"Internet-In-A-Box" - The Future of Consumer Networking; Pacific Bell Internet Chief Predicts Cheap Browser Box Will Revolutionize On-Line Access.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 1996--Just as Franklin Delano Roosevelt's promise of "a chicken in every pot" brought hope to a depression-weary America in the 1940s, Pacific Bell Internet Services President Rick Hronicek's prediction of a browser box in every home offers hope for technophobic Americans who dream of riding the Information Superhighway.

"We think that the next evolutionary leap on the Internet - one that rightly can be called a revolution, like those that brought us the VCR and the microwave - will be the leap that finally breaks the nerd barrier, making Internet access as cheap and easy as using the telephone," said Hronicek, who heads Pacific Bell's year-old Internet service company, soon to become the nation's first regional Bell company to offer consumers and small business widespread dial up and high-speed Internet access. The company already offers a full range of dedicated Internet access services for medium and large businesses.

Internet Is Poised For Take Off

In a keynote speech today at the Spring Internet World '96 conference, Hronicek said the technology that will bring this revolution is the network browser box, a device about the size of a toaster currently being developed by several major computer and software companies. The device would allow consumers to connect easily to the Internet without a personal computer. "Sixty seven percent of the American public does not own a personal computer, and if Dataquest is to be believed, half of them never will," Hronicek said.

"That's where the browser box comes in," he told attendees from the computer, high-technology, Internet and communications industries gathered at the nation's largest Internet event. "It's an affordable $500-or-under browser box that sits on top of your desk and connects you directly and painlessly to the Internet. Turn it on and you're connected, as simple as that."

Hronicek called the browser box the key to mass market penetration for Internet services. "What if we gave it away for free," he said, "and with it, users could do it all: book and buy tickets on planes and trains, consult their bank accounts, order in food, sign up for child care, look up phone numbers, send faxes and telegrams, join chat rooms and so forth?"

As more and more people come on-line, Hronicek predicted that the Internet will reach a point of critical mass when use will explode.

Another huge chunk of the equation leading to mass Internet use, Hronicek said, is content. "In Web content," he said, "there is no `Killer App,' but a million different niches, some good, some bad, some just plain ugly."

The Internet's World Wide Web currently resembles bookstore retailing, where you have "huge facilities filled with a mixture of quality paperbacks and cheap schlock and expensive hardcovers and the check-out rack at the grocery store," he said.

He said it's no wonder only 16 percent of users indicate high satisfaction with finding desired information -- a situation the industry must rectify. "Those ISPs who hope to succeed in providing both swift, easy access and help in finding useful, meaningful content must, I think, excel at coordinating, hosting and organizing the chaos of the Web for their customers," Hronicek said.

In the leisure and entertainment area, he pointed to Web-pages that provide news, weather and traffic conditions and the Ticketmaster and BASS home pages where people can reserve tickets and Movielink, where consumers can find out in less than a minute whether their movie of choice is playing in their neighborhood.

The Structure Of On-line Activity

Hronicek also discussed the dramatic evolution of the Internet during the last six months, likening the disaggregation of the initial Internet universe of access, hosting and content to a geological shift in time.

The rise of the Web browser has broken the on-line service provider model, he said. All of the on-line service providers now offer Web access, as do the content providers who previously were bound by exclusive contracts with on-line services. In fact, a recent study by Forrester Research showed that 70 percent of content providers previously affiliated with on-line services have also migrated to the Net, and established their own independent Web site.

In the months to come, he said, Web activity will further shift from what he termed the "Mosaic Era" to the "Netosaic Era." He noted the foreseeable decline of on-line service providers and predicted, "You'll see all kinds of alliances between content providers and access providers, including Pacific Bell Internet."

Results from the latest FIND/SVP survey show that fully half of current users plan to switch Internet service providers in the next year -- and most will be going, from an on-line service like America Online, CompuServe and Prodigy to direct Internet access, Hronicek said.

"What they're looking for is clear," Hronicek said. "Number one, availability, and number two, speed."

It is those characteristics, coupled with ease of access and more content choice, that will determine the winners in the Internet access battle, Hronicek said. "Over the long term, only a dozen or fewer of the hundreds of current ISP's will survive," he predicted. "Speed and network performance are the real issues."

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Note to Editors: News and other product information about Pacific Bell Internet Services is available on the Internet via the World Wide Web using a software browser like Netscape Navigator. The site address (URL) is http://www.pacbell.net

CONTACT: Pacific Bell

Dave Miller, 916/972-2811

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