The Virginian-Pilot 
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, September 21, 1996          TAG: 9609210235
SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   44 lines

NORFOLK FIRM JOINS FRAY FOR LOW-COST ONLINE ACCESS ITRIBE INC. FOLLOWS THE PRICING TREND FOR INTERNET SERVICE IN HAMPTON ROADS.

After more than a year of dabbling in the Internet-access business, Norfolk-based iTRiBE Inc. joined the battle head-on this week.

The company, owned by a half-dozen local computer whizzes, said it will offer unlimited access to the Internet for as little as $12.95 a month.

It's not uncharted price territory. Erol's, an access provider based in the Washington area, is pitching Internet connections in Hampton Roads for as little as $12 monthly. Other local providers generally price their services between $15 and $20 a month.

But iTRiBE's offer follows a pricing trend in the fast-growing industry, where a couple dozen companies now compete for Hampton Roads subscribers. Two years ago, access to the global computer network ran as much as twice the current prices.

Keith Basil, an iTRiBE vice president and one of the founders of the 18-employee company, said the headlong move into the access business is part of a strategy to develop multiple sources of revenue. iTRiBE, which has its offices in the World Trade Center, also helps businesses design pages for the World Wide Web. And it has developed an Internet shopping mall and an on-line auto-dealer network.

Early last year through a service called Network Hampton Roads, iTRiBE launched a modest access effort, offering it through Newport News-based VisiNet, another access provider.

But Peter Cousin, iTRiBE's marketing director, said the service didn't work out as well as expected. So iTRiBE took its access service, which had about 300 subscribers, in-house.

That effort led to a service announced this week. Called Series 2000, the service offers an extra feature that will forward electronic mail messages to subscribers' alphanumeric pagers for $2.50 a month.

Cousin said users can set up the feature so only messages from people they wish to hear from are sent to their pagers.

CompuServe, the big on-line service, helped pioneer such a service earlier this year. Cousin declined to discuss the technical aspects of iTRiBE's message-forwarding service, but said the company developed the feature on its own.

KEYWORDS: INTERNET ACCESS by CNB