Two announcements on products that will bring internet to large audiences. One by Continental Cablevision Inc. The cable line one apparently uses special coaxial cable modems, and apparently is full-duplex (?). On front page of today's Wall St. Journal. Following that, AT&T announces the Interspan `Frame Relay Services and Information Access Services' to the internet. In the former, one gets `cost-effective' internet capabilities, in the later ``current Interspan customers and all global Internet users will be able to subscribe to the full range of messaging services from AT&T EasyLink Services including electronic mail, text-to-fax delivery and telex, and will be able to communicate with subscribers of non-Internet commercial network services worldwide.'' Access through current connections with new `virtual circuit' or by anyone at 300-14.4 bps in nationwide, toll free, seven digit number 950-1ATT, also an 800 number. Also, customers can register in an AT&T database for the DNS system with company names. Also, access to InterNic directory (hm, I wonder if that was built in preparation & anticipation of this). then stuff on the current EasyLink: 160 countries, electronic messages with data interchange, gateways from LANs, email, enhanced fax, etc. The critical question underlying all these services -- when will it be the case that a completely cyberspatial company is erected, free of harassment by archaic `internet acceptable use policies'? ===cut=here=== From: cook@path.net (Gordon Cook) Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1993 17:41:51 GMT
From today's Wall St. Journal
"Cable Company is Set to Plug into Internet Cable Television will connect to the Internet, information pathway to millions of personal computer users world-wide, early next year through direct link up via Continental Cablevision Inc., one of the nation's largest cable operators. The service, which could greatly alter delivery of electronic information, would allow Continental's customers to plug PCs and a special modem directly into Continental's cable lines, said William Schrader, President of Performance Systems, a Herndon, VA. network services company that is Continental's partner in the project. The cable link would by pass local phone and other special hookups to access the internet directly. More significantly it would allow customers . . . to fetch whole kinds of information. . . at information superhighway speeds - as fast as 10 million bits per second. . . . Mr Schrader said. . . . . "This isn't some fluffy pie-in-the-sky vision," said David Fellows, a senior vice president at Continental. Added Mr. Schrader: "Other companies such as Time Warner inc in Orlando are talking about elaborate multimedia service tests. But our plan is small simple and easy. This will work." But while the new service holds much promise, no one is sure what the customer demand will be, especially at an estimated cost of $70 to $100 a month. . . . [Comment by G COOK Here the Journal gets confused. It seems to assume that the audience for this service is the same as for prodigy or for CATV home entertainment. NOT TRUE! The audience will be telecommuters, individual entrepreneurs, and small businessmen with their own LANs, and K-12 school districts, and local governments for whom $100 a month would be about 20% of what they would have to pay for equivalent service over regular internet RBOC phone access channnels.] Performance Systems, which provides a means for customers to hook up to the internet system , plans to install computer routers in the continental network. . . . The routers will be installed in the main hubs or "head end" facilities in continental's vast network, allowing easy extension of the new internet service to homes and businesses tethered to the cable company. For the customer's home or business computer Performance Systems will provide a special computer modem to reach the service. The two companies plan to announce the service today at an industry trade show in San Francisco. The first hookups are scheduled to take place in Cambridge Mass where Continental has many subscribers connected to Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology." The rest of the article is plain vanilla what is the internet all about. This seems to me to be an extremely significant announcement that does not bode well for the RBOCs. I'd expect to see the rest of IP commercial service providers running hard to jump on the band wagon. _______________________________________________________________ Gordon Cook, Editor Publisher: COOK Report on Internet -> NREN 431 Greenway Ave, Ewing, NJ 08618 cook@path.net (609) 882-2572 Ask about my 15,000 word, $250, CATV vs. Telco's Internet & NII Study _______________________________________________________________ ===cut=here=== Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1993 18:04:27 -0500 From: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu (David Farber) Subject: rather PRey but still -- AT&T Announces New Internet Connectivity Options FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, August 24, 1993 AT&T Announces New Internet Connectivity Options BASKING RIDGE, N.J -- AT&T today announced new options that will provide a single-vendor solution for accessing both the global Internet and enhanced messaging services. These new options will be available in the first quarter of 1994 to customers of AT&T InterSpan (R) Services, AT&T EasyLink Services and the millions of people worldwide who use the Internet. There will be new connections to the Internet from AT&T InterSpan Frame Relay Services and Information Access Services. There also will be new connections from AT&T EasyLink Services to the Internet through AT&T InterSpan Services. Customers of InterSpan Services will gain a variety of convenient, cost-effective options to access the global Internet. At the same time, InterSpan customers and all global Internet users will be able to subscribe to the full range of messaging services from AT&T EasyLink Services including electronic mail, text-to-fax delivery and telex, and will be able to communicate with subscribers of non-Internet commercial network services worldwide. AT&T InterSpan Frame Relay Service customers will have access to the Internet by simply adding a single permanent virtual circuit to their existing connections. Similarly, InterSpan Information Access Service customers will be able to access the Internet at speeds ranging from 300 - 14400 bps with a nationwide toll-free, seven-digit number (950-1ATT). "Increasingly, organizations need to reach beyond their own boundaries to access the information and computing resources they need," said Jayne Fitzgerald, product line director, InterSpan Data Communications Services. "With these new options, our customers will have the opportunity to simplify their premises equipment needs and vendor interface requirements, as well as streamline their network management issues." For customers of AT&T EasyLink Services, who already have access to the global Internet, the new connections will mean improved reliability and performance for their Internet communications. "More and more people, including AT&T customers, want to have the option to communicate on the global Internet," said Sal Noto, product management vice president, AT&T EasyLink Services. "In providing that option, we're increasing the ease with which millions of people can access each other as well as the information they want and need." The new AT&T options will include a naming service based on the Domain Name System (DNS), a widely used method for naming and translating addresses on the Internet. With this service, AT&T customers will be able to register an Internet name of their choice--one that reflects their corporate identity, for example--and use that name for their communication on the Internet. AT&T also will offer to assist customers with selection, registration and maintenance of their names on the Internet. All of the new AT&T Internet connectivity options will support TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol), the primary method for transferring information across various networks on the Internet. Customers of the new Internet connectivity options will be able to tap into the InterNic directory and database services. Provided by AT&T since April under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation, these services make it easier for all Internet users to find available Internet resources. AT&T InterSpan Frame Relay Service and InterSpan Information Access Service are members of a comprehensive new family of high-quality, innovative data connectivity solutions designed to make it easier to link people, locations and information. The InterSpan Services facilitate faster, more efficient distributed computing for business through customized data services flexible enough to change and grow as a company evolves. AT&T EasyLink Services serves more than 160 countries and has sales and support offices in three dozen countries. AT&T EasyLink Services offers one of the broadest arrays of electronic messaging services in the market, including electronic data interchange, gateways from LAN-based e-mail systems and telex, in addition to electronic mail, enhanced fax and information services. # # # Editors' notes: The global Internet is a system of approximately 14,000 interconnected data networks, reaching more than 100 countries and serving commercial organizations, research organizations, governments and universities. By the end of 1993, more than 2 million computers, terminals and other devices will be accessible on the Internet. 950 access is currently available in 90% of the U.S. market. Where 950 access is not available and as back-up, an 800 number is provided. # # #