AT&T Co says it has begun informing itself on what people will want from interactive television after conducting an extensive trial among employees in Illinois: the trial showed that people want entertainment, communications and the ability to transact We went into this looking for the killer application – was it going to be news home shopping, education, entertainment, the company told the New York Society of Security Analysts – We found there are not killer applications, but killer attributes; the trial group of several hundred families used interactive TV for a variety of applications, but insisted it should be entertaining, they wanted to use it as a communication device like a telephone or electronic mail, and wanted to carry out transactions, whether with a bank or a two-way game with a caller far away; it will now move into a commercial trial among 1,000 to 4,000 paying customers in Castro Valley, California, which the company is conducting with Viacom Inc.
