Hi Chen: OK Telescan, got a buddy who uses it..doubt I sign up, got more on my plate now than I know how to handle. -------------------- Some real reasons AOL just wont make it down the Road. Internet TV..will take a bite..it will get the newbies that AOL depends on. NETCHANNEL JOINS A CROWD OFFERING INTERNET TV By Samuel Perry PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuter) - NetChannel Inc. on Monday became the latest in a series of companies with broad consumer electronics backing to dive into the market for providing Internet access over the television. NetChannel, which is headed by former AT&T Corp. executive David Atkinson and Woodside, Calif.-based entrepreneur Philip Monego, announced a deal with Thomson Consumer Electronics to provide an Internet delivery service for $19.95 a month. The service, which will include customizeable local listings and an electronic programming guide, also will enable customers to use it to set their VCR and switch easily between Internet and television programming. NetChannel will be available on television set-top boxes priced at under $300 at retail stores starting this fall, one year after Internet TV innovator WebTV Networks launched the first of such services last year. The battle to bring the Internet to U.S. households -- which almost universally have televisions but only a third of which have personal computers -- through TV has heated up since Microsoft Corp. acquired WebTV last month for roughly $425 million. That same week, NetChannel agreed to acquire Norcross, Ga.-based ViewCall America Inc., a private firm developing an open Internet TV system, for an unspecified amount. John Stuckey, a NetChannel marketing executive, said Thomson's RCA, GE and ProScan brands account for some 25 percent of the U.S. market, compared to the 16 percent he said WebTV partners Sony Corp. and Philips Electronics NV together represent. "This is designed to be a service for Joe everyman," he said. The system aims to provide more interactivity and integration with the television than WebTV now offers. NetChannel, which is funded by its founders and venture capital investors, also has partnered with Oracle Corp.'s Network Computer Inc. (NCI) and Acorn Computer Ltd. of Britain, where the service is scheduled to be launched in June, prior to the U.S. launch. A third Internet access network, Los Gatos, Calif.- based ICTV Inc., offers a so-called "virtual PC" using a keyboard connected to a small set-top box linked to a television set to provide access to Internet and video games through a cable television connection. ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- You or I will not likey go net TV, but a lot of newcomers will DO you remember me talking about xDSL before ? IT's not so far off..and AOL can't gear up for it. - ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- BELL ATLANTIC REVEALS HIGH-SPEED INTERNET PLAN NEW YORK (Reuter) - Bell Atlantic Corp. was to announce Monday plans to offer high-speed Internet access to homes using new technology that can send data-heavy graphics over standard phone lines, a spokeswoman said Sunday. Analysts consider the plan the most aggressive effort yet introduced by a major phone carrier to offer high-speed Internet access on a wide scale to home computer users. The new service is set to be rolled out to consumers in stages starting in mid-1998 across the six-state Mid-Atlantic region where Bell Atlantic offers local services, the spokeswoman said. As part of the announcement, Bell Atlantic will unveil a four-year contract with DSC Communications Corp. to supply network equipment to allow high-speed Internet access. Financial terms of the deal will not be disclosed. The new access service will make use of But industry sources familiar with the contract said it was potentially a "multi-hundred-million dollar" deal for new equipment purchases from DSC and partner Westell Technologies Inc., which supplies the Internet access technolgy. "We will announce that we have chosen DSC Communications to supply equipment and software for our launch of an ADSL-based service for consumers," the Bell Atlantic spokeswoman said.
ADSL, or Asymetrical Digital Subscriber Line, is a generic term for Westell's method for providing Internet access over standard phone lines at transmission rates 200 times faster than now typically available. NOTE the 200 times Faster An ADSL unit has to be at the phone company, you go from there to the back bone..it cuts out all the ISPs as we now know them. ------------------------------------------------ BUT Wireless local loop..no news artical on it.. My ISP guru..is gearing up for the wireless local loop...that is even faster than the ADLS ...and it cuts out the local phone company.. it's a going to be a war..and AOL..don't have what it takes to adjust to whats a comming..hell they are still trying to get 33.3 modems going..vaut da gowin ta do ven dis oter stuf shows up...AOL is history they jus don't know it yet..who is going to use a horse and buggy system..it's all they got and are subject to get..Sprint is as I write this putting wireless local loop in the Dallas area..Houston is next in line..they will likley charge a nice penny for it..were ADSL will likey be cheaper.. but modems as we use them now will be few and far between before much longer , ( just about the time AOL does turn a profit..the whole face of the internet will change )and she will have some old wore out servers and maybe 350,000 modems to eat<G> Jim |