Pac Bell chimes in with Net service
Posted by Webhost - 28/05/96 at 01:05 amPacific Bell today officially announced its Internet dial-up access service for
the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego, and Los Angeles, regions that
comprise about 75 percent of the telephone company’s residential customer base.
Service to Stockton and Fresno is scheduled for this summer and the company
projects that it will offer service to about 90 percent of all California
residential and small business users by early 1997.
Dubbed Pacific Bell Internet, the service was originally scheduled to launch
last month but was delayed because of unspecified problems with the networking
software. But the company says its customers will not experience the problems
that some AT&T WorldNet users encountered after that service’s much-publicized
launch.
“We’re confident that we can handle any volume of users,” said Rick Hronicek,
president of Pacific Bell Internet.
Pac Bell will offer customers a two-tiered pricing structure. The “Basic
Access” plan charges $9.95 a month for up to 10 hours and $1 for each
additional hour; the “Carefree Access” plan charges $14.95 a month for up to 20
hours and 50 cents for each additional hour. But no matter how many hours a user
spends online, the charges will not exceed $19.95 a month. For customers who
sign up before September 1, the company will waive the one-time set-up fee of
$14.95 and offer a month of free unlimited access.
Pac Bell will not offer access to Macintosh users until at least mid-June,
blaming the delay on the fact that Netscape Communications has not yet
delivered the Macintosh version of its browser to Pac Bell beta testers. The
service uses a Pac Bell-branded version of Netscape’s Navigator 2.0, although
it will support the use of other browsers, according to a Pac Bell spokesman.
As an added incentive to sign up, Pacific Bell Internet is also promising to
provide users with At Hand, its upcoming Web-based version of a statewide
yellow pages enhanced with editorial content and a Web-hosting service, as well
as the SurfWatch parental control software. The service will also offer its
customers cut-rate access to America Online, although pricing and availability
have not been announced.
Pacific Bell also plans to offer an integrated ISDN package to residents and
small businesses at the end of June, according to Mark Fisher, Pacific Bell
Internet Services vice president of marketing. Customers will be able to order
an ISDN line, an Internet account, and all necessary hardware and software
directly from the telephone company. Pricing will be announced at launch.
As the first Baby Bell to deliver a broad dial-up access plan–although Bell
Atlantic has announced its plans to offer Net access–Pac Bell is eager to tap
into the lucrative California market, which it says accounts for 35 percent to
40 percent of all U.S. Internet traffic. If Pacific Telesis’s merger with
Southwestern Bell is approved, the company’s Internet access service will
expand to seven states with headquarters remaining in California.
