U S WEST Customers Can Expect to Receive Phone Service, High-Speed Internet Access and Digital Cable TV over Same Copper Wire
PR Newswire - September 02, 1998 17:44
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'Webtone' and 'Videotone' Will Become as Easy to Use as Telephone Dialtone, President and CEO Sol Trujillo Says
NEW YORK, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- U S WEST (NYSE: USW) customers can expect to see high-speed Internet access and digital cable television service delivered over their phone lines and fully integrated with their phone service within the next five years, Sol Trujillo, president and CEO of U S WEST said today at the Telecom Business '98 conference in New York..
In fact, the Phoenix City Council was expected to vote this evening on a 15-year license that would allow U S WEST to deliver traditional phone services, high-speech Internet access and digital cable TV service over the same copper wires it uses to provide phone service today.
U S WEST plans to integrate these services and simplify them so that "webtone": and "videotone" become as common as telephone dialtone, Trujillo said.
"Anybody can walk into a room, see a telephone and know how to use it," he said. "When you walk into a room and see a PC, not everyone knows what to do with it. In the case of U S WEST, we're integrating phone service and Internet access and making 'webtone' start to look like dialtone. And very soon we'll be talking about 'videotone' in a new and different way."
For example, Trujillo said, within five years many U S WEST customers will be able to have telephone Caller ID information flash on the bottom of their TV screens when someone calls them on the phone.
And Trujillo described the tentative labor agreement between U S WEST and the Communications Workers of America as "part of our changing culture that we need so that people are compensated on pay-for-performance whether they're a senior executive or a front-line worker. I want to compensate people in our company competitively so that we can retain them and grow them and they are the best in the industry."
U S WEST (NYSE: USW) provides a full range of telecommunications services -- including wireline, wireless PCS, data networking, directory and information services -- to more than 25 million customers nationally and in 14 western and midwestern states. More information about U S WEST can be found on the Internet at uswest.com.
SOURCE U S WEST
/NOTE TO EDITORS: Video excerpts of Trujillo's remarks are available on
U S WEST's website./
/CONTACT: Jerry Brown of U S WEST, 303-965-2689/
/Company News On-Call: prnewswire.com or fax, 800-758-5804,
ext. 103985/
/Web site: uswest.com
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