Telstra Moves To Stock Big Pond
The Age
Tuesday January 27, 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 from 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 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, Judy Slatyer.
"It's important not to get carried away with the gloss and hype. We didn't want to be in the business of working on applications that weren't going to go anywhere."
The Melbourne developers selected for the project are: WSA Communications, IG Synergy, Creative Access, Clemenger Interactive, SAI Media (formerly ShowAds Interactive) and AAV Business Communications. They are focusing mainly on business applications, with consumer uses for cable seen as not yet economic or practical.
Video producer AAV Business Communications, for instance, is working up proposals to show existing clients, using the new medium. AAV sees cable data delivery as one more tool among its delivery options, says multimedia producer Ian Buchanan.
"The cable modem thing is something we wouldn't want to not be involved in," he said. "It's certainly an interesting option to be able to offer our clients."SAI is looking at projects, in particular for its media clients who are keen to find better ways of delivering content to audiences.
Telstra wants 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. WSA Communications say they will have a finance application up and running by then, with further corporate and educational applications to follow.
Developers and programmers, IG Synergy are working on an expanded version of a modelling industry website called Models on the Net, adding video and other new functions, according to IG Synergy managing director Ian Goddard.
IG Synergy is working on three other projects in partnership with corporate clients, he said, as the initial projects needed to be for an established market. "It's quite valueless to build this and hope it'll work. You really (have to) have a very tight business planning process."
Most of the Sydney developers - HotHouse Interactive, Mainstreet, MultiNet Interactive, New Toys, Radiant Productions, Rhythm Media and Tech Talk - are talking in terms of Intranet and ExtraNet applications, re-engineering business solutions to take advantage of the high bandwidth, and replacing distribution of data, video, audio files and software via CD-ROM or video tape, with the ability to download directly over cable.
Goddard said that broadband applications were the way of the future: "Some people in the industry . . . are referring to the (existing) Internet as the old technology."
On current pricing, subscribers, whether corporate or consumer, pay $500 for the modem, $65 per month for up to 100Mb of downloaded data and 35 cents per additional megabyte.
While this is achievable for the corporate market, SAI's McManus believes the consumer market will eventually adopt it. "Convenience outweighs cost," she said, citing the rise of mobile phone culture.
Martin Lindstrom, managing director of Clemenger Interactive, compared the cable Internet to "business class" that anyone could get on to if they could afford it.
Clemenger Interactive will be concentrating on person-to-person communication applications for retailers and the medical industry. Cable modems could be the technology that would finally launch video-conferencing as a common application, he said.
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.
The extra hardware to reach the full 2.5 million would be available "very soon," said Slatyer.
Optus has been testing cable Internet service in more than 150 homes and schools in Melbourne and Sydney, but could not say when it would provide a full commercial service.
© 1998 The Age