rvice and lower prices for consumers."4 But by then AT&T's stock price had declined 16 percent, prompting Malone to say that the fall-off "scares me to death." What happened? The immediate problem was that our announce- ment did not adequately address the widespread belief that TCI's cable plant was a shambles and that the cost of upgrading it would be mon- umental. On top of that, we failed to anticipate the full impact of a seismic shift in the thesis under which most people and institutions had invested in AT&T stock. Cable Upgrades Although our news release said that the new company would "signifi- cantly accelerate the upgrading of its cable infrastructure," it gave no estimate of the cost. Yet that was the subject of the third question asked at the news conference, which came from one of the cable trade reporters, John Higgins of Broadcasting and Cable:6 HIGGINS: From what you are talking about doing with the cable sys- items, TCI's plant is relatively poorly equipped compared to some of the other operators in terms of its two-way capabilities and the condi- tions of its plant. Why is this going to work the way you all say it's going to work? MALONE: That's a pretty unfriendly statement, John. (LAUGHTER) MALONE: No, I think TCI's plant upgrade plans, which got a lot of publicity when we decided to rethink it about 18 months ago, you know, are pretty well on track. TCI, by the end of the year 2000, will be fully rebuilt to two-way fiber to the node. And our current capacity, in terms of two-way and fiber capacity, is sufficient to launch more than we have enough human beings to launch, in terms of the services at the present time, and was designed to be done that way, to phase in the upgrade. Tough Calls That hardly settled the question, and Business Week, in the middle of an otherwise glowing story, filled the void with its own estimate of the cost of upgrading TCI's cables. "The costs of upgrading TCI's en- tire infrastructure SO that it can provide telephony and high-speed In- ternet access are enormous,"