ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 5, 1997 TAG: 9701070013
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: ECONOMIC FORECAST
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
The communications revolution is riding the crest of a technological tsunami that shows no sign of ebbing this year.
In virtually every communications medium from printing presses to the Internet, technology and changing government regulations are affecting the ways we send and receive information.
Among the places those changes may be most noticeable will be in cable TV and telephone companies, as well as television stations.
Though the changes may be coming a little more slowly than some had expected, both cable communications providers and local telephone companies are beginning to make inroads into each other's businesses.
Just a few years ago, Botetourt County's Roanoke & Botetourt Telephone Co. was just one of many small-franchise telephone operations in the country.
Founded in 1901, the company has focused exclusively on providing telephone service to customers in Botetourt County for most of its existence. In recent years, it added a division called The Beeper Co. to offer pager service as well.
Today, the company is known as R&B Communications and has diversified into several specialty branches in addition to the familiar telephone services and beepers. They include wireless cable-television programming, Internet access, partnership in a 525-mile-long regional long-distance network, and local networks for voice and data transmission.
The latter is a cooperative venture with Cox Communications Inc. of Roanoke called Valley FiberTel. The two companies will use their joint resources to create high-speed commercial data transmission services that they contend are virtually uninterruptable.
All of those elements are part of a long-term "strategy of diversifying into related fields," said Robert F. Nay, vice president for marketing for R&B Communications, the holding company for all the enterprises.
"That is really what I foresee for everyone (in related fields) in the future - major diversification," said Sharron Davies, director of community relations for Cox Communications of Roanoke, which provides cable television for much of the Roanoke Valley.
Though her company and R&B are competitors in the field of cable-television services, both are facing opportunities for diversification - such as Valley FiberTel - as pragmatists.
Cox likewise is moving into several other areas. It is providing satellite television programs through Primestar and will supply alternative access to long-distance telephone carriers for business customers.
Nationally, Cox has plans to provide residential telephone and Internet access services, though there are no immediate plans for doing so in the Roanoke Valley, Davies said.
Regulatory and technological changes also are changing the local broadcasting world - on which distribution services such as Cox and R&B rely for at least part of their revenue.
The prospect of digitally transmitted signals - which promise higher quality picture and sound - is on the horizon. But, Bob Lee, general manager of WDBJ-TV (Channel 7), points out that will take years to fully realize because consumers will have to buy new sets to receive the digital signals.
Randy Smith, general manager WSLS-TV (Channel 10), figures the "big wave" of technological change for his business is still a few years off.
Besides, he says, while "all the new technology is fascinating and gets the headlines,... what we have to remember is a real simple thing - that what's important is what we are transmitting, not how we are transmitting it. ...What people want to see is quality entertainment, news and information."
LENGTH: Medium: 68 linesby CNB