CallNet plans to bring email to standard TV sets

NEWS World CallNet, the Internet and telecoms service provider, has unveiled MailTV, a service intended to bring email to television sets. Billed as the 'Internet for the rest of us', MailTV will rely on patented Ultra Thin Client Protocols being integrated into TV sets by manufacturers. The processing power will be located on centrally located servers, which will also handle future banking, news and retail applications. US semiconductor stalwart, ZiLOG, has partnered with World CallNet to supply the silicon, and will sell to OEMs. Vestel of Turkey, which OEMs 88 brands of TV, commanding a quarter of the European market, has been signed-up, and the service will initially appear in sets from Alba and Bush. Users will simply plug a phone line into the TV sets and use a remote control/Qwerty keyboard to access a Teletext-style GUI (graphical user interface). Paul Goodman-Simpson, CEO of World CallNet, promised there is capacity available to handle one million MailTV-enabled sets in the UK. The company has faced a deluge of criticism recently for problems with its CallNet 0800 free ISP service. On the subject of needing to be online to compose emails, Goodman-Simpson said: "The cost of getting this in the home, for consumers, is unprecedented." An 0845 dial-up model will be used in the UK, or monthly subscriptions in countries with unmetered calls. The service will be rolled-out in the UK in January, other large European countries by the spring of next year and the rest of the world during 2000.