ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 24, 1996 TAG: 9602260022
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
Bell Atlantic Corp., the major provider of local telephone service in Virginia, will begin offering high-speed access to local Internet providers in Blacksburg, the Roanoke Valley and Wise County this summer, the company announced Friday.
The Southwest Virginia localities will be among the first in Bell Atlantic's six-state area to get the new service, Bell Atlantic-Virginia spokesman Paul Miller said. The service will be unveiled in another, as yet unidentified, urban area and immediately afterward offered here, he said.
Bell Atlantic will not initially be competing directly with local-access providers that already are operating in each of the three Southwest Virginia localities. They include InfiNet, a provider in the Roanoke Valley that is affiliated with The Roanoke Times; Citizens InterNET, NRVnet and the Blacksburg Electronic Village in Blacksburg; and CompuNet in Wise County.
Eventually, Bell Atlantic may offer Internet access on its own but for now will be working with existing Internet-access providers, company spokesman Larry Plumb said.
The Internet, a worldwide linkup of computer networks, involves long-distance communications. Bell Atlantic is forbidden by the new federal telecommunications law from offering long-distance services in its service area until it has competition for its local phone service.
Bell Atlantic announced the service at Clinch Valley College of the University of Virginia in Wise at a conference held by Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon. Boucher was one of the major congressional players in the telecommunications law signed recently by President Clinton. That law opened various communications media to a wider range of companies.
Boucher said it was his goal that every locality in his rural Ninth district have local Internet access to ensure that it is not left at a competitive disadvantage with more urban areas.
"As we obtain affordable access to the Internet, computer-based communications will open new doors for business development and the acquisition of information for local governments and individuals," Boucher said.
Already, all but three of the 23 counties and cities in the 9th District have local dial-up access to the Internet, Boucher said. Internet providers generally charge $10 to $20 a month for access. But in areas where there is no local access and long-distance calls are required, Internet use can cost more than $200 a month, he said.
Miller said Bell Atlantic had not settled on the details, including pricing, of its new service.
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