Pacific Bell And GTE Launch High-Speed Telecom Service

Californiaís largest phone companies are promoting high-bandwidth networks to transmit digitized video almost as easy as e-mail.With the entertainment industryís mandate to shift to digital in nearly all phases of the business, Pacific Bell and GTE are offering new services to capture the industryís new business in production and broadcasting, and to provide the infrastructure to support digital distribution of motion pictures over networks to the nationís movie theatres.Both telecom companies are investing millions of dollars to lay fiber in their respective Southern California service areas, though with de-regulation, the old phone boundaries are crumbling.While critics say that there have been promises and failed attempts in the past to bring video distribution via such projects names as Media Park, HollyNet and Studio of the Future, the telecoms are sure that theyíre got it right this time. The new networks that are being built are capable of high-speed video transmission ñ at 270 megabits per second ñ without the need to compress and decompress images in the process. At more than 6 times the speed of existing services, which requires compressing and decompressing, the telecoms believe they have the technology necessary to capture Hollywoodís business.PacBellís AVS-270 service, introduced last September, is priced based on the distance of the connection. The companyís 270-megabit network is equal to more than 3,000 individual voice circuits, which telephone sell for $10 each. The AVS-270 amounts to a fraction would traditionally is charged on a per circuit basis.GTE has announced its new service but pricing has not been set. GTE plans to begin selling its 270-megabit network services in the next two months.