THE INTERNET ON TV
By Adnews Staff
Manitoba Telephone System will begin testing a set-top device next month that connects a television to the Internet via a telephone line. Called the InBox, the unit will be tested in 100 homes for four months. If all goes well MTS will roll the service out across the province in October, backing it with print, radio and billboard advertising, and possibly TV. Currently MTS has three agencies shortlisted in a review. A choice will be made by the end of the summer, phone company president Bruce MacCormack told Adnews yesterday. Users will be able to call up sites on the Internet, read electronic mail and view the MTS Internet Yellow Pages directories. However, they will not be able to download or print material, and if they want to send email they will have to buy a computer keyboard. The InBox is the size of a VCR and plugs into the back of a TV set. It has a cord that plugs into an ordinary phone jack. It contains a computer microprocessor, modem and the Netscape Navigator Web browser from Netscape Communications Corp. in the U.S. The device is operated by a device that resembles an ordinary TV channel changer. InBox is made by ViewCall America in Norcross, Georgia. It uses the same processor made by Britain's Acorn Computer Group that two U.S. companies, Oracle Corp. and Apple Computer, are planning to using in low-cost network "appliances" that allow people to surf the net but do not offer the full capabilities of a personal computer. Oracle, Apple, Netscape and another U.S. company, Sun Microsystems, have said they will support such a device by working to provide a common set of guidelines for hardware. Cirrus Logic in California has said it will develop a microprocessor for these network computers.