script-1 SERIES PRODUCERS: Stone Phillips: ALAN KAUL TONIGHT WE BEGIN A WEEK-LONG SERIES NINA ZACUTO CALLED "ALMOST 2001" - A LOOK AT THE COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION. PART OF IT HAS ALREADY ARRIVED. TONIGHT THE INFORMATION SUPER HIGHWAY AND ONE OF ITS MAIN THROUGHFARE'S, AN ON LINE NETWORK CALLED INTERNET. IT'S PART OF A GROWING TREND THAT PROMISES DRAMATIC CHANGES IN OUR LIVES. HERE'S NBC'S GEORGE LEWIS. ================================================================================ VIDEO: (George Lewis narrates) of Clinton, Limbaugh and Idol and "president@ whitehouse.gov" CLINTON WHAT DO PRESIDENT CLINTON... LIMBAUGH CONSERVATIVE RADIO PERSONALITY RUSH LIMBAUGH... IDOL AND ROCK STAR BILLY IDOL HAVE IN COMMON? SUPER INTERNET ADDRESSES: THEY'VE ALL GOT ELECTRONIC MAIL PRESIDENT@WHITEHOUSE.GOV" ADDRESSES ON COMPUTER SYSTEMS LINKED "70277.2502@COMPUSERVE.COM" TO THE INTERNET...A GLOBAL HOOKUP THAT "IDOL@WELL.SF.CA.US" PERMITS COMPUTERS TO EXCHANGE INFORMATION. GRAPHIC: IN 1981, ONLY 213 COMPUTERS WERE HOOKED TO THE INTERNET. AS THE NEW YEAR 1981-------213 BEGINS...AN ESTIMATED TWO AND A HALF 1989----80,000 MILLION COMPUTERS WILL BE ON THE 1992---727,000 NETWORK, SERVING AS MANY AS 20 MILLION 1994-2,500,000 (EST) PEOPLE. MONITORING SIGNALS THE SEPARATE TECHNOLOGIES THAT BROUGHT US TELEPHONES, TV AND COMPUTERS ARE NOW BEGINNING TO MERGE. MITCHELL KAPOR--ELECTRONIC (SOT) "I actually think that five FRONTIER FOUNDATION years from now we're not going to have distinct cable and telephone industries. We're...it's going to be one industry, and they'll be companies carrying bits, little pieces of information from point A to point B." GRAPHIC: PHONE/CABLE MERGERS PHONE AND CABLE TV COMPANIES ARE SCRAMBLING TO FORM STRATEGIC ALLIANCES. "BELL ATLANTIC/TCI--$33 BILLION BELL ATLANTIC AND TCI... S.W. BELL/COX CABLE $4.9 BILLION SOUTHWESTERN BELL AND COX CABLE... U.S. WEST/TIME-WARNER $2.5 BILL." U.S. WEST AND TIME-WARNER CABLE, ALL GANGING UP TO REWIRE AMERICA. LAYING CABLE IN CALIFORNIA, PACIFIC BELL IS SPENDING 16 BILLION DOLLARS TO INSTALL FIBER-OPTIC CABLE WHICH REPLACES THE OLD COPPER WIRING OF THE PHONE SYSTEM.. TRANSMITTING SIGNALS ON BEAMS OF LIGHT OVER STRANDS OF GLASS THINNER THAN HUMAN HAIRS. (Steve Harris, Pacific Bell:) "We can put anything we want over that fiber, and millions of conversations is certainly feasable." (LEWIS) "And hundreds of television pictures?" (HARRIS) "Hundreds. Absolutely hundreds of television pictures." (LEWIS) "And millions of bits of computer data?" (HARRIS) "More bits than you can bite." APPLE COMPUTER VIDEO (NARR) A PROMOTIONAL VIDEO PUT OUT 5 YEARS AGO BY APPLE COMPUTER EVISIONED PEOPLE TALKING TO THEIR COMPUTERS AND TO ONE ANOTHER THROUGH VIDEOPHONE LINKS BY THE YEAR 2005. (voice of actor) "Hello Mike...what's up?" GTE GUY (LEWIS) IT'S ALREADY COMING TRUE. IN CERRITOS, CALIFORNIA...VIDEOPHONE SERVICE IS PART OF AN EXPERIMENT STARTED BY GENERAL TELPHONE AND THE LOCAL CABLE COMPANY. WATCHING TV THERE ARE ALSO INTERACTIVE TV CHANNELS WHERE PEOPLE ORDER MOVIES ON DEMAND... INSTEAD OF DRIVING TO THE VIDEO STORE. SCREEN WITH S.A.T. INFO HIGH SCHOOLERS CAN GET PRACTICE QUESTIONS FOR THE SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE TEST. THESE NEW SERVICES ADD ABOUT 10 DOLLARS A MONTH TO THE AVERAGE CABLE TV BILL. PACIFIC BELL VIDEO (Actor) "Good morning Mrs. Johnson." (Actress)"Hello, Dr. Alvarez." (LEWIS) THIS PACIFIC BELL VIDEO SHOWS A DIVERSE GROUP OF PEOPLE USING THE NEW TECHNOLOGY. BUT SOME COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS WONDER HOW THE LESS ADVANTAGED ARE GOING TO AFFORD IT. ROCKY MOUNTAIN SCENICS AND IN SPARSELY POPULATED RURAL AREAS, WILL PHONE COMPANIES INVEST THE ESTIMATED ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS PER HOUSE TO UPGRADE THE LINES? (GEORGE LEWIS ON CAMERA--TELURIDE, CO) "One remote community that wants to make sure it has an on-ramp to the information super-highway is Telluride, Colordao. 9000 feet high up in the Rockies. Here they have a project called 'info zone." PEOPLE & COMPUTERS (NARRATION) IN THE BASEMENT OF A 102-YEAR IN BASEMENT OLD BUILDING, THEY'RE DESIGNING A 21ST CENTURY COMPUTER COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM. (RICHARD LOWENBERG--TELLURIDE INST) "It's small radio transmitter- receivers and antennas connected to people's home computers and it allows them essentially to have better than, better service than the phone company now offers." HI TECH WORKERS (LEWIS) THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY IS GOING TO CHANGE THE WAY WE WORK, CREATING JOBS THAT DON'T EXIST TODAY... ELIMINATING SOME OTHERS. KIDS & COMPUTERS IT'S GOING TO CHANGE THE WAY WE LEARN... WATCH INTERACTIVE FOOTBALL AND THE WAY WE SPEND OUR LEISURE TIME. HIGH TECH WORKERS BUT WILL IT CREATE A WIDER GULF BETWEEN THOSE WHO CAN AFFORD THE NEW TECHNOLOGY... L.A. SKYLINE AND THOSE WHO CAN'T? GEORGE LEWIS, NBC NEWS, LOS ANGELES .