WorldGate Communications Reaches Historic Agreement for Deployment in China
June 10, 1999
BENSALEM, Pa., June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- WorldGate Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: WGAT) announced today the signing of an agreement by the WorldGate(SM) Service with The Hunan Multimedia Communications Bureau (HMCB), a division of the People's Republic of China Hunan Provincial Telecommunications Authority's Posts and Telecommunications Administration (Hunan PTA) to deploy the WorldGate Service.
WorldGate has received the initial purchase order for Changsha, capital of the Hunan province, and Hengyang with additional cities possible in the Hunan province. The first system, Changsha, is scheduled to be online July 1999.
The WorldGate Service provides low cost, high speed Internet and e-mail access using the cable infrastructure, without the need for a personal computer or phone line. These limitations are currently preventing broad Internet access across China.
"We are proud that Hunan Multimedia has chosen to deploy the WorldGate service. They are recognized as leaders in bringing new technology to China, " said Hal Krisbergh, CEO and chairman of WorldGate Communications. "China has the second largest concentration of cable television services in the world. WorldGate will allow HMCB subscribers to access services that might otherwise be technically impractical or cost prohibitive."
The WorldGate Service facilitates the language and cultural adaptations required for an international marketplace. People want to be connected, but they want to communicate in their own language and gain access to local information. WorldGate's "Ultra Thin-Client"(SM) architecture (patent pending) easily accommodates such changes including Internet parental control. The WorldGate Service will be presented using the General Instrument advanced analog CFT 2200.
WorldGate is the first company to bring high speed, low cost Internet TV service and e-mail over the existing cable infrastructure to subscribers outside the United States. For many parts of the world, the personal computer represents too large a financial and technical barrier for them to enjoy universal Internet access. Likewise, the phone service normally required for PC-based Internet access and typically enjoyed in the United States is not readily available overseas or is cost prohibitive. The WorldGate Service does not require a PC or phone line. It eliminates both requirements through the marriage of its technology with the television set and either the existing analog or digital cable platform, enabling cable operators worldwide to broadly and cost effectively deploy the Internet to all their subscriber base.
This agreement in China, coupled with recent announcements that the WorldGate Service is expanding in North America, South America, Europe and Asia/Pacific, brings the total number of cable systems worldwide that are either in trial or deploying the Service to 25. These cable operators and their affiliates represent approximately 36 million subscribers.
About Hunan PTA
Hunan PTA is an organization under the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and provides a variety of the Posts & Telecommunications Services for the public in Hunan Province southern China.
About WorldGate Communications, Inc.
Headquartered near Philadelphia, WorldGate Communications is the first commercially deployed service that enables cable subscribers to access a full array of low-cost Internet services and e-mail through their television sets and the cable television infrastructure rather than a personal computer and telephone. The WorldGate Service marries WorldGate's proprietary technology with the television set platform and either the existing advanced analog or digital cable converter along with a remote control or wireless keyboard to bring the Internet to cable subscribers. Using the advanced analog converters, the Service operates at more than two times the speed of a standard 56 Kbps telephone modem. With digital cable converters, the Service operates at 27 Mbps, over two and one-half times faster than a typical cable modem.
In addition, the Company's Channel HyperLinking(SM) technology, which allows viewers instant access from the program they are watching to a related Web site or locally available information source, has more than 70 network partners. WorldGate received a notice of allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on all 62 claims of its patent application related to the Channel HyperLinking technology. WorldGate Communications' stock is traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol WGAT. For more information, interested parties may go to wgate.com.
WorldGate Service, Channel HyperLinking and Ultra Thin-Client are service marks of WorldGate Communications, Inc.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Expressions of future goals and similar expressions including, without limitation, expressions using the terminology "may, " "will," "believes," "plans," " expects," "anticipates," "predicts," "forecasts, " and expressions which otherwise reflect something other than historical fact are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including the timely development and market acceptance of products and technologies and other factors described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual results may differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to such risks and uncertainties. The Company undertakes no obligations to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release.
SOURCE WorldGate Communications, Inc.
/CONTACT: Louise Mooney for WorldGate Communications, 206-624-0388, or louise@thesilvercompany.com; or Frances Daly of WorldGate Communications, 215-604-2216, or fdaly@wgate.com /Web site: wgate.com (WGAT)
[Copyright 1999, PR Newswire]
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