Cable Ready Access

By next year, Orange County businesses can turn to their cable company for Internet access.

Comcast Commercial Online unveiled its cable modem-based system, which can link up to 100 workstations to a high-speed network.

In an effort to keep up with the fast pace of the Internet, many small businesses have settled for the standard--and slower--telephone modems. As more residents begin to use cable modems, which can transmit data 50 to 100 times faster than a telephone modem, Comcast officials say they hope the private sector will follow the public trend.

The system, currently available in New Jersey, will be offered in Orange County, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Detroit later next year, company officials said.

The company, a unit of Comcast Corp., did not say how much the service will cost Orange County firms, only that the price would be competitive with other Internet providers.

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P.J. Huffstutter covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com.