Viewcall, a £7m start-up British company, looks set to beat industry

giants like Oracle and Apple Computer to launch commercial "Web TV",

allowing access to the Internet through a set-top box connected to an

ordinary television set and the telephone network.

The company plans to provide access to Internet, a proprietary online

shopping and entertainment network and rental of the set-top box as a

complete package for no more than £10 a month. "We think the whole idea of

selling boxes is the wrong approach. We want to sell a service," says John

Bentley, ViewCall's chairman.

Users will connect to ViewCall's service over the telephone network and be

able to access the company's own network, which includes home shopping,

access to classified advertisements and general news and information

services. To minimise download times, ViewCall is using fractal image

compression techniques invented by US soft-ware house Iterated Systems.

Access to the Internet will be through an as yet unnamed Internet service

provider.

Commercial trials, of up to 1,000 customers, begin in Scotland this month,

with a UK launch this sum- mer. However, ViewCall's ambitions are not

limited to the UK: "we are looking to provide a global network service,"

says Bentley.

The set-top box, and access to the Internet, will be controlled by a remote

control. "It will be similar to using Teletext," says Bentley, "but we do

offer a full Qwerty keyboard for advanced users." ViewCall's set-top box,

which contains the operating system, Internet browsing software and modem,

is based on a chip developed by Advanced Risc Machines, a UK company which

also produces chips for the Apple Newton and Acorn platforms.

11 January 1996

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