All attending this session had no doubt wondered about cable internet connecti on, and Garth Milhalcheon was very effective in providing answers to those queries.
Garth introduced this session by providing background on the perspective his company approaches their foray into internet connectivity with. That is, that he believes Videotron is community based, and is understanding that "Joe Average" may not be extremely computer literate. Further, the speaker explained that Videotron's mandate to provide 5% community access content should apply to digital services as well. Developing Edmonton as a center for multimedia excell ence is a concern Videotron has taken up, in cooperation with a number of other Edmo nton media companies.
The hybrid fiber- optic- Coax architecture which is felt to be the future stand ard for both cable and telephone companies was discussed. Space restrictions permit a detailed description though I am sure Garth (garth@videotron.ab.ca) or Videotro n (http://www.videotron.ab.ca) would be willing sources. Basically, by combining fiber-optics with the co-axial cables which already run to most people's doors, a very contemporary network is already in existance, providing high-bandwidth at low cost. Its implementation as choice for digital Internet connection will begin as of Fall 1996.
The cable industry's strategy for breaking into the Internet connection busines s has included the creation of a consortium of cable services called Vision.Com. One concern is improving network interconnection.
Garth suggested a few of the benefits of cable internet services for community networks are: that it offers affordable, high speed access. (Affordable was suggested to mean eventually 10- 20 times cheaper than telephone companies), that it would offer advanced telecommunications and multimedia services such as telephony, and finally, give more consumer choice and less telco dominance.