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IP: Bell Atlantic to rewire Phila region, then state
From: Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Sat, 09 Mar 1996 09:42:24 -0500
<From tomorrow's Inqirer (online today, www.phillynews.com)> The Philadelphia Inquirer Page One Sunday, March 10, 1996 Bell plans to rewire Phila. for the future Computer services and TV would be transmitted through its phone lines. By Michael L. Rozansky INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Bell Atlantic Corp. has mapped out plans to upgrade its phone system to deliver television and high-speed computer services -- starting in the Philadelphia region. The regional phone company plans to begin building a digital network this summer within a 40-mile radius of Center City, excluding South Jersey and Delaware. This would be the first of six metropolitan areas to be rebuilt. By the end of 1998, it expects to have rewired more than a third of the area's two million phone lines. ``With Philadelphia, we're going to start to actually rewire the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,'' said Bill Mitchell, vice president of external affairs for Bell Atlantic-Pennsylvania. The digital network would bring homes and businesses hundreds of channels of high-quality video. People could summon up movies on television at whatever time they wished, play interactive Jeopardy, or order groceries with a remote control. The network could visually link teachers with classes, doctors with patients, and businesses with clients or let people surf the World Wide Web hundreds of times faster. Bell Atlantic said it would let a variety of companies provide services over the network, which is considered the next generation of the experimental 384-channel system Bell Atlantic is building in Dover Township, N.J. Why start with Philadelphia? Bell Atlantic executives said they need to replace aging equipment, see the threat of competition, and think consumers are interested in new services. ``These are essentially engineering decisions, with marketing laid in,'' company spokesman Eric W. Rabe said. At the same time, the decision gives Bell Atlantic the chance to quiet growing criticism in Pennsylvania, where it has been accused of breaking promises to freeze basic phone rates and speed construction of a modern network. The Pennsylvania plan was not ``designed'' to meet that criticism, Rabe said, ``but it should do that.''
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