Post Office won’t take lead role in videotex

Press, 2 November 1982, Page 28

Post Office won’t take lead role in videotex

Key actors in the videotex business need to work together to ensure the success of videotex in New Zealand, according to the Post Office's expert on videotex, Mr Laurence Zwimpfer. Mr Zwimpfer, a senior divisional . engineer in the Telecoms marketing unit, in a lecture to the Institute of Electrical Engineers in Christchurch recently, described how videotex is not a new technology, but rather a mix of existing technologies. The key actors come from the publishing, communications, computer, electronics manufacturing, banking, and television industries.

Videotex is the generic name for two-way information services based on video screens (such as television sets and visual display units). They are also commonly called viewdata services.

Comments made by Mr Zwimpfer showed that the Post Office does not see itself as the lead player. “There is no natural forum," he said. “There needs to be a means for the groups to work together,” The next major step for the parties in New Zealand is to agree on presentation standards for videotex transmissions. Presentation

standards will define the way data is decoded and displayed on the screen, particularly graphics data. At present the European and North American systems generally use two different presentation methods. A standards meeting in Geneva this month will attempt to resolve this conflict. New Zealand parties will meet again after the Geneva meeting and will be influenced by what happens overseas. Mr Zwimpfer hopes that one standard will arise, but says that a dual standard is technically possible. Different presentation standards could be decoded in the user’s terminal or could be translated in the gateway computers which the Post Office will install for videotex services. The proposed New Zealand videotex network will consist of gateway computers run by the Post Office, the Post Office’s packet-switching network, and database computers run by database providers. Users will dial-up or be linked into the gateway computers, which will then use the packet-switching network to access the appropriate database. Under this pro-

posal a user can access many databases using a consistent sign-on procedure. The Post Office intends to charge 10 cents a minute for the communications elements of the system (the gateway service and the packet-switching service) if the call to the gateway is a local call. When a toll call is involved the charge will be 17 cents a minute. “The main objective of current discussions is to ensure that any systems introduced over the next 12 months are not made obsolete by future developments,” said Mr Zwimpfer. . Mr Zwimpfer believes that the main obstacle to the growth of videotex services in New Zealand is the “chicken and egg" problem: which comes first — the databases or the terminals? Database providers and information providers will be

unu-illing to invest in videotex until there are a large number of users. But terminal suppliers will not be able to sell terminals to users until the users are convinced that there are high quality databases available. A number of choices are listed by Mr Zwimpfer to hurdle this obstacle. They include subsidising terminals, subsidising information providers. tapping new sources of subscribers, increasing product attractiveness byadding new services, and stimulating the formation of closed user groups and private systems. “Videotex is expensive,'' concluded Mr Zwimpfer. “There are enough deterrents to using the service in the cost of terminals, the cost of the communications links, and the costs of the information service. But I believe these costs will come down." |