AT & T device connecting phone network to TV sets; telco giant pushes messaging applications, info services to the TV.

Broadcasting & Cable, January, 1995 by Berniker, Mark

AT&T has created a device--sort of an answering machine on steroids--that connects any standard television set to the telephone network, opening up households to messaging and information services. "Everybody's home is wired for this device today, and they don't have to wait for the infrastructure, which is coming slowly and in many different forms," says Eric Sumner, vice president of product development for intelligent devices, AT&T Consumer Products.

Sumner says AT&T's TV Information Center "looks like a set-top box" and is "a form of interactive television." But although AT&T is gung ho about its proprietary solution for consumer access to interactive information services through the device and a remote control, the price tag is a weighty $329. You...

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