Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: ulmo@ssyx.ucsc.edu (Brad Allen) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Pacific Bell plans access to computers Message-ID: Date: 10 Jun 89 07:11:08 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: no affiliation with UCSC Lines: 33 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 193, message 2 of 10 [copied without permission from Santa Cruz Sentinel, June 9, 1989, Section B] SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Pacific Bell said Thursday it hopes to compete with the popularity of television by offering people easy access to computerized libraries, bulletin boards and the use of electronic mail. PacBell's California Online -- which will be available to anybody with a personal computer, telephone and calling card -- will be among the first in the nation to use a graphic-based system that simplifies procedures so only a rudimentary familiarity with computers is needed. "It's going to offer our customers a supplement to their current leisure activities ... and among other things we've seen (in trials) a lot of people who got away from the TV," said Roger P. Conrad, director of Videotex Gateway Services. "We feel this is a more productive way for people to spend their lives and we think a lot of users are going to agree," he added. Users will pay "info-entrepreneurs" fees based on the time they use various services and will be billed on their monthly telephone statements. Unlike some online information services, users do not have to subscribe ahead of time. Conrad said the types of services are limited only by vendors' imaginations. PacBell will make money by selling telecommunication line use to the companies. ====================================== I would like to know the point of contact for more information, since this is precisely my current field of interest (even though it has been my major pastime for the last five years already). Also on the same page right next to it is an article titled "Digital Revolution promises social, financial upheavals" By Michael W. Miller, The Wall Street Journal [12 paragraphs] (which I know from the title must be correct in gist).