Access News Items

Sprint rolls out prepaid Internet service, AT&T opens first GSM/GPRS wireless data services, RCN installs first Video on Demand customers, and iBiz sells a data center.

by ISP-Planet Staff [December 14, 2001]

Cahners In-Stat Group expects the prepaid Internet services market to grow from $10 million in 2001 to $280 million in 2005, according to a study released in November.

Sprint is rolling out Sprint Prepaid Internet services (disk shown at left) through "up to 5,200 participating 7-Eleven stores" across the United States, as well as Sprint PCS stores, Follett bookstores, and other retail outlets.

Pricing is:

• 480 local minutes (8 hours) for $9.99
• 1200 local minutes (20 hours) for $19.99
• 2000 local minutes (33+ hours) for $29.99

The product comes with a dialer, Web interface, and e-mail service.

RCN Video on Demand
RCN Corporation announced the launch of Video-on-Demand (VOD) service in its Philadelphia market. Customers in the three Philadelphia suburbs of Sharon Hill, Norwood, and Ridley Park can now receive RCN's VOD service.

VOD is a step beyond Pay-Per-View (PPV) in that it allows customers to decide when they want to watch a particular film. It also offers a broader movie selection than PPV, including some of the newest releases. It also allows viewers to pause, fast forward, and rewind a movie at any point. Once a movie is purchased, it can be viewed multiple times within the 24-hour rental period.

AT&T 2.5G data service
AT&T Wireless announced that it has deployed wireless service in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Kansas City that is capable of 53.6 kbps speeds, using such devices as the Novatel Merlin G100 Wireless PC Card Modem (pictured at right). The service uses AT&T Wireless' GSM/GPRS network.

Pricing packages include $49.99 a month for 400 voice minutes and one megabyte (MB) allocation of data. Incremental data use above the allocation is billed at less than one cent per kilobyte (KB). Data-only plans start at $29.99 for five MBs.

Data center sold
iBiz announced it has entered into a Letter of Intent to sell its data center/colocation services business in Phoenix to Arizona Internet, L.L.C. (dba Cyber Trails). Included in the deal is the Qhost.com trademark, Qhost domain names, and customer lists.

Ted Taylor, Arizona Internet's/Cyber Trails president and CEO, said, "The iBIZ data center is certainly a first-class facility, offering a variety of co-location solutions, including suites, full, 1/2, 1/3 rack configurations, with scalable bandwidth, full redundancy, bio-metric security, and a staff of highly trained and experienced technicians."

— End