Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 3, 1995 TAG: 9505030025
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Infinet, a Roanoke entrance ramp to the information superhighway, has been open for a little more than a year and has been getting so much traffic that new lanes have been added to help eliminate congestion - which can translate into a busy signal when a computer user tries to sign on.
Last week, Infinet added 32 new high-speed communications lines to the 16 it already was providing to subscribers in the Roanoke Valley. The new lines can handle communications from faster computer modems - 28,800 bits (of data) per second, compared with the older lines, whose top speed was 14,400 bps.
Infinet also has increased the speed of its information link between Roanoke and its Norfolk headquarters almost tenfold, from 56,000 bps to 512,000 bps. The upgrade is similar to increasing the size of a water pipe, but in this case it's information that flows faster.
Infinet began signing up its first customers in the Roanoke Valley in the spring of 1994 and has had its growing pains. There were the busy signals, and some early versions of the software used to connect to the service would not work and customers had to call for replacements.
The company provides full access to the Internet and such services as electronic mail, electronic bulletin boards and a wide variety of information sources from around the globe in both text and graphic formats.
Landmark Communications Inc. of Norfolk is the majority owner of Infinet. Landmark also owns the Roanoke Times & World-News, which began providing computerized news and other information services electronically to Infinet users last year.
Twice each night, a selection of stories that will appear in the next day's paper is posted on the Roanoke Times & World-News' "home page" on the World Wide Web.
The newspaper plans to continue to improve its presence on the Internet with more bulletin boards, photos and graphics, said Managing Editor William K. Warren. This summer, past issues of the newspaper, back to 1990, will be made available to Infinet users and those of the Blacksburg Electronic Village. The Electronic Village library will be managed by Virginia Tech.
Karen Skeens, the newspaper's circulation marketing manager, supervises sales and marketing of Infinet in Roanoke. The service has nearly 500 subscribers and is shooting for 1,100 by year end, she said.
As an indication of the potential size of the Roanoke Valley market for the service, Skeens said, a poll of valley residents indicates that 25 percent, or 22,850 households, have computers, and 18 percent of those, or 4,113, have computers equipped with modems.
Infinet has hired independent business consultants Don Terp and Carole Terp of Roanoke to demonstrate Infinet to groups and organizations. The husband-wife team will show the features of the service to any group of 10 or more people, in sessions lasting from 20 minutes to three or four hours.
"They don't have to be an organization; they can be 10 neighbors," Don Terp said.
Infinet also has been introducing itself to Roanoke Valley residents through Internet classes, sponsored by the company, at Virginia Western Community College and at computer stores and computer shows. Infinet will have a booth at a computer show at the Salem Civic Center on May 6, said Trista Saunders, a newspaper employee who has been working with potential business customers.
Saunders has talked with valley real estate companies about establishing a presence on the Internet through Infinet. The idea is to create a real estate page, similar to one already in use on Infinet in Norfolk, that home buyers can use to sort through real estate listings for homes with the features they want at the prices they want to pay.
Owens & Co. Realtors was the first in the Roanoke area to sign on; their listings should be on line within a few weeks, she said.
Infinet has nine media partners signed up in Virginia; Maryland; Washington, D.C.; Tennessee; North Carolina; and Nevada. Infinet Vice President Gordon Borrell said the company plans to add several more in North Carolina and Virginia later this month. Infinet also has formed an alliance with CBS to bring its more than 200 affiliate television stations onto the Internet.
Unlike customers of the big commercial online services such as Prodigy, America Online and CompuServe, Infinet subscribers don't have to go into the service's closed system before entering the internet, Borrell said.
"It's lot like the difference between shopping at a brand-name department store and going to a flea market," he said. "The flea market can be more of an adventure.''
The other major difference between Infinet and the big online services is the price, Borrell said. The price for Internet access through Infinet is 50 cents per hour. Other services charge between $1 and $3 an hour, Borrell said.
by CNB