John Bentley, 1970s so-called asset stripper, who earned his first million in the early 1980s with his vision of the video rental market looks set to cause a stir once again, this time by supplying Internet access to the technologically challenged (CI No 2,817). It is by no means a one man race. Two years ago cable, telephone and computer companies formed a dizzying array of alliances that promised to use cable to bring video home shopping and video-on-demand to couch potatoes the world over. Trials were announced, delayed and given up, only ever managing to attain a few thousand subscribers. Until massive computing power and bandwidth becomes available at an affordable price, it remains a highly expensive option. The World Wide Web on the other hand already has an estimated user base of 18m people. Whoever manages to get its hand on the market could theoretically clean up. Time Warner Inc is currently running trials in Elmira, New York, offering internet access via modems to 200 subscribers of America Online Inc. But John Bentley has provided a new twist to the game at a cost said to be as low as a dollar a week, courtesy of his latest venture, London-based ViewCall Europe Plc. Bentley freely admits he stumbled across a way to provide Internet access without the $500 Internet access device or even a computer.
Broadcastable quality
The company intended to build a simple television set-top box to provide local on-line information of the news, views and reviews type along with its home shopping service. As an added bonus the company found it could also access the Internet, producing broadcastable quality still pictures down a standard telephone phone line, so it delayed production until Internet capabilities were incorporated into the design. The set-top box uses Advanced RISC Machines Ltd’s ARM RISC and Acorn Computer Group Plc’s RISC/os operating system and excitement about the potential of Viewcall’s device has helped Acorn’s share price to rise to 241 pence. Tentative trials are now beginning in Glasgow, Scotland, with 1,000 consumers. There is a remote control keyboard available, but for browsing, Viewcall has designed a Teletext style infra-red remote control unit. Anyone who has mastered the complexities of a television remote controle will need no additional training to use the set-top box. Customers will access Viewcall’s server, and it is hoped that the server in each region will be owned by a local newspaper. The Scottish pilot scheme has the backing of two local papers, The Glasgow Herald and The Evening Times, both of which are owned by Scotland-based Caledonian Publishing Ltd. The first company to install Asynchronous Transfer Mode technology in 1994 from Rochester, New Hampshire-based Cabletron Systems Inc, Caledonian Publishing uses Cabletron MMAC hubs to provide the uplinks directly from switched Ethernet in a central Fore Systems Inc backbone switch. Alongside the local papers the pilot scheme already has the Great Universal Stores Plc shopping empire and Safeways Plc supermarket chain on board, with plans to sign up a major high street bank to facilitate home banking and an entertainment company. The set-top-box will be leased to customers at a cost estimated to start at around $250 but when more advertisers sign up Bentley wants them to bear the brunt of the costs, leaving customers with a minimal charge, which could be as low as a dollar per week.
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