ICE age newest wrinkle in technology - informations communication and entertainment

Interactive television, high powered fax machines, small computers that access massive amounts of information from your car, airplane, home or office, pizza orders by fax or computer . . .

Communications -- at least as we once knew it -- will never be the same again.

The nation is entering the ICE Age, as some in the industry have come to call it.

The acronym is the merging of Information, Communication and Entertainment, hence ICE, into a vast pool of choice, power and hopefully cash for the providers.

It's already changing the way we do things, and the possibilities seem limitless.

Some day it will be difficult to separate telecommunications technology from computer technology. As a matter of fact, it already is.

About 15 years ago, France decided to dump its old phone system and replace it with a computer-based system.

"They were really behind the times," says Lou Belmont, US West regional manager in Albuquerque. "France took a giant leap forward by incorporating large amounts of fiber cable."

When someone ordered a phone in France, he or she got a minicomputer instead with a telephone attachment. It represented not only high speed service, but the technology eliminated phone books and revolutionized an advertising medium.

Frenchmen can call a restaurant and view the menu and specials, and restaurants can change the menu at will. No more waiting until the next phone book is published.

People can transfer funds in their bank accounts, shop from home, and complete job assignments at home.

So what's taking the U.S. so long to catch up with the once hapless French?

"France wasn't facing the legislative obstacles," says Belmont. "We have a lot of regulatory agencies; you have to have a lot of people have a part in implementing this."

In May, Time Warner Inc., which owns the country's second largest cable system, allied with US West to push the limits of interactive television.

US West invested $2.5 billion in Time, and Time Warner plans to pour $5 billion into an interactive television system, where viewers may someday become participants in the world of entertainment and information.

Other companies, like Tele-Communications Inc. and AT&T are cashing in on the future of fiber optics and computer technology.

Microsoft, Intel and General Instrument started working together last April to create a cable converter box with computer capabilities.

But legislation will hamper US West's interactive hopes in New Mexico, as federal law prohibits a regional Bell company from operating a cable system in its controlling region.

For now, US West will work in the cities outside its 14-state region where Time Warner has a big chunk of the business.

"Even though we can't own cable (television) services, we can provide the infrastructure to allow other cable operators to deliver the systems to their customers," says Tom Garcia, vice president and chief executive officer for US West New Mexico.

Some recent court rulings have favored the regional Bell companies wanting to expand into information services.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last May upheld a 1991 U.S. District Court decision that lifted the 1982 decision which prevented the regional operators from developing information services.

Meanwhile, the telecommunications industry is booming with the merging of information technologies, like PCN, or Personal Communications Network, the next generation of cellular technology.

The PCN replaces the large cells with smaller ones that serve a greater area, and it decreases the phone size and power supply requirements.

Fax machines are common, and soon fax machines that operate on cellular technology may be just as common.

"You can be walking around Albuquerque with low cost, light low powered PCN," Belmont says.

Motorola could also take the PCN to satellite, allowing better, cheaper overseas communication, and the smaller communications companies in New Mexico are cashing in on new cellular technology.

"Already coming down the road is to have your own phone number that follows you everywhere," says Belmont. "If you move to Boston, that phone number stays the same. Technologically it's coming."

One of the newer spinoffs in pagers is called Unipage where callers can leave lengthy messages rather than just telephone numbers.

Jon Word of Contact New Mexico says his company has just converted to the new technology. The former capacity of 20,000 customers has now expanded to one million.

Next year, about 16 million miles of fiber optic cable will span the United States.

The telecommunications explosion has mushroomed beyond even the wildest of dreams a few decades back with long distance and interconnect companies proliferating like rabbits.

AT&T, MCI, US Sprint, Allnet, American Tel Group Inc., NTS Communications, Telephone Express, Tri-Tel Communications, U.S. Long Distance Inc., Valu-Line Long Distance, Huntleigh Telecommunications Group and Telestar Communications are just some battling for their slices of the pie in New Mexico.

E. David Grenham is a Belen newsman and a freelance writer.

COPYRIGHT 1993 The New Mexico Business Journal
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