I want my WebTV!

I want my WebTV! I'm not alone. That's the good news. The potentially bad news for telecom service operators is, I'm not alone.

Here is a New Year's prediction. WebTV will pass DBS as the fastest growing consumer communications application. Why will this be true? WebTV got it right.

WebTV, in case you haven't heard, is a $299 (lowest discount) intelligent box that plugs into your TV and phone jack, allowing you to surf the Net using a TV remote control or an optional $75 infrared keyboard. It fulfills the promise of a home network computer by leveraging a medium everyone has and understands. It is available through a ubiquitous and user friendly distribution channel.

It doesn't hurt that WebTV is also providing superior customer service and an ease-of-use alien to the computer industry. This is a category killer.

WebTV is already the stuff of legend. For a good historical explanation of its place in the battle for convergence business supremacy, read Frank Rose's excellent piece at http://pathfinder.com/@@67XujQcAslaQ@fortune/1996/961223/ web.html.

The enormity of the subject, however, barely allows the author to touch on what we in telecom need to focus on. Hence, as a telecom public interest service, below are some insights gleaned from recently listening and talking with WebTV head Steve Perlman from looking at consumer research and from kicking the WebTV tires. (Try them at www.

webtv.com.) WebTV is the product realization of "Internet for Dummies." It takes roughly 15 minutes from the time the package is opened to begin surfing the Net. This product is designed with two goals: keep it simple and make it easy. It was made for the 90% of U.S. households currently not on-line and compliments rather than competes against the PC.

Everyone who has seen WebTV loves it. However, the elderly really love it. The infatuation springs from the fact that WebTV is easy to purchase, install, use and view. It liberates people by turning them into interactive communicators and information seekers.

Picture-in-picture is a, if not the, killer app. Putting TV on your PC is an improvement at the margin for PC users. Conversely, it is almost a divine revelation putting network computing on your TV. Contention disappears as an issue. The issue, for those with PCs, is where to interact today.

Look at the front of the WebTV box. What you see is a smart card slot. What you see, when combined with picture-in-picture, is the engine for driving electronic commerce.

Look at the side of the WebTV box. What you see is a 1.6 Gb port that will support up to seven peripherals. What you see is the gateway to interactive video, IP telephony, the emergence of a home controller and more. What you see is the reason why Sony, Magnavox, Microsoft and Bill Gates personally, among others, have invested heavily in this company.

Finally, when you look at the Web on WebTV from 12 feet away on a big screen instead of 12 inches away on a monitor, what you see is a product that is here now, and it works. However, it works slowly at 33.6 kb/s. Therein lies the rub for telecom vendors.

First, if you think your networks are congested now, beware. WebTV users stay on the Net longer than PC-based surfers.

Second, the video resolution is not just "good enough," it is quite good. Third, within six months the high-speed port will be attached to all kinds of high-bandwidth services (and bandwidth starved devices), none of which may be offerings in your portfolio.

Fourth, this is not just for the home. Perlman's talk was given in a conference room in New York using material on his home page. Laptop lugging could be endangered for presentations. What hotel chain, for example, wouldn't invest a few hundred dollars in a box and $19.95 a month for service? Get the picture? Get the picture.

Peter Bernstein is President of infonautics Consulting Inc., Ramsey, N.J. His e-mail address is 714-9256@mcimail.com.