|
|
Enron Mail |
I received this from Art this afternoon, which provides helpful, although
not positive, additional information. Thanks. Gary -----Original Message----- From: Smith, Arthur K [mailto:AKSmith@UH.EDU] Sent: Friday, September 15, 2000 2:40 PM To: 'rosenthal@heaneyrosenthal.com' Subject: FW: UH bandwidth Gary: Ed Hugetz has provided the information below in response to your inquiry about bandwidth. It appears that at least for us, there is no pot of gold at the end of the bandwidth rainbow. One wonders about the decision that was apparently make in the early 1990s to decline this opportunity. However, we will continue to look into the matter. Art -----Original Message----- From: Buchanan, Averill E On Behalf Of Hugetz, Edward T Sent: Friday, September 15, 2000 2:01 PM To: Smith, Arthur K Cc: Harris, Randy J; Duffy, Dennis Subject: RE: UH bandwidth Art - This afternoon I spoke to Jeff Clarke about Gary Rosenthal's emails regarding bandwidth. Jeff has been in Washington this week and he had the opportunity to talk to Todd Gray, who is our telecommunications lawyer at Dow Lohnes. Todd is very familiar with the Wall Street Journal article - the writers interviewed him extensively. He told Jeff that what was not made clear in the article was that the class of spectrum that they were referring to was the ITFS spectrum. The UH System does not own any bandwidth in this spectrum. The broadcast spectrum that KUHT uses is in a different class. In the early 90's the System had the opportunity to acquire a license for ITFS spectrum and declined. The ITFS spectrum is a closed circuit system that covers a relatively small radius of 10-20 miles. It is bandwidth that is very attractive to wireless companies, however, Todd does not think there is nearly the "gold mine" for universities that own the spectrum as indicated in the article. When Dennis Duffy returns on Monday, he and I will call Todd Gray to get further details. Ed -----Original Message----- From: Smith, Arthur K Sent: Friday, September 15, 2000 10:49 AM To: Harris, Randy J; Duffy, Dennis; Hugetz, Edward T Subject: FW: UH bandwidth Randy, Dennis, and Ed: FYI. Art -----Original Message----- From: Gary Rosenthal [mailto:rosenthal@heaneyrosenthal.com] Sent: Friday, September 15, 2000 8:53 AM To: Ken Lay Cc: Arthur K. Smith Subject: UH bandwidth Ken, I hope things are well with you. I've taken on in the last year of my 6 year term the regents' chairmanship and so I am busy working on how to help further accelerate the good things that have occurred since we brought Art and his team to Houston. In this light, I read the recent article in the Wall Street Journal suggesting that the Kuht-TV spectrum allotment includes substantial unused bandwidth which we are legally permitted to lease to the private sector. The Journal, based on the recent UK auction, extrapolated the overall worth of the bandwidth at $160 billion. Needless to say, if we could realize a small fraction of that, for something from which we currently derive nothing, it could be a huge boost to our efforts to obtain the additional funding we need as we move to Tier One status. Since Enron is the leader in the market for bandwidth, I was hoping you or someone at Enron could give us some advice on what we own, its value, if any, and how we might think about realizing on any such value. From Enron's perspective, perhaps there is a niche market for Enron to make by helping organize educational institutions that own such bandwidth to exploit the value of that asset. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Best regards. Gary
|