Sender: •••@••.••• Like I said folks, AT&T is causing a scare that will lead to internet service war. Im sure this is going to be a long battle, and BTW nobody is Crying Chicken Little....dont be blind see the light. Marty Wood Taken from Reuter Internet News: MCI Sparks Possible Internet Pricing War WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuter) - MCI Communications Corp. said Monday it plans a sweeping Internet initiative that includes tripling the capacity of its internetMCI network and expanding its consumer Internet offerings, as well as new pricing to rival competitor AT&T Corp. The telecommunications giant said the company plans to offer its long distance customers five free hours of Internet access per month, and unlimited access for $19.95 per month, in an offer similar to AT&T Corp.'s WorldNet service. An MCI spokesman said the consumer internet access offer is a promotional deal that runs through May 31. Afterward, customers will pay $9.95 for a five-hour service plan. AT&T's Internet deal includes five free hours a month for a full year for any long-distance customer who applies for its service in 1996. MCI said its customers would be asked to pay $2.50 an hour for each hour of service beyond the five hours. The MCI spokesman said his company planned to keep pricing for its Internet access services competitive. ``MCI's pioneering efforts in the Internet market have resulted in a $100 million business that we expect to grow to a $2 billion business by the year 2000,'' said Vint Cerf, an MCI senior vice president and one of the Internet's founders. In addition, the company said that as part of the initiative, which it called ``MCI Internet 2000,'' it would provide more value-added Internet services. In the first phase of its expansion plan, MCI said it will triple the capacity of its Internet backbone network by mid-April by upgrading the speed of its network from 45 megabits to 155 megabits per second, offering customers more capacity and higher performance. ``The explosive growth of the Internet has led to rush-hour traffic conditions for many users,'' said Cerf. ``MCI's network expansion is the equivalent of opening a new high-speed Interstate highway for internetMCI users.'' As part of MCI Internet 2000, the company plans to boost the number of consumers using its Internet services significantly over the coming months and years. MCI said it will expand its local dial-up Internet service to 250 U.S. cities by summer and 300 U.S. cities by year-end. In addition, MCI said it will offer customers a higher-speed Internet access service known as ISDN, for Integrated Services Digital Network, by May. The Washington-based company announced a new Internet partner marketing program aimed at reaching more of the mass market for its Internet services. It said it will aggressively expand marketing of Internet services it provides businesses, such as web page hosting, secure commerce, content creation, and intranet managed services. The company predicted that half of MCI's Internet revenue by the year 2000 will come from value-added applications and the development of emerging Internet applications. MCI also said it formed an advanced applications unit to focus on developing emerging Internet applications. The new unit will report to Fred Briggs, MCI's chief engineering officer, and Cerf, MCI's senior vice president of data architecture. A few of the technologies under development include the use of direct broadcast satellite for high-speed Internet connectivity, videoconferencing over the Internet, shared applications, multi-media messaging and advanced security. ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~ Posted by Andrew Oram - •••@••.••• - Moderator: CYBER-RIGHTS (CPSR) Cyber-Rights: http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/nii/cyber-rights/ ftp://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/nii/cyber-rights/Library/ CyberJournal: (WWW or FTP) --> ftp://ftp.iol.ie/users/rkmoore Materials may be reposted in their _entirety_ for non-commercial use. ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
