New Service to Allow Consumers Open Access to Networks : AT&T; Enters the On-Line Race

American Telephone & Telegraph Co. on Thursday announced it is starting an on-line service that, for the first time, will give consumers access to electronic databases and other communications networks from any location and without a great deal of computer know-how.

The service, to be offered beginning this summer, will give AT&T; entrance into the rapidly growing, $800-million market for on-line services now dominated by Prodigy, Compuserve and America Online.

More importantly for AT&T;, its new PersonaLink Services will help drive demand for database services, long-distance calls and portable communications devices--all areas in which the big phone company is heavily involved.

“The key is to have a database in your briefcase,” said Rick Martin, research director at Chicago Corp. “You will have instantaneous access to data, no matter where you are and no matter what device you are using.”

AT&T; will have tough competition in the on-line field, however, since other major companies such as Apple Computer and Microsoft also plan to enter the business. It also faces technical challenges, as most wireless devices still lack the power to be effective terminals for tapping into on-line systems, analysts said.

Also, AT&T;’s long-term success offering such services depends on its being guaranteed free access to the various communications lines, including cable, that have been strung into American homes.

“This is just the beginning--it’s going to evolve over five years,” Martin said.

Questions of access to communications lines may be one reason AT&T; joined consumer groups Thursday in the fight to pressure the Clinton Administration to assure open access to all companies as it considers new regulations to spur development of a communications infrastructure.

Robert Kavner, AT&T;’s chief of multimedia products and services, lashed out Thursday at what he called the cable industry’s “closed-access, non-competitive model” for the Information Age during his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

“We believe today’s cable industry gate-keeping model would stifle commercial and creative potential if it were re-created in the new, interactive multimedia world,” Kavner said. “The potential of interactive networks is not found in 500 pre-programmed channels. The beauty is that consumers have the freedom to choose any subject or service from the intelligent terminal in their homes.”

While content suppliers such as television producers must negotiate with a cable operator to get their programs aired, Kavner said, AT&T; favors a model in which everyone has equal access to a broad communications network.

Kavner’s speech, which appeared to mark a new level of aggressiveness for AT&T;, comes a few days before Vice President Al Gore is scheduled to speak at a UCLA symposium on ensuring openness and accessibility to communications networks.

AT&T; cited PersonaLink, unveiled at the show, as an example of the kind of open services it espouses.

AT&T;’s key advantage over other on-line systems will be the system’s ability to be accessed by portable communications devices being offered by a growing number of electronics companies.

AT&T; said its first customers will be mobile professionals trying to keep in touch with their secretaries through electronic mail from portable communications devices.

The service makes it easier for customers to access computer networks by using a new software language developed by General Magic, a Mountain View, Calif., computer company jointly owned by such major electronics companies as AT&T;, Apple and Motorola.

The software, which was released Thursday, allows AT&T; to create “agents,” or special packets of code, that enter a network and can search out and sift through vast amounts of information.

The agents can also take on relatively complex tasks. A busy executive could have a system programmed so that when his or her mother’s birthday came along the agent could wake up, send a message of love and a bouquet of flowers, said Dan Rosen, an AT&T; vice president.

Analysts said AT&T;’s move could help establish a standard for wireless communications devices around the General Magic software Telescript. Motorola and Sony, partners in the General Magic alliance, have said they will introduce personal communications devices that use Telescript technology this year.

America Online and several wireless companies have also committed themselves to Telescript.