Convergence

Electronically Speaking
by Kurt Taylor

Convergence really is a beautiful thing. It's a little like that Supreme Court Justice's definition of obscenity a few years ago; "I can't exactly define it out but I know it when I see it." For the purposes of our discussion convergence is the intersection of video, computers, telephone and the internet. The intersection point is likely going to be either in your home, your office, or perhaps your school. If you've got a computer, a television and a phone, you've got the hardware. How they all merge and converge may be a little hazy, but we know that the various technologies here are rapidly moving closer together and often in the same electronic pipeline. It's also what's driving internet stocks and causing great wealth and investment. So start counting down, we're moving to convergence in three, two, one!

The amount of information available to us in video, data, and disc form is enormous. So, apparently, is the appetite for this information. Shopping on line, video on demand, internet-capable wireless phones, huge databases for business. The hardware manufacturers have been selling improved gear for quite a while, now. Computers with ultra high-speed chips, cellular and wireless phones, and video receivers (televisions) that reproduce images with theater-like clarity and booming sound. But the key to convergence is the pipeline. It's the wire, stupid. How do you get this much information to hit these devices? The guys with the biggest, fastest pipe into your computer (phone, television) are showing the way.

It's this simple concept that drove AOL to merge with Time Warner. AOL has access to the database (internet), and Time Warner has access to the pipeline (cable systems). It's also the concept that hooked up TCI and ATT. Massive mergers that will shape the way we do business both at the office and at home. Huge companies with access to huge amounts of data seeking access (the pipeline) to sell it to you. It's that simple. It's also driving some new players into the market and fueling investment into new infrastructures to carry this enormous data product. Companies like RCN, owned by Microsoft's number two man, Paul Allen, are actually constructing or leasing new fiber optic systems to compete with phone and cable companies. The business model didn't make sense a few years ago to compete with cable by building a system side-by-side with the franchised operators. Now it does.

Much of the internet and technology stock frenzy is being driven by the desire to move massive amounts of information in new ways to new places. The drive to move video choices into the hands of the consumer through the internet is a revolutionary new business and social concept. Thirty years ago three large national broadcast networks controlled what all Americans watched on television. At the start of the new millennium, the consumer will decide what he or she watches. Through video streaming, real-time video on demand, and other video technologies viewers have almost unlimited access to new products either through the internet, their video provider, or their phone provider. The options can be a little overwhelming, but perhaps someone will invent a video/internet catalog, or table of contents, to help us wade through the myriad of choices and options. In the meantime, enjoy your convergence. It's a beautiful thing.

Kurt Taylor is the General Manager of Adelphia Cable and produces and co-hosts Cable Interactive Live! Tuesday's at 7:00 on Adelphia Channel 15