IP: Bell Atlantic to rewire Phila region, then state

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

<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.''