Continental Cablevision Introduces "Highway1"; High-Speed Internet Access Premiers in Boston Suburbs and Jacksonville, FL; Other Service Areas Will Follow Later This Year.

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--September 23, 1996 -- A new era is dawning in speed and ease of access to the Internet for residents of areas served by Continental Cablevision, Inc., the nation's third largest cable television company.

Maintaining its long tradition of leadership in technology and new services, Continental today begins offering "Highway1" -- high-speed Internet access through "cable modems" and cable TV lines -- as a commercial product available to homes in the Boston-area communities of Needham, Wellesley, and -- in the coming weeks -- Newton, as well as in the Jacksonville, FL, metro area. In both New England and Jacksonville, Highway1 is the first high-speed Internet access service to be offered by any company and in these markets represents the fastest, most affordable access for residential customers.

The Highway1 Web site can be found at http://www.highway1.com.

"Beginning today, we're in the business of high-speed Internet access," said William T. Schleyer, Continental's President and Chief Operating Officer.

"The technology has proven itself in laboratory and field trials. It's ready for commercial deployment, and today we bring it to market," Schleyer said.

High-speed access to the Internet is in great demand among consumers who regularly access sites on the Internet and World Wide Web. The speed of access made possible by Continental's hybrid fiber optic-coaxial cable (HFC) network greatly reduces the time it takes to "download" data, makes interactive communications far easier and more enjoyable, and dramatically improves productivity in use of the Internet, World Wide Web, and general data applications.

Today's premier of Highway1 is the precursor to a wide-scale product offering in Continental's service areas around the country, with high-speed Internet access being phased in nationally during the next 12 months. Within the coming year, Highway1 will also be introduced in some Continental service areas in the company's Midwest, Central, and Western Regions, as well as in additional Continental service areas in the Northeast and Southeast.

For example, portions of Continental's Metropolitan Detroit system -- currently conducting technical trials of the Highway1 service -- plan commercial introduction in November. The service will be offered to the 1,400 customers who have expressed interest in the product and are currently on a local waiting list.

In Continental service areas around the country, local product announcements and pricing details will be made available as the service is introduced.

Highway1 in Greater Boston 

Commercial introduction of Highway1 two-way high-speed Internet access in New England follows a six-month market and technical trial of Continental's residential high-speed Internet access service in about 220 homes in the suburbs west of Boston. The trial showed that Continental's broadband interactive network, comprising a mix of fiber optic and traditional coaxial cable, can efficiently accommodate the high-speed transmission of Internet and on-line data. Transmission speeds over Continental's broadband network are more than a hundred times faster than over standard telephone lines with telephone modems.

Continental also used the trial -- a partnership with BBN Planet -- to examine user needs, sharpen customer care and installation procedures, and anticipate marketing requirements for the new business. At the conclusion of the trial, a great majority of the trial participants opted to become paying customers for Highway1, a strong endorsement of the product's value.

Initial marketing efforts for Highway1 in greater Boston are focusing on Needham and Wellesley, and will soon commence in Newton. Continental has begun accepting orders from nearly 2,000 potential customers who have called the the company's offices to request information. As of this date, and prior to any substantial marketing efforts, more than 200 residential customers are subscribing to Highway1.

By the end of the year, Continental's network in New England will be capable of delivering the service to about 225,000 homes. Delivery capability in New England will extend to about 500,000 homes by the end of 1997. Because of Continental's desire to provide the highest quality service, the marketing of Highway1 will be phased in over all of those homes in a gradual manner, to guarantee customer satisfaction and technical excellence.

The service in greater Boston will be delivered to customers via the two-way high-speed LANcity Personal Modem. Earlier this year, Continental signed an agreement to purchase up to 50,000 of the LANcity modems over several years, from LANcity Corp.

In initial deployment areas around Boston, unlimited Internet access time through Highway1 will be available to subscribers of Continental's standard cable service for $49.95 per month, with a one-time installation charge of $99.00. The rate for unlimited Internet access for non-cable subscribers is $59.95 per month.

Highway1 in Metro Jacksonville

In the Jacksonville, FL, area, Highway1 service will be installed to up to 2,000 "charter customers" through the fall. Originally, the service will be marketed in Jacksonville, Argyle Forest, Baldwin, the Beach communities, Cecil Field, Ponte Vedra, Orange Park, and Mayport.

The potential market for Highway1 in metro Jacksonville surpasses 400,000 homes. As in the Boston area, direct marketing of Highway1 will occur gradually to maintain a high level of product and service quality.

The Jacksonville introduction of Highway1 will further serve to extend Continental's knowledge of, and expertise in, high-speed Internet access. Earlier this year, Continental signed an agreement to purchase 10,000 SURFboard cable modems from General Instrument Corporation. These modems utilize a mix of cable television and telephone technology, transmitting data over the existing telephone network and receiving it at high-speed rates via Continental's cable network.

The SURFboard modems, therefore, can provide high-speed Internet access via portions of the cable network that haven't yet been fully upgraded, allowing Continental to meet the high demand for Highway1 as it continues to upgrade its cable infrastructure. As neighborhoods receive upgrades, customers willhave the choice of keeping their SURFboard modem access or upgrading to two-way high speed Internet access.

Another Continental innovation in the Jacksonville market will be the availability of three distinct levels of Highway1 Internet access service. At the first level, via standard telephone modems, customers currently are able to subscribe to Continental's low-cost Basic Internet Dial Up service, which will continue to offer value through high reliability and high throughput. At the second level, customers can subscribe via the one-way "cable forward" high-speed SURFboard modems. At the third level, Continental later this year will introduce two-way "cable return" high-speed Internet access service as the upgrade of its cable network continues.

In Jacksonville, Highway1 unlimited high-speed access to the Internet via SURFboard cable modems will be available to Continental cable customers at a rate of $34.95 per month, with installation available for a one-time fee of $99.95. The rate for unlimited Internet access for non-cable customers will be $44.95 per month. Basic Internet Dial-Up Service will continue to be offered for $17.95 per month.

In addition to the Highway1 residential service, Continental's Southeast Region will offer a full palette of Internet business applications, such as Web site hosting and Intranet services, which will be available from Continental Internet Services later this year.

Highway1 in Metro Detroit 

In August of this year, Continental's Midwest Region began field trials in the suburban Detroit communities of Plymouth, Canton, and Northville. Since the start of the tests, the waiting list of interested customers has grown to over 1,400. Continental provides cable service to more than 32,000 customers in this service area.

Continental's network in Plymouth, Canton and Northville was recently upgraded to accommodate two-way high-speed Internet access. In this area, Continental is using LANcity modems, and Internet access is provided by both BBN Planet and Merit Network, Inc. This dual approach provides network redundancy and capacity for future growth. Highway1 will be rolled out to additional customers in metro Detroit in 1996 and throughout the Midwest Region during 1997.

Vendors

A variety of blue-ribbon vendors are contributing to the rollout of Highway1. They include:

o BBN Planet, a partner in the Boston-area market and technical trial of high-speed Internet access service, which is providing Internet engineering, operational support, and backbone technology expertise.

o Netscape Communications Corp., which has licensed its market leading Web browser, Navigator 3.0, to Continental. Continental has customized the browser, and Highway1 customers will always have access to the latest release of the Navigator product. Netscape will also be providing advanced distributed caching solutions for broadband networks and related ISP application servers.

o LANcity Corp., manufacturer of the LANcity Personal Modem, which is the charter supplier of the two-way high-speed cable modems through which Highway1 customers will access the Internet on their computers.

o General Instrument Corporation, the supplier of SURFboard high-speed cable modems for Continental's Southeast Region to provide cable-forward high speed access to the Internet.

o Sun Microsystems, Inc., which will be providing advanced scaleable server solutions for Continental's ISP rollout including e-mail, news, Web, streaming media, caching, and management systems. Continental will be using Sun's new Netra servers and emerging Java software solutions in the initial rollout nationwide.

o Cisco Systems, which is providing advanced inter-networking technologies including broadband routers, ATM switches, and Cisco IOS software solutions. Continental and Cisco are also collaborating on integrated services solutions for broadband HFC Internet delivery and access.

o Microsystems, Inc., which has granted Continental a license to resell Cyber Patrol, content blocking software for parental control which includes an exclusive feature preventing children from divulging personal information on-line.

o SURFWatch SoftWare, Inc., a product group of Spyglass, Inc., which has granted Continental a license to resell SURFWatch, its cutting-edge content filtering software for parental control. Both SURFWatch and Cyber Patrol will be available for easy downloading by Highway1 customers.

o Andersen Consulting, which is providing program management and integration services to the Highway1 deployment effort. In planning and implementing the Highway1 service, Andersen Consulting's program and project management services are an effective complement to Continental's technical and operational strengths.

Content

The superior transmission speed and ease of access through Highway1 will enhance for the user the experience of accessing information-rich World Wide Web and Internet sites. To avoid occasional but much-publicized bottlenecks on the Internet's "backbone," Continental will work collaboratively with content providers to cache -- continually catalog and store on a server for quicker retrieval -- the most popular sites of Highway1 users. Continental will also point users to sites with particular appeal to them.

In addition, Continental is aggressively pursuing relationships with content providers and will announce agreements as they are concluded. In seeking exciting new applications, Continental's goal is to foster development of vibrant and locally-based content that takes advantage of the rapid speed of access provided by Highway1.

Leadership in High-Speed Internet Access

The premier of Highway1 represents the latest progression in Continental's leadership in deploying new technology and media services. It is the company's first commercial deployment of high-speed Internet access for residential customers; however, Continental was the first company to provide two-way high-speed Internet access on a wide-scale basis. At Boston College, students, faculty and staff members have been enjoying high-speed Internet access and a wide variety of other telecommunication services for more than a year through Continental's deployment and operation of a campus-wide broadband interactive network, as part of BC's "Project Agora."

Also in the educational arena, Continental has pledged to provide free high-speed Internet access service to all of the public schools in its communities as the service is rolled out to each service area. In July, Continental began high-speed Internet access service to its first pilot school -- in Needham, MA -- and other school sites have been or will soon be activated, in Jacksonville, the Detroit suburbs, parts of northern and southern California, and other Boston-area communities.

In addition, Continental has been operating a tele-medicine network based on high-speed data transmission with cable modems for more than six months in and around Exeter Hospital in Exeter, NH. Most recently, Continental joined the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars in unveiling the Jaguars' new Web site (http://www.jaguarsnfl.com), which Continental helped design and is hosting on its Jacksonville-area network.

Continental Cablevision, Inc., serves more than 4.2 million subscribers in 20 states. Continental is also part owner of companies providing cable television service in Argentina and Singapore, and broadband telecommunication services in Australia.

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Please visit our Highway1 Web site at http://www.highway1.com and our Corporate Web site at http://www.continental.com

CONTACT: Rob Stoddard,

Director of Corporate Communications 

[phone]