Pacific Telesis Group Inc’s Pacific Bell unit filed four Video Dialtone applications with the Federal Communications Commission as part of its plan to create a communications superhighway: the plan will enable multiple video operators to serve a single market; the company’s filings cover about 1.3m homes in the San Francisco Bay area, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego; the planned network will provide movies and television shows on demand, tele-education, home shopping and video games, as well as traditional telephone, data, cable and enhanced communications services; if approved – and the plan is at present an illegal activity for a Baby Bell – the video part of the network would initially provide 70 analogue channels, and up to about 150 to 300 digital channels – moving to all-digital as material is converted – which could be leased by a number of video competitors.
