inverter has a 120 volt out so the power supplies for every one of my North American toys plug into it: cell phone, PC, camera, GPS, even my battery recharger. If you’re based elsewhere, you can get an inverter with the right output voltage for your toys . You could buy a separate cigar lighter adapter for each toy and you would use energy more efficiently because you wouldn’t be converting from DC to AC and back again; but that’s too much junk.

One of these inverters saved a vacation for us (and a little marital stress). Mary booked a stay at a place in Belize near ruins and the rain forest; she’d already put up with a week on a sailboat off Belize so this was “her” half of the vacation. At the time I was regularly working on my novel hackoff.com: an historic murder mystery set in the Internet bubble and rubble. After a long bumpy drive down proto-roads we arrived at our home-for-a-week. It looked lovely lit by its kerosene lanterns. Whoops, they’re not just for atmosphere. No electricity!

But no problem. We had a car for exploring. I had my inverters (one plus a backup) because we’d been on a boat. Plenty of juice to recharge my PC after a writing bout and ruins around to recharge me.

The amount of power you can actually get out of an inverter depends both on the size of the inverter AND the voltage available at the source. Sometimes lousy boat batteries cause inverters to trip themselves offline. The solution can be to charge only when the alternator and engine are running but this isn’t fool-proof. Spikes knock inverters offline also. However, the more electronics a boat has, the better the power is likely to be. I’ve also had inverters refuse to work on planes.

The inverter pictured here, for example, is not recommended for PCs with screens larger than 15 inches or TVs. The next size up can handle all laptops, small TVs, and even cordless tool chargers.

BTW, I’ve never had to take a taxi or rent a car JUST to charge my batteries – but it could happen.

If anyone knows the history of how cigar lighters got so standardized, I’d love to hear it. It’s not that there’s only one possible device that could light a cigar. Part of the story must be the prevalence of 12 volt car batteries.

Readers Ben Metcalfe and Michal Altair Valasek both suggested USB-based power attachments. USB certainly is universal and it is fascinating to see it used as a power source even when no data connection to the host PC is needed. Doesn’t solve the problem of how to get power into the PC in the first place but, perhaps, you have a cigar lighter adapter just for that.

Power for Traveling Nerds – A Puzzle

We can’t get power wirelessly – yet. The outlets available vary from country to county; perhaps not with quite as much variety as phone adapters but you still need a pretty good kit to make sure you can connect to wall sockets everywhere. Moreover, of course, the power that come out of the wall isn’t all the same either. Voltages as well as the frequency of AC power differ from place to place. Some electronics can handle these differences; some can’t.

You’re a nerd so you’ve got a pack full of stuff that needs to be recharged or even plugged in to work: computer, of course, mobile phone(s), camera, iPod, GPS, video recorder etc.

Here’s the challenge:

You’re not allowed to take your adapter collection on the next trip; you’re not allowed to buy, borrow, or otherwise acquire adapters as you travel nor will you be buying all new toys which work on local power. You can’t bring a solar charger or a crank driven one or a small windmill (if such are available). You can’t take wall plates off or stick probes into them. What ONE device is essential to preserve your ability to use your toys?

I’ll answer tomorrow but I’m sure some of you will beat me to it.

They’re Phone Adapters; They’re Toast; WiFi Did It

Several good nerds correctly identified these about-to-be-trashed items as phone jack connectors – mostly European although one is Japanese. None are power adapters (which I still need) although some sure look like they are demonstrating how extraordinarily far from standardization the landline phone world still is.

I never used them to plug in a phone, of course; just used them so that my dialup modem could connect. Not pictured are the other essential parts of my toolkit including the alligator clips, screwdriver, and linetester I used when I had to go inside the wall to make a connection because there either was no jack or I didn’t have the right adapter.

I haven’t connected via dialup in at least a year. Not sure a dialup connection would do me much good even if I could get it. It might let me download email very slowly – and perhaps at the price of an international landline phonecall back to the US. Most web surfing would be too slow to be useful. Skype – which is an important use of my computer when traveling abroad – simply wouldn’t work over a dial connection nor would it save me anything after I paid for the connection.

Some hotels still provide RJ-45 plugs for an Ethernet connection; the majority of places I go have WiFi available. Although manufacturers typically build WiFi devices before revs of the standard are officially approved, WiFi compatibility is excellent; the manufacturers are building devices for a flat world; not wiring networks for idiosyncratic local networks. In the developing world where neither hotel switchboards nor local phonelines have been particularly reliable in the past, WiFi is usually even more attractive and available as an alternative than it is in the developed West or Asia.

If there isn’t WiFi in the hotel or airport, there is likely to be WiFi somewhere close by at an Internet Café, coffee shop, or bar. The antenna below from Ubiquiti along with my 300mW Ubiquiti WiFi card let me make virtual visits to hotspots anywhere in the neighborhood. Note to nerds: although you may see a strong WiFi hub at a distance, it won’t be able to see you if you are using only the puny little transmitter that came built in to your PC; you’ve got to be able to send a strong signal back if you want log on. Note to hackers: yes, you could use this powerful setup to freeride on open WiFi connections – if you want to take the risk that they haven’t been set up precisely to rope you in.

There’s a nice irony in the fact that, rather than use the phone lines to make my data connections, I’m using the WiFi connection to make my voice calls.

BTW, I do use my Verizon EVDO card in places in the US where there is not WiFi available or where there is a charge for using it. It works pretty well but is useless outside of the country even though other carriers use the same technology because Verizon doesn’t have data roaming agreement with them and because the card itself, like a cellphone, is locked to Verizon’s network and affiliates and doesn’t support letting me pay to use someone else’s network as WiFi does let me do.

What Are These? Why Am I Throwing Them Away?

Once my best nerd readers have had a chance to identify these and explain why I'm throwing them away, I'll pontificate on the significance of this disposal and run a picture of their replacement.

Update: The nerds figured it out. Next installment here.

Google’s Good Bandwidth Gambit

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has made the FCC an offer it shouldn’t refuse. At this point it’s unlikely that the FCC will accept but it would be good for the United States if it did – and good for Google, of course. Two problems with the Google offer: at&t and Verizon hate it and it probably would result in the 700MHz auction bringing in somewhat less money (immediately) for the treasury than an alternative which would encourage the telcos to bid.

Schmidt says Google will bid “at least” the $4.6 billion that the FCC proposes setting as a minimum or reserve for this part of the auction IF the FCC requires that whomever wins this chunk of spectrum is required to operate it according to four principles of openness:

• Open applications: Consumers should be able to download and utilize any software applications, content, or services they desire;
• Open devices: Consumers should be able to utilize a handheld communications device with whatever wireless network they prefer;
• Open services: Third parties (resellers) should be able to acquire wireless services from a 700 MHz licensee on a wholesale basis, based on reasonably nondiscriminatory commercial terms; and
• Open networks: Third parties (like internet service providers) should be able to interconnect at any technically feasible point in a 700 MHz licensee's wireless network.

Schmidt’s letter guarantees the FCC that they don’t have to worry that, if they set the rules in a way unfavorable to the incumbent telcos, they’ll have an auction and nobody will come.

The telcos response – not entirely incorrect – is that Google is setting rules in a way which will let it win the auction for less money than if there were less rules.  After all, they are implying, they the telcos will bid more if they aren’t encumbered by all this silly openness restrictions.

From the New York Times: “Verizon Wireless has called the conditions ‘corporate welfare for Google.’ And AT&T rejected Google’s latest effort, calling it an ‘all or nothing ultimatum.’ Further, says at&t’s James Ciccone as quoted by Om Malik: “We would repeat that Google should put up or shut up— they can bid and enter the wireless market with any business model they prefer, then let consumers decide which model they like best.”

In a competitive market, the arguments from at&t and Verizon would be persuasive.  But we don’t have a competitive market for either wireless voice access or any kind of broadband access in the United States.  Verizon and at&t are huge vertically, integrated regional monopolies. In their regions they share duopolies in broadband access with the cablecos.  This lack of competitiveness has left the US – where the Internet boom began -  with broadband service which is inadequate in terms of capability, reach , or price compared to much of the rest of the developed world and even some of the not-so-developed world.

Forget about good and evil intent or good and evil people; just think about the business interests of the companies involved. Because the 700MHz frequencies can be used to establish at least one national and many regional alternatives to the access duopoly, they are threat to the broadband access duopoly. Even worse, they could be used to establish several competitive wireless networks for mobile phones (in the time before the phone and data networks completely converge). This network would compete with Verizon Wireless and at&t Wireless (nee Cingular), the most profitable parts respectively of their parent companies. Even if only one new competitor emerges, that means the end of duopoly; triopolies are much less stable. Someone is always going for marketshare at the expense of margins or doing expensive innovation in search of distinction.

It’s worth it for at&t and Verizon and perhaps even big cablecos to bid high for these dangerous frequencies in order to protect their existing business. But they have no incentive to hurry to put these frequencies to use or ever allow them to emerge as the basis for competition to their lucrative retail businesses. The 700MHz frequencies are worth almost as much fallow as in use to them.

Google, on the other hand, has every incentive to relicense the frequencies it acquires or sell access over these frequencies to whomever can provide service. Google has no existing network to protect. Google is threatened by the existing cableco/telco duopoly wanting to capture a share of its margins and perhaps favoring their own retail business over competitive businesses owned by or important to Google. Google would like to provide more content and ads to mobile users; the best way to assure they aren’t blocked from doing this is to get competitors established in the mobile business.

You don’t have to believe Google’s “do no evil” motto to realize that, in this case, Google has an incentive to increase competition and improve and open up broadband and mobile services. You don’t have to believe telcos are evil incarnate to understand that they have an incentive to protect their current monopolies and duopolies.

Given that this non-competitive market exists, letting this valuable spectrum go to the highest bidder (which would ordinarily make sense) is just an invitation to increased concentration. If the FCC accepts Google’s proposal, at&t and Verizon can still bid but they won’t have the option to keep the resultant services closed if they win. They’re not being shut out, just forced to bid on the value of operating these networks openly instead of (what may be of greater value to them) keeping them closed and underdeveloped. If they choose NOT to bid under these rules requiring openness, their intentions will be clear.

Om Malik is an expert on broadband shenanigans and a cynic. He blogs: “At the end of the day, whoever wins in these auctions, we are looking at the prospect of either the Bells or Google owning the spectrum. And none of them are that appetizing.”

In this case Michael Arrington at TechCrunch is more optimistic: “Google isn’t always not evil, but in this case they are going to bat for all of us against some players with pretty bad history when it comes to offering consumer products. I’m behind them on this. And to the FCC: please learn from past mistakes, ignore the lobbyists this time, and do what is in the best interests of the public.”

I agree with Michael.

Related posts:

Good News from the FCC

Time to Write the FCC

Frontline Wireless’ Bad Idea

Dialog with Frontline Wireless

wiki411.com

Getting phone service for our summer house (see here and here) reminded me of how broken the directory assistance and white pages model is now that the world has gone online and cellular and is going VoIP (despite some nasty bumps in the road).  Fixing broken stuff is a great way to start a business. Mary and I are through doing that so you’re welcome to pick up on the opportunity – in fact, I hope you will.

If you get your phone service from THE PHONE COMPANY – Verizon in our case, you have to pay $2.35/month NOT to have your number listed in the phone book!  It’ll cost you $4.20 if you also DON’T want to be listed with directory assistance. This is probably an opportunity for a lawyer more than for a businessman. Gotta be someway to overturn whatever ancient Public Service Board ruling authorized this particular form of identity blackmail.

But, if your phone number is attached to a wireless or a VoIP phone, it doesn’t usually get listed at all.  Most people don’t want their wireless phones listed so this is fine for them but others use these phones for business or have no other phone so really would like a listing. Here’s Vonage’s explanation of when you will or won’t be listed if you order service from them:

“If you have received a new phone number from Vonage, you will not be listed in a telephone directory unless you contact your phone book publisher and request to be listed.

“If you are transferring your number to Vonage and you were previously listed in your local telephone directory's white pages, by checking the two boxes on the Number Transfer Authorization  form, you will remain listed in the white pages of the directory. Otherwise, you won't be listed.

“You will not be listed in the 411 directory unless you contact your phone book publisher.”

Note that switching to VoIP is a good way to get rid of your directory listing without paying a fee.  But it sounds from this like you can keep only your directory and NOT your 411 listing; I’m not sure, however, that’s the way it really works.

If you’re getting a new number from Vonage and want it listed, you are supposed to call your “phone book publisher”. In my case that’s Verizon.  I looked in the phone book and it said to call my service rep for “omissions” so I called. Had a nice chat with a robot and eventually got to a person who insisted that Vonage would have to list me and then I’d get in the directory. You’ve already seen what Vonage says above. In programming we call this an infinite loop.

Here’s where the business opportunity comes in. Why, now that we have an Internet, do we need a “directory publisher” who has any authority to decide whether to list us or not and what number to list for us? What we need is someplace online where we can create our own listings (or not) and which is accessible by phone or Internet for getting listing information – wiki411.com! Of course cellphone numbers, email addresses and even snail mail addresses as well as IM, Skype, and other contact info could be included in the listings.

Like all network businesses, it’s easy to see how this would be successful if it were already in place and populated. The trouble is getting started. There’s no value in being listed at wiki411.com if no one is looking there for listings. There won’t be anyone looking at wiki411.com for listings until it’s well-populated so that there is a good chance of finding someone.

Fortunately, there’s an easy solution if you’ve got the capital to get started. Wiki411.com should start by buying the best set of current listings (these are available commercially) and making these available free. Then the service needs to buy lots of CPC and banner ads making clear that this service has every number every other service has PLUS the self-listed numbers and addresses. Initially advertising on the site should be heavily filled with promotions to get inquirers to list their own contact info – perhaps even lottery-type prizes with everyone who registers eligible.

There needs to be an authentication method for listings but that’s not rocket science.

How to make money at this is also not difficult to imagine. Charging for lookups is NOT the answer, however.

Hope someone is already secretly doing this; maybe it’s in private beta and I just don’t know.

BTW, I own the wiki411 set of URLs. Don’t usually buy and warehouse domain names but I know this is something that’s gotta happen.

Chat Groups

Any exCEO understands the temptation to participate in Yahoo chat groups which Whole Foods CEO John Mackey now apologizes for giving in to. Despite being cesspools of foul language, misinformation, stock pumping and pummeling, and adolescent fantasies, the chat groups which formed around every public company were an integral and influential part of the last Internet bubble and rubble.

No sane CEO should have spent much time looking at the garbage posted anonymously; almost every one of us CEOs kept a browser window open on the chat group formed around our stock symbol – but this wasn’t a time of sanity. We had two excuses for doing this:

1. Our stockholders ranging from rank amateurs to sophisticated mutual fund managers were watching the same chat groups (you can tell by their questions). Surely we had to know what they were reading.
2. The chat groups provide instant feedback. If a press release is unclear, you can tell by the chat group. You can even gauge in real time your performance during a live webcast earnings conference and clarify on the fly (but you lose your concentration so this isn’t really a good idea).

Mary and I resisted the temptation to join in the discussions(?) either anonymously or under our own names; but it was difficult. It was company policy that any employee participating in the ITXC chat group might be fired. The risk was simply too great of running afoul of the Security and Exchange Commissions’ Reg FD regarding non-public disclosure of data about a public company (no one wanted to be the test case for whether a chat group is public enough or not), disclosing data which shouldn’t have been disclosed, or making a misstatement.

On a couple of occasions we corrected a gross error of fact officially as the company when we felt that we had, in some way, contributed to misunderstanding. Lawyers didn’t even like that because it might have implied that we now had a responsibility to correct every bit of incorrect information or analysis which appeared on the chat group. I also remember sending a lawyer letter to Yahoo because a poster was pretending to be my son. Yahoo didn’t reply substantively but that poster disappeared from the board.

If blogs had existed then, I probably would have blogged at least partly as a counterpoint to the chat groups, not that lawyers would have liked that any better.

There is, of course, a chat group in my novel hackoff.com: an historic murder mystery set in the Internet bubble and rubble. When you read the excerpt below – carefully keeping it from your children, you’ll have a hard time believing that I actually toned the language down but that’s the case. This chat takes place as the news reaches the market of the death of hackoff.com CEO Larry Lazard by bullet wound to the head and the accession of ex-swimsuit model and CFO Donna Langhorne to the CEOship.

Oh-Oh
by: thewatcher02 (38/M/New Rochelle, NY)                           04/01/03 9:40 am
Msg: 99020 of 99034
hackoff’s not trading!

Re: Oh-Oh
by: ChorusLine (25/F/Paramus, NJ)
Long-Term Sentiment: Buy                                                    04/01/03 9:41 am
Msg: 99021 of 99034
Posted as a reply to: Msg 99020 by thewatcher02
Got to be an april fools joke:-}

Re: Oh-Oh
by: pooper
Long-Term Sentiment: Sell                                                    04/01/03 9:43 am
Msg: 99022 of 99034
Posted as a reply to: Msg 99021 by ChorusLine
The real April Fool’s joke is George Bush

Re: Press Advisory Out
by: Jumbo10 (46/M/New York, NY)
Long-Term Sentiment: Buy                                                    04/01/03 9:45 am
Msg: 99023 of 99034
There is a press advisory out for an announcement expected at 10AM explaining the halt in trading. Whatever it is, you can bet it’ll be good for the crooks on wall street and bad for everyone stupid enough to be holding the stock.

Re: Oh-Oh
by: scooper
Long-Term Sentiment: Buy                                                    04/01/03 9:48 am
Msg: 99024 of 99034
Posted as a reply to: Msg 99022 by pooper
pooper, your just as much an asshole as your buddy clinton and this is not a political board

Re: Press Advisory Out
by: Alaska60-60
Long-Term Sentiment: Strong Sell                                       04/01/03 9:52 am
Msg: 99025 of 99034
Posted as a reply to: Msg 99023 by jumbo10
I’ve been telling you idiots allalong that lizard would have to sell jerkoff to antihack. he probly just didn’t get his own parachute big enuf b4 but I heard from insider that the deal is definitly on now. of coarse they stopped trading so only insiders can benfit but thats how lizards are

Re: Press Advisory Out
by: scooper
Long-Term Sentiment: Buy                                                    04/01/03 9:56 am
Msg: 99026 of 99034
Posted as a reply to: Msg 99025 by Alaska60-60
alaska, your as much an asshole as your friend pooper and this is not the antihack board. why dont you stay there where you belong so you can pump and dump that and not bother us here on this board

Press Release Out
by: Alaska60-60
Long-Term Sentiment: Strong Sell                                       04/01/03 10:01 am
Msg: 99027 of 99034
Posted as a reply to: Msg 99025 by Alaska60-60
The press release is on Yahoo.  The lizard is out and the cunt is in…  this stock is in the crapper if it ever starts trading again

Re: Press Advisory Out
by: Jumbo10 (46/M/New York, NY)
Long-Term Sentiment: Buy                                                    04/01/03 10:05 am
Msg: 99028 of 99034
Posted as a reply to: Msg 99023 by jumbo10
This may not be bad for the stock. I’ve changed my sentiment to buy and will buy after it settles down after trading resumes. Donna may be smarter than Larry was about selling the company or making it profitable. She always did a better job than he did at the quarterly webcasts. Often regime change makes a company go up even when it is unexpected.

Re: Press Advisory Out
by: PacPhil (25/M/New York, NY)
Long-Term Sentiment: Buy                                                    04/01/03 10:07 am
Msg: 99029 of 99034
Posted as a reply to: Msg 99028 by jumbo10
Jumbo, you always have good analysis. I hope you’ll write more later in the day. Why do you think Larry shot himself?  Does that matter to the stock?  Is the new CFO any good?  What will The Street think?

Re: Press Advisory Out
by: Alaska60-60
Long-Term Sentiment: Strong Sell                                       04/01/03 10:10 am
Msg: 99030 of 99034
Posted as a reply to: Msg 99028 by jumbo10
Your an idiot or just getting reddy to dump your stock. The cunt cant run the company. the lizard couldnt run the company. The company sucks. it doesn’t have anything. They should have sold to antihack… now noone will pay a penny for this piece of shit

Whats Happening
by: CLess                                                                                04/01/03 10:15 am
Msg: 99031 of 99034
Does anyone know why the stock isn’t trading???

Donna
by: TestTost (35/M/San Francisco, CA)
Long-Term Sentiment: Strong Buy                                       04/01/03 10:15 am
Msg: 99032 of 99034
Donna’s a peace of ass.  She was in the SI Swimsuit addition in the early 90s.  She’s still hot.

Re: Oh-Oh
by: ChorusLine (25/F/Paramus, NJ)
Long-Term Sentiment: Buy                                                    04/01/03 10:16 am
Msg: 99033 of 99034
Posted as a reply to: Msg 99021 by ChorusLine
It wasn’t an april fools joke.  what will the street think?

Stock Opened
by: thewatcher02 (38/M/New Rochelle, NY)                           04/01/03 10:16 am
Msg: 99034 of 99034
hackoff’s trading again! 1k shares at 1.26 unchanged. bid 1.24; ask 1.26.