US West to Launch Ambitious Video Services Network

US West on Thursday joined a growing number of communications companies planning to build an “electronic superhighway” capable of delivering home movies on demand, home shopping and a wide assortment of other entertainment and information services.

Calling the effort “the next logical progression” of its mass-market telecommunications business, the Denver-based telephone company said it will begin building the network late this year for 100,000 customers. Over the next decade, the network will be extended throughout US West’s huge 14-state service territory, stretching from Washington state to Iowa.

US West’s announcement is the most ambitious of several recent pronouncements by companies that want to link telephone and cable television services with computers and home electronics to serve up a new brand of customized home entertainment as well as create a vast new array of video-based services for homes and businesses.

The opportunities are enormous. Analysts estimate that the new services will generate billions in revenue when they are fully in place in a decade or so. But the competition is also fierce.

Virtually every U.S. communications company is looking closely at the emerging new generation of video services.

“Everyone is making a move now,” says Sharon Armbrust of Paul Kagan Associates, a Carmel market research company. “We will be hearing more of these announcements in the future.”