Astranet from Prodigy!

[John Albee <albee@PO-1.AEA9.K12.IA.US>]

PRODIGY services
Company announces
AstraNet



PRODIGY TO LAUNCH SEPARATE-BRANDED SERVICE, CALLED ASTRANET,
ON THE INTERNET

WHITE PLAINS, NY, Nov. 1, 1994 . . . Prodigy Services Company announced today
the launch of AstraNet, an independent service that will offer content to a
variety of
Internet market segments on the World Wide Web (WWW).

AstraNet will be managed by Prodigy's new Internet Services unit. Content
and services
available on AstraNet will be co-developed by Prodigy's Internet unit,
Prodigy's content
divisions, and outside third-party providers.

AstraNet will be located at WWW.ASTRANET.COM (its URL location on the World
Wide Web). Internet users with WWW access and a browser like Mosaic will be
able to
visit AstraNet beginning today. Prodigy is developing its own web browser
that will give
PRODIGY members the ability to visit AstraNet and other WWW destinations
next year.

AstraNet content will be expanded in stages. Prodigy's Internet unit has
assembled a
broad collection of what it considers to be among the best publicly
available Internet
content in categories such as sports, finance, news, and government. Users
can access
these features from the AstraNet home page, for free, beginning today.

"AstraNet is an extension of Prodigy's philosophy that the Internet represents a
tremendous opportunity for us to leverage our skills in order to serve the
Internet
community and third-party information providers," said Prodigy President
Ross Glatzer.

Next month, AstraNet will add its first for-pay services. They will include
a sports
service, financial services, and national and world news services. Pricing
for these
services, and other information providers, will be announced as these
services launch.

"AstraNet is an extension of our marriage to the Internet," said Scott
Kurnit, Prodigy's
executive vice president, consumer products, marketing & development. "Last
month
we added access to newsgroups to enhance PRODIGY, and this month we are using
Prodigy skills and content to enhance the Internet." Participation on
PRODIGY is an
option, but not a requirement for information providers who participate in
AstraNet.

Prodigy said it is ready to provide a wide range of support to information
providers who
participate in AstraNet. "In addition to an easily accessible Internet
address, Prodigy can
provide third parties with support in marketing, billing, customer service,
graphics,
programming and operations," said Bill Day, Prodigy's Director of Internet
Services. For
reporters who do not have access to the WWW, but would like to see
AstraNet, Prodigy
said it will be demonstrating the service for the media at BusinessNet
conference in New
York on November 7-9, and at Comdex on November 14-18.

Prodigy Services Company is a partnership of IBM and Sears.



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John Albee        *internet      albee@po-1.aea9.k12.ia.us

                  *voice         319-386-2171

We are all Works in Progress ...

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