[10771] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Continental Cablevision, PSI Launch Internet Service
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Laurie Johnson)
Tue Mar 8 15:35:49 1994
Date: Tue, 8 Mar 94 11:48:06 EST
From: laurie@psi.com (Laurie Johnson)
To: com-priv@psi.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - March 8, 1994
CONTINENTAL CABLEVISION, PSI LAUNCH INTERNET SERVICE
First Commercial Internet Service Delivered via Cable
Available Beginning Today in Cambridge, Mass.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Continental Cablevision and Performance
Systems International, Inc. (PSI) today linked this city of 95,000 directly
to the
Information Superhighway as they launched the first commercially available
service offering high-speed connection to the global Internet via cable TV's
high-capacity system.
Using Continental's broadband cable "pipeline" and the PSINet
national network, Cambridge businesses, organizations and individuals
subscribing to the new service, dubbed PSICable(SM), will have access to the
vast worldwide data services of the Internet at speeds hundreds of times faster
than using conventional telephone lines.
Beginning today, Continental and PSI are offering PSICable Internet
service on a commercial basis to Cambridge businesses and organizations
with many computers linked in a Local Area Network.
Beginning next month, they will extend the service to home and small
business personal computer users, bringing high-speed Internet transmission
of data and multimedia applications within the reach of individuals for the
first time ever.
By the end of the second quarter of 1994, Continental and PSI expect to
begin offering PSICable Internet service to the eastern Massachusetts suburbs
of Arlington, Burlington, Needham, Newton, Wellesley and Woburn.
"With the launch of this service, we are providing communication
and programming services to computers for the first time. This is an
important step in the continuing convergence of the television set and the
home computer," said David M. Fellows, Senior Vice President for
Engineering and Technology at Continental Cablevision.
"Like the telephone system, our network of fiber and cable is a pipeline
that can reach virtually every home and business in the communities we
serve. And with the broadband capacity inherent in our system, we're capable
of bringing a wide variety of Information Superhighway services, along with
the video channels, to anyone within reach of our cable TV service," Fellows
said.
"The technology is now in place, or soon will be, for PSI to deliver
Internet over many cable TV systems across the country," said William L.
Schrader, President and CEO of PSI. "In addition, our work on both hardware
and software platforms for cable will soon bring even more advanced
services, such as multimedia conferencing and telecommuting."
William I. Richmond, Continental's New England Director of Business
Development, noted that PSICable affordably unlocks untapped potential of
the Internet.
"Whether at the corporate, small business or individual level, users
now will have access to a high-speed 'on-ramp' to the Internet that will allow
vastly improved productivity for a variety of creative new applications,"
Richmond said. "Continental's New England fiber optic network is the high-
capacity electronic roadway bringing this and other Information
Superhighway services to communities in Greater Boston."
Martin L. Schoffstall, Vice President and Chief Technical Officer of PSI
noted that "as talk of the Information Highway turns to real-life options, the
market soon realizes that the extensive and growing graphical, multimedia
and interactive applications available or coming soon will not work fast
enough through the traditional phone system."
"Cable offers the inexpensive and widely available bandwidth that is
hundreds of times faster than the best switched services offered by the
telephone companies, Schoffstall said. "PSICable takes advantage of this
natural need for high-performance Internet access by the individual."
The Internet is the world's largest network of computer networks,
providing more than 15 million computer users affordable international
communications and E-mail; transfers of databases worldwide; and access to
research and educational resources at libraries, universities and museums
around the world.
The new PSICable service is being provided through a Metropolitan
Area Network on Continental's fiber optic trunk lines that loop around
Boston.
Initial customer connections are available through shared multi-
megabits per second cable segments via a bidirectional or unidirectional
channel linked to the fiber backbone, and from there connected to the PSINet
national wide area network, and to the global Internet.
Information traffic is managed by "routers" PSI has placed in
Continental signal hubs, or "headends," along the fiber backbone. Subscribers
to the new service will use special PSI modems connected to their computers
and cable TV outlet.
Boston-based Continental Cablevision, the nation's third largest cable
TV operator, serves more than 2.9 million customers in Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Ohio,
Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada and California.
Herndon, Virginia-based PSI is the nation's largest provider of
commercial Internet access and internetworking services for organizations
and individual users of electronic information. PSI offers electronic mail
products and turnkey integration of local area networks into the PSINet wide
area network system and the Internet.
PSI operates the world's largest Frame Relay network, using T3 trunks
and ATM switching, delivering TCP/IP based services to over 80 U.S. cities
and 5,000 organizations.
# # #
All brands, products and service names mentioned are the trademarks or
registered service marks of their respective owners.
__________________
For further information, contact Henry R. James, Continental Cablevision, 617.742,9500 (phone),
617.742.0530 (fax); or Melisa Parker of PSI, 703.904.4100 (phone), 703.904.4200 (fax), or
info@psi.com (e-mail).
