GTE Corp is set to test market a new fibre optic cable television system that some commentators predict will have critical implications for many sectors of home broadcasting. The Stamford, Connecticut company has chosen Cerritos, California to introduce a network that it claims heralds the most extensive use yet of optical fibre cable in domestic environments. Selected Cerritos inhabitants’ television sets will be connected to large banks of information via the optical-fibre system; GTE says that it wants to provide a system that enables subscribers to connect phones with video cameras and television sets to create picture phones, to set up video cameras that show pictures from all rooms in a house, let almost any film to be available from a remote library every 15 minutes, and allow signals to be sent from video cameras in one room to TV sets in another. GTE will have to overcome a number of barriers before the system’s full implemention, however, not least from rival cable TV operators, who have already complained to the Federal Communications Commission, and the FCC itself; one optimistic sign for the company is that the Commission is breaking its convention of barring telecommunicatons companies operating cable systems in areas where they already operate commercially, notes the Wall Street Journal – it will give a final decision next month. Use of optical fibre – rather than the standard co-axial cables used in cable TV systems – will enable the new system to handle a far larger number of audio and video signals; its system expands on those that operate here in the East End of London, where subscribers can have films switched to their homes, and Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada where a local company is trying a combination fibre and coaxial cable system. The City of Cerritos is also considering the use of an optical-fibre cable-TV system for the administration of a number of its recreational facilities – municipal baths and whatnot. Falling costs are thought to make such systems increasingly viable as business propositions, but the experience in the UK has proved disappointing so far, and the government’s 1982 dream of being able to let enough commercial cable television franchises to achieve the wiring of Britain now looks very unlikely to be achieved this century. The fact that the planned Cerritos system is merely a trial with a small number of homes makes it clear that even in the US, a move beyond the simple delivery of television by cable is still a long way off. In Japan, where the concept of – and the name – Integrated Services Digital Network was conceived by Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp, the company did so with a very clear vision and intention to embark on a 20-year programme to wire the nation with fibre cable and use it to transmit the full range of electronic services – including video – all the equipment being designed to ISDN standards.
