New Cable TV Internet Access Announced A consortium of major players is putting together an alternative to Microsoft's Web-TV plans. Worldgate Communications backers include several cable operators and ad agencies, Motorola, Citicorp, Scientific- Atlanta, Nextlevel Systems (General Instrument) and maybe @Home. Their target is the 65% of US households with cable TV (only 40% have PCs, and less than half of them do online). The basic idea is to provide Web access over TV using the vertical blanking interval, with no computing at the customer's site; they would need only a special remote control, and a modified cable converter box (and yes, a TV); a wireless keyboard is optional. The price would be about $12/month and provide about 192 kilobits per second bandwidth. By contrast, Microsoft's plan is said to require a specialized $200 set-top device, cost $20 a month, and be more complex to operate. Worldgate's CEO Hal Krisbergh suggests the idea of doing the computing back at the cable company simplifies the deployment, though he acknowledges it will provide the service provider with a lot of data on browsing habits of individual households and raise major privacy questions. web conference Main Menu