The Man With the Bandwidth The Man With the Bandwidth May 22
1998 3:30 AM  The Man With the Bandwidth  John Malone's cable
gamble could soon pay off.  In this brand-new digital economy
we're supposedly inhabiting, competitive advantage can be eroded
in an instant, and large companies with lots of fixed assets are
doomed to being overrun by quick-moving startups who can adapt
better to a world of rapid technological innovation. By that
logic, the cable industry--with its overpriced services,
monopolistic market control, and unwieldy operating structures--
must be headed for the graveyard.   But as the recent return to
center stage of cable pioneer John Malone, head of TCI,
suggests, the cable industry has never been healthier, despite
having committed a rather staggering array of strategic missteps
in the past few years. In the end, owning billions of dollars of
infrastructure--such as cable wires--certainly has its flaws as
a business strategy, but it also has one huge benefit: Owning
those wires allows you to