PACIFIC BELL's PROJECT VICTORIA TECHNICAL TEST CONCLUDES by Scott E. Smith Pacific Bell A Pacific Telesis Company (415) 542-0597 DANVILLE, CALIFORNIA September 3, 1986 Pacific Bell said today that its test of a new technology which permits seven simultaneous voice and data transmissions on a standard telephone line has concluded successfully, "exceeding our expectations." The new technology, which is most commonly known under its working title Project Victoria, incorporates two 32 kilobits per second (Kbps) voice channels, a 9.6 Kbps medium speed data channel and four 1200 bps low speed channels over a single phone line. "The preliminary results from the test indicate that the technology works very well, exceeding our expectations," said Michael L. Eastwood, executive director for new network applications. "We are continuing our evaluation of Project Victoria's market potential." "This has been the largest successful test of this type of technology at extended distances in the nation," he said. "We are very pleased with the results." "Project Victoria technology will offer our customers affordable, efficient access to a wide variety of independently provided information services." Eastwood said that while the technical test had concluded, the process of compiling and analyzing test data, structuring commercial offerings and assessing other architectural configurations would continue for several weeks. In addition, a small number of Pacific Bell employees who participated in the test will continue to use the voice channels for an undetermined period to gather further maintenance data. - 1 - "From the information we've accumulated so far, Project Victoria's technology appears to have passed all of the major tests." said Eastwood. "We're particularly pleased with the distance from the central office over which Project Victoria operated efficiently. Originally, our design objective was to transmit up to 18,000 feet from our central switching office to a customer's home. We felt that would be the maximum working distance because of special devices which reduce loss of signal strength which are placed along longer lines. "However, under certain circumstances we were able to operate it at distances up to 22,000 feet." He explained that these devices, called loading coils, currently limit the ultimate distance which Project Victoria can transmit. While loading coils pass analog voice transmissions, they block digital signals, such as those transmitted by Project Victoria. "The prototype circuitry also demonstrated great durability for an initial technology test," said Eastwood. "We experienced no major unplanned outages and the bit-error rate was better than we had expected." He said that during the first weeks of the test certain problems did occur which required downtime for individual customers. "The most common problem with the technology involved the connection between certain types of telephones and customers' voice network interfaces on the Project Victoria `black box,' or multiplexor, which contains the new technology," Eastwood said. "However, we were able to solve this and other minor problems early in the test with minor adjustments." He explained that while the Danville test was strictly designed to test the performance of Project Victoria's technology, some limited surveying of participants was conducted to establish study methodologies for use in anticipated market trials. However, he cautioned that while the number of perticipants and information providers was adequate for testing the operation of the hardware and software, it does not qualify as a valid sample for marketing studies. "We did, however, get some interesting insights from participants," Eastwood said. "Many participants who had no previous experience with computers appeared to have an ingrained apprehension regarding such technology. They sought to be included in the trial because it promised a means to become `part of the new wave' by learning about computers without the risk associated with purchasing one. Many others also saw the test as a great educational opportunity for their children." - 2 - "Though preliminary, our data from focus group studies show that during the trial, participants' uneasiness decreased significantly and most became competent computer users. In fact, more than 90 percent of the responses indicated that the project met or exceeded their expectations." "Generally speaking, as the confidence of first-time computer users grew they joined previous users in preferring `information rich' services. In other words, the greater the depth of the information offered by a service, the more satisfying and useful they found it." Eastwood said that plans for future trials of Project Victoria would be finalized after all of the data from the Danville test has been analyzed, further refinements of potential commercial applications completed and regulatory approvals obtained. The Project Victoria test began in April and involved 200 residents of Danville, half of whom were Pacific Bell employees. The information services, and some equipment and other services were donated by independent vendors. Apple Computer, Inc., of Cupertino, California, loaned each test participant an Apple Macintosh 512K personal computer that allowed Project Victoria test participants to access to six information services, during the four-month test. The information providers involved in trial were Chronicle Videotex, Inc., of San Francisco, which offered its Bay Area Teleguide Service, a data base containing information on shopping, entertainment and restaurants; Dow Jones Information Services, of Princeton, New Jersey, which provided access to its News/Retrieval Service; MCI Communications Corp., of Washington, D.C., which permitted access to its MCI Mail; Pacific Gas & Electric Company, of San Francisco, which offered interactive home energy audits and energy-conservation information; the town of Danville, San Ramon Valley School District and San Ramon Valley Community Center, which were the primary contributors to an electronic bulletin board; and COVIDEA and Bank of America, which provided their HomeBanking service. In addition to Apple Computer, other companies involved in the trial were Applied Videotex Systems, of Boston, which developed software for the electronic community bulletin board; Digital Equipment Corp., of Boston, which provided its MicroVax II computer to run the electronic bulletin board; Electrohome Electronics, of Kitchener, Canada, which provided a software decoder to permit transmission of videotex images in NAPLPS (North American Presentation Level Protocol Syntax) protocol; and Solutions, Inc., of Montpelier, Vermont, which developed the software to access the information services. - 3 -