ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 24, 1996 TAG: 9612240064
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
InfiNet, a sister company of The Roanoke Times, has entered the already crowded Internet service provider market in the New River Valley, bringing the number of providers to more than a half-dozen.
Bill Warren, a consultant with InfiNet and a former managing editor of The Roanoke Times, said one reason InfiNet is coming into the New River Valley now is because of the technical and service difficulties experienced by NRVNet, one of the valley's first locally owned access providers. NRVNet recently became a subsidiary of Tennessee-based U.S. Internet.
But Warren and Andrew Cohill, director of the Blacksburg Electronic Village, said another "shakeout" could occur among the New River Valley's Internet service providers. The Internet-access market swelled in July when 1,700 nonuniversity related modem pool users were kicked off the Virginia Tech-affiliated electronic village.
Warren said InfiNet will try to find a niche by providing "the absolute best technical support." In its two years in business, he said, InfiNet has learned that "technical support is the one thing customers are looking for." InfiNet offers free, 24-hour, technical support through a toll-free telephone number.
InfiNet also offers easy access to dozens of newspapers across the country (including the New River Current and Roanoke Times) and their archives. Other easy-to-find information will be local real estate, business and job vacancy listings.
Cohill said "more people are getting on [the Internet] every single day, so there's plenty of business here." But he said Internet service providers need to be thinking ahead.
Technological advances mean still more providers may enter the market, some of whom may not require users to access the Internet through at-times slow and frustrating modems over telephone lines, he said. Cable television companies, for example, may offer their subscribers quick, easy and cheap access through their cable lines .
"People are going to drop modems like hot potatoes as soon as something more reliable becomes available," Cohill said. "The companies that are in this thing need to be taking a good, hard look at where they want to be two or three years."
InfiNet is owned equally by three newspaper companies: Landmark Communications Inc., the Norfolk-based parent company of The Roanoke Times; Miami-based Knight-Ridder Inc.; and Arlington-based Gannett Co. Inc. InfiNet already provides Internet access in Roanoke and in dozens of other cities throughout the country.
InfiNet offers 10 hours of access for $9.95 a month or unlimited access for $19.95 a month.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB