BellSouth Corp’s unregulated Advanced Network unit is trying out a viewdata service in Atlanta with an initial 300 participants in the trial: all that is needed to access the system – via the company’s TranstexT Universal Gateway – is a personal computer and a modem, and an initial nine information providers have signed to provide data on travel, share prices, health and public events; BellSouth estimates that the service will cost 60 cents an hour transmission charges plus $3 an hour peak, $1.50 an hour off-peak, plus whatever the information provider charges for access to the particular database – during the trial the phone company won’t be taking any money off the information providers; the Bells all hope that the restriction on their originating information will be lifted with regard to electronic Yellow Pages, a service they see as the one that would enable viewdata finally to get established in the US.
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