Local Firm Teams Up With Global Crossing on DSL.

WITH help from Global Crossing Ltd., an L.A.-based digital broadband services provider is poised to grow.

NXTV Inc. wires hotels and new residential communities with high-speed fiber-optic and DSL networks. The company just closed a $15.5 million venture deal, with Global Crossing leading the funding.

"We wanted more of a strategic partner relationship, someone who could provide partnership and help us execute our business plan," said James Miles, president and chief executive at NXTV.

NXTV will hire additional engineers, increase its marketing and sales staff, and continue its push into the hospitality and residential marketplace. Global Crossing will also share some of its fiber-optic hardware with NXTV, Miles said.

NXTV is currently wiring upscale hotel properties -- including the Peninsula and Hotel Bel Air -- with fiber-optic and DSL lines. That will allow visitors high-speed Internet access through TVs, in addition to other features.

Most pay-per-view movie services at hotels are archaic systems in which hotels keep a rack of VCRs in a central location, then pipe the signal to the customer's room when a movie is ordered. Viewers who order movies can only watch at designated times, and can't pause, fast forward, or rewind the films. NXTV will essentially provide a virtual VCR, so viewers can do all those things -- or stop watching a movie midway through, come back later and resume watching. No one else offers such technology, NXTV executives said.

"There's no cost to the hotels. We own and operate the technology," explained Richard Jenkins, NXTV's head of marketing. "The hotel provides the real estate and the guests, and keeps a small amount of the revenue."

In addition to the Peninsula and Bel Air, NXTV officials are preparing to sign deals with three other local hotels over the next month.

"We'll have five upscale showcase properties in our own backyard before we start looking nationally," Jenkins said. "Obviously, that's a significant achievement with the prestige of these properties."

NXTV has also penned deals with residential developers who are wiring planned communities with high-speed connections. Those installations are expected to begin in early 2001.