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British Telecom
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 1994 07:03:39 -0500
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 1994 00:24:57 +0100 To: farber () central cis upenn edu From: Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk (Brian Randell) S Dave: There have been items in the UK press today, I assume inspired by a press release which you already have access to, about Microsoft's plans for networked PC-based information services. What was particularly interesting was that it was stated that British Teleccom is involved, particularly in the light of the following comments I just received from a colleague.
Which reminds me. BT announced their new "Internet Access Service" with the usual glossy brochure and large stand at the INET/JENC in Prague in June, with a launch date of 1st Sept (which I reported to some of you). I havn't been able to get any more information. The phone number isn't answered, nor is email. This morning I persisted and rang their press office. he referred me to 152. After a rather amusing 5 minutes ("what was that service again", "oh computers", enlightenment: "oh, I see, the *computers* talk to each other" (how's that for the telephone mind-set?)) I finally got through to an 0800 number ("how did you find out about this number?"). It appears that the announcement is delayed yet again to the end of the year, or perhaps January. She took my name and promised to post something. I did make an attempt to suggest email, but it was met with a snide comment about internet email not having acknowledgements and thus not being reliable. Sigh. :-( I still suspect that the big problem is pricing relative to their X.25 and Frame Relay services - i.e. either they will make the price similar to their other services and it will be uncompetitive on the Internet market, or the price will be competitive on the Internet merket and will blow their other services away.
Cheers Brian Dept. of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk PHONE = +44 91 222 7923 FAX = +44 91 222 8232
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