Telstra Signs Up 13 Web Partners
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday January 13, 1998
While staying absolutely mum on the number of cable modems sold in the past seven months, Telstra has announced partnerships with 13 Web developers to create rich content specifically for cable users.
The 13 were selected out of 120 applicants for their strong corporate connections.
Despite the fact that Telstra always quotes the potential market for cable modems in terms of "homes", the focus for this initial round of content development is totally corporate.
"We wanted the corporates involved as they won't spend time and money developing things that won't make money," said Telstra's Cable Services general manager, Ms Judy Slatyer.
As a result most of the Sydney-based Web developers - HotHouse Interactive, Mainstreet, MultiNet Interactive, New Toys, Radiant Productions, Rhythm Media and Tech Talk - are talking in terms of Intranet and ExtraNet applications; of re-engineering business solutions to take advantage of the high bandwidth; and of replacing distribution of data, video, audio files and software via CD-ROM or video tape, with the ability to download directly over cable.
Telstra is particularly keen to have at least five or six broadband applications up in time for the Federal Government's E-Commerce Summit, to be held in April.
None of the seven was able to name the corporate clients it would be developing applications for. Most had only just signed the 12-month contract with Telstra and said they were still at negotiation stage with clients.
One of the most advanced, New Toys, said it was developing an online employment application for a government agency that would allow prospective employers to search online for people with specific skills and download a video of the person being interviewed.
Another application for a real estate company would allow digital video to be available on demand from all regional office board rooms, replacing an expensive library of videotapes.
The cost of cable modems ($500) is not an issue for corporates.
"It's peanuts," said Mr Ray Jones, New Toys' technical director.
He said corporations could recoup that in days, due to the lower cost of video and data distribution via cable.
On current pricing, subscribers - whether corporate or consumer - pay $500 for the modem, $65 a month for up to 100Mb of downloaded data and 35c per additional Mbyte.
To date, 2.5 million properties in Sydney and Melbourne have access to pay TV on Telstra cable, but only 1.3 million have access to the additional server and router hardware needed to access cable Internet services. Ms Slatyer said the extra hardware to reach the full 2.5 million would be available "very soon".
Optus has been trialling cable Internet service with more than 150 homes and schools in Melbourne and Sydney, but could not say when it would migrate the trial to a full commercial service.
© 1998 Sydney Morning Herald