Europe explores alternative Net access

Tom Boland (wgcp@earthlink.net)
Thu, 22 Jan 1998 22:25:48 -0800 (PST) 

=46WD for your info, Ron in Berlin.  Free global access to the Wired World!-=
-Tom
__________
Europe explores alternative Net access

                  By Laura Boudette
                  ZDNN

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/zdnn/0120/272627.html

Europe's newly opened telecom markets should lower Net access costs,
but new types of providers are also taking advantage of deregulation
to offer alternatives to phone-line access.

The new Infobahn on-ramps range from cable connections that offer
high-speed data transmission on top of movies and television to
wireless links via satellite -- even to the electrical outlets in the
wall, a method that has put one British school online.

All are still in the start-up phase but are attracting the interest
of industry heavyweights hoping less-expensive access methods will
encourage more Europeans to connect to the Internet.

"Telecommunications costs in Europe are four to eight times higher
than in the United States," said James Richardson, president of Cisco
Systems Europe. "These types of access have potential. We are involved
in a lot of these methodologies, and some look promising."

While the U.S. has had competition among telephone companies for more
than a decade, Europe had allowed national phone companies to keep
their monopoly positions until this year. On Jan. 1, scores of new
companies began offering long-distance services to compete with
Deutsche Telekom AG, France Telecom SA, and other national carriers.

INTERNET STILL COSTLY

The opening of the market has brought almost immediate drops in
long-distance rates, and modest drops in local rates, but that
brought only partial relief for Internet users. Local phone service in
almost all European Union countries is still provided only by the
former monopoly carriers, which charge by the minute for local calls.

While U.S. Netizens can surf all day for a flat fee, Europeans have
to pay for every minute they're online, an arrangement that has
hindered Internet use.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development, 20 hours of Internet access in the U.S. costs $29,
including phone and provider fees. But it costs $74 in Germany, $52 in
=46rance, $65 in Britain, and $53 in Italy.

New access methods could help Europeans avoid those local phone
costs, but analysts have mixed opinions.

"Alternatives like cable are viable and are taking off, but satellite
won't appear on a large scale until 2001 or 2002," said Jahangir
Raina, an analyst at Phillips Tarifica LTD in London. "Once satellite
takes off, there will be serious competition with fixed-line
networks."

A UNIQUE PLUG-IN

One of the more exotic access ploys, power-line access, has the
advantage of using the copper cables that already run to almost every
home, and it supports high transmission speeds, but interference from
other signals is still a problem, he said.

But the Seymour Park Primary School in Britain is ecstatic over its
pilot program to gain Net access via electrical outlets.

Located in Trafford, near Manchester, the school has 12 PCs connect
to the Net via devices that plug into standard electrical outlets. The
connection has greatly accelerated Net response times, a big
advantage in a classroom full of 12-year-olds.

"The high-speed connection lets us really take advantage of the
educational potential of the Internet. With a normal connection, the
children could lose interest waiting for pages to download," said
Headteacher Jenny Dunn. "The new system means information arrives
virtually instantaneously, thereby maximizing teaching time and
keeping children on task."

The technology was jointly developed by Northern Telecom and the
local electric company, Norweb Communications, which eventually hopes
to expand the program to utilities around the world.

SATELLITES, MICROWAVES AND MORE

Not to be outdone by the British, one French company is boasting a
new, high-speed access alternative -- a first-of-its-kind satellite
system designed for large corporations.

Developed by the Matra-Grolier Network, a venture started by France's
Lagardere Group, the service is expected to cost about 600 francs
($120) per month -- or about 10 times the price of the cheapest phone
connection.

However, the data and sound transmission should improve by the same
proportion, the company said.

Moving eastward, Hungarian broadcaster Antenna Hungaria says it
produced the world's first microwave Internet link.

Users would still have to dial up via a phone line to initiate the
connection, but data would be downloaded through an AM micro channel
that can transmit up to 20M bits per second. To take advantage of the
high-speed connection, users have to install a microwave receiver and
a QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) modem.

Elsewhere in Europe, cable operators are beginning to add Web access
to their services. Cable Management Ireland is preparing a two-way
service to be available by mid-1998.

In Holland, cable operator A2000 recently began offering subscribers
in the city of Purmerend high-speed cable modems and expects to
expand availability of the service within a few months.

While these developments point to a future where one line brings
telephony, Internet access, television, and maybe even power to a
house, "that will still take a long time" to develop said Raina.

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