Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac: Not for Sale/Another.not.for.sale (Australia).iso/wide open road/PSI.com/PSICable_Launch

Text File | 1994-05-18 | 6KB | 118 lines

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 [e-mail] (e-mail).