We are pleased to have with us today Richard McCormick chairman and chief executive officer of USS. West presenting interactive TV and the information superhighway a sneak preview. But first I'd like to give you a sneak preview of Dick McCormick. I have it on good authority. That is kindergarten teacher considered him something of a problem. It seems that at nap time when all the other kids were snoozing away on their little rugs Richard. I was wide awake building something and disturbing the other kids and I can tell you from knowing this man personally for the past 20 years or so that he has never given up that passion. He hasn't changed he wants to make sure he build something makes this place better as we move into the future by the time he was 20 he had an engineering degree from Iowa State. He accepted an engineering job with AT&T and later was transferred to one of its local Bill companies Northwestern bell dick moved up rapidly and various management assignments including several here in the Twin Cities and in the early 70s in 1974. He became the youngest vice president and the Bell System. As you all know AT&T was spun off from the local Bell companies in 1984 and Northwestern Bell was teamed up with mountain Bell and Pacific Northwest Bell, which eventually became u.s. West by then. Dick had moved to become president of Northwestern bail. He moved from Omaha to Denver the new headquarters of the parent company. He has since added the titles of CEO and chairman of the board dick has led us West through a period of unprecedented change from a regional telephone company to an international multimedia company. I won't take time to read you today a long list of first but I will say that the most exciting item on the list is that uswest Communications was the first Regional Bell company to announce plans to build a multimedia Network in the areas where it provides basic telephone surface including here in the Twin City area because of that and similar projects around the world dick is recognized as one of the principal architects of the information superhighway, and that's what he's going to talk about today. Dick arrives here from what we hope was a restful weekend after spending most of last week on a trade mission to India with United States Commerce Secretary Ron Brown while their dick participated in ceremonies recognizing USS as the first foreign company to receive a contract to build telephone systems in India. Following dicks presentation questions will be addressed from the audience Jennifer real and Gloria mcclenahan of Minnesota meeting will move among you to manage the question and answer session. You may use the slips of paper on your table to jot down questions for that discussion. I am pleased to welcome and let us do it together Richard McCormick Thank you. It seems Like Only Yesterday run called and said do you believe in free speech? You know the rest I said, of course I do and he said well, I want you to give one. So here we are. It is good to be here. It is great to be here. It wasn't too many years back that Mary Pat and I lived here and we have great memories both Minneapolis and st. Paul and I'm happy to say that we still spend a good deal of time here our service on the Norwest Corporation and Supervalu boards is one thing this afternoon. There's a meeting of the Community reinvestment Fund of the pleasure of serving on that outstanding organization that does a great job of finding loans and money for small towns and rural areas so that they can stretch their development dollars. And of course I spend some time here in connection with uswest and Beyond that Marilyn Nelson and Alan Jacobson and Sandy grieve are on our board and they make sure Minnesota is number one on my agenda. So whenever I do get a chance to see this many people I have to take a little consumer research. So bear with me for a moment. I do want to ask you a question and before Ron mentioned it how many had heard of the term information superhighway virtually every hand in the audience has gone up no wonder you're on the list of high-tech cities nationally. If you asked that question, the number is about 30% of the people that are even aware what that term is now. I've got another test question and that is Could you write a 75 word description of what the information superhighway is? There are about ten hands in this room prepared to write that so we've got some students here and they'll they'll assign that work after the meeting today. My hand was not up on that as well. I'm not sure anyone can Define the information Highway at this point because the concept of a two-way user-controlled video network is probably more revolutionary than most of us have contemplated including me and I'm in the position with a lot of fellow workers here today who are committing hundreds of millions of dollars of other people's money to building it. At this as this thing evolves over the next few years. I think we're going to have to stretch our minds a little also. I think the highway is going to change most of the way that we shop most of the way that we Bank ways that we get entertainment even the way that we work and even the way that we learn and get medical care it already is anybody here use a fax machine again hundreds of people here using them what they first called fax machines where tell a copiers because in simplest terms. That's what a fax machine was. It was a cross between a telephone and a copier you might say a two-piece copier one that could exist at both ends with some sort of a medium in between you put the device put the material in one end. It goes through some sort of a transmission medium and out it comes At the other side in the other person's office without it mattering whether it's a block away or two continents away all that. The information superhighway is going to do then is just fatten that telephone line make it possible for many many more devices to be two-piece devices. If you will to peace VCRs two-piece shopping malls ATMs two-piece campuses multi-piece offices two-piece. X-ray Machines video game players and more and more and more. How big is it going to be? I don't know. I don't think anyone knows but we are getting a lot of Clues a few weeks ago Time Warner entertainment. It's a company that we owned 25% of our partners in the information Highway project in Orlando, Florida invited reporters to see an early demonstration of what they call the full service network that they're developing in Orlando. They demonstrated movies on demand. They demonstrated an easy-to-use on-screen shopping service a video games that you can play from one location to another one home to another they described hundreds of other interactive Television services or Computer Services. If you prefer on a list that's going to continue to grow the pictures were clear and we're as clear as anything you'd get from. The highest quality pre-recorded video tape with the response in an instant in terms of the controls that were there at the fingertips of the user. The remote control was no longer just controlling the TV set, but it was controlling a giant a program and service Rich computer at the other end of the network and when they finished the demonstration a fairly cenacle reporter will perhaps that's a redundant term. Anyway, a reporter said that when she saw interactive television, she got the feeling that she'd had only two other times in her life. The first of those was when she had heard that the Russians had put up Sputnik and the other was with the day that Neil Armstrong took his first small step. So we do have an outsider's view that this is big and it is real. U.s. West is also in this business. We're sending our signals over our Network and Omaha, Nebraska as we speak and we have a list of other cities programme for the service after we get FCC approval and that includes Minneapolis. And st. Paul. We want to start construction as soon as possible yet this year if possible to bring that Network to over two hundred and ninety two thousand homes across the Twin Cities including parts of Fridley shore of you Dinah in North Oaks. We hope to expand that in the years ahead and I can tell you this that Ron James and Tom Vice tricky and all of our 6,000 Minnesota employees are very very excited about bringing that to the Twin Cities. One of the first things that we in our participating content vendors are offering is cable TV service. But not just a duplicate of what existing cable TV companies are doing this cable will also be the linkage for the two-part VCR. I described you'll choose what movie you want to see as from a list as long as any that you'd see in a video store. You will choose when it starts you'll be able to make it pause stop. Go ahead or reverse in an instant. You want to leave and go to the kitchen for the popcorn or whatever it is. You can put the movie on hold and come back to it on your terms. If you've missed a big Viking game or a twin game. You can watch it the following day or a few days later and you can have that game start at 8:37 or 926 whenever you want it. You'll probably get to choose from a long list of special channels for of Information Services and entertainment vendors that include channels that off. Are not programming not just programming this that's preset but also Services things like an on-screen directory of local government services checking your bank balance or transferring money from one account to another shopping without driving or parking or walking or waiting for clerks, but this isn't the familiar. Here's a beautiful cubic zirconium kind of shopping experience. It's going to be from the supplier of your choice from the Department of your choice from the Garment or material of your choice someday. You can even see yourself projected onto that screen and wearing the item It may also be college courses when you want them. I know one small business person told us that he liked to have some courses at two o'clock in the morning. And I know there are some professors here that I assume you you're happy to know that the extension people are offering those on pre-recorded multimedia rather than live for those who dream of working at home or at least part of the time multi media networks will eventually allow you to see the people that you're talking with whether it's a one-on-one conversation or a group of people you and the distant conferees can look at the same computer data same video clips. You can edit the material so that you both see the changes as they happen. You can hit another key and get a printout of the only thing you can't do is is the get donuts back and forth. With one coax connection into the home connected to a fiber optic cable nearby that will carry voices data video faxes images computer data the whole bit or should I say the whole megabit to way as easy as connecting a call today? That's the promise. That's the potential. But the question remains in many people's minds is this for real and is it really as big as that reporter suggested? Well, here's another observers view. I saw an essay of the other day by a gentleman named Philip J. Sirloin any public he's published by the investment firm of wertheim and Schroeder Soylent noted that about once every 50 years. Our society has a major dramatic change brought about by a revolutionary new technology in communicating a hundred and fifty years ago. It was the telegraph By facilitating long messages over long distances, it was possible for the growth of large corporations in those days a century ago. It was the telephone forever changing our business and personal lives 50 years ago. It was television whose effects were still digesting each Revolution was treated with skepticism. For example, a mr. Bell took his telephone invention to Western Union, which said no. Thanks. And how many average consumers in 1930 this author asked would have expressed a strong desire to sit for hours each day in front of a small box that emitted moving pictures and sound well today the converging Technologies of telecommunications and cable television are transforming both Industries and the services that they will offer in a few years uswest will be offering services like the cable companies at the same time cable companies other utility companies and others are going to be offering telephone service old regulations affecting. Both Industries will fall by the wayside. We hope because you can't Leap Frog to tomorrow if you're still wearing handcuffs from from yesterday. Another question is how fast is tomorrow coming. That'll depend on a combination of things. I think including regulation and investment costs in a few technological challenges along the way and that list is falling and are the costs or the cost not a small item. But listen to some data on the adoption of new technology for 20 percent of the households to get a penetration rate of VCRs. It took 10 years for CDs. It took five years for Nintendo 20 percent of the households had that service in three years. And I'm not saying that multimedia is going to be in 20 percent of the households in one year, but I am suggesting that these interactive services will not be as intimidating as some people think especially I think after we and others spend hundreds of millions of dollars making them user-friendly. We're thinking about a familiar-looking point-and-click device like a remote control. That's what we have in Orlando and we will have an Omaha up down left and right 0 through 9 that's as easy to use as your existing remote control appointed at a menu on the screen and it should get you through all the services that I described and if you'd rather do it on a PC, we've got several students here that are very computer literate and they'd probably rather work on a PC. The service will accommodate that if you've got a portable telephone the service will accommodate that that's our plan and that is to make this highway available to any kind of information vehicle. not just this year's Hardware item another question that the enthusiast's are being questioned is our we overstating the promise of interactive television. I have worried about that. We do worry about that every day. I don't want you to look back in a few years and say that that this was the time that you heard about the information hype way. So I do keep listening to expert observers outside of our own company in our own industry people like Nathan Rosen Berg a professor of Economics at Stanford said Rosenberg in a recent essay in the New York Times. We often underestimate the full technological economic and social impact of important Innovations. Like for example, the laser today lasers are used for navigation for precision measurement for chemical research for eye surgery. But the most and among the most important applications is for telecommunications. We're in other words. They make the multimedia Services over fiber optics possible and yet Rosenberg bottles Marvel's Bell Labs, which invented the laser initially hesitated to apply for a patent on it. Their patent committee said quote. The laser has no possible revlon's relevance to telephones history is full of those stories. You've probably heard how Marconi who invented the radio thought it's used would be limited to ship-to-ship Communications where we couldn't put wires IBM estimated that at the most there were 10 to 15 worldwide markets for computers. When the development of the transistor was announced it was felt that it was a good device to make hearing aids smaller, but that's all and the list goes on but I'm going to jump ahead to rosenberg's conclusion because I liked it so much. He said and I quote we must not make the same mistake with the information superhighway government ought to open as many windows as possible so that the private sector can explore the technological landscape that can only be faintly discerned from those windows. I am pleased to say that I think the regulators and Minnesota and elsewhere including the hundred and fourth Congress are looking through the windows. I were encouraged that they're going to be opening more of them real soon not for companies per se but for customers of companies for consumers and for Citizens and the somewhat lighter vein cable World magazine also addressed the skepticism about the new technologies specifically the delays and rolling them out u.s. West and Time Warner both have experienced some delays in getting all of the complicated hardware and most importantly the software or the user friendliness working in an integrated fashion. It's been a little tough rolling it out in Orlando a little bit of a delay and also to some degree in Omaha networks that make that two-piece VCR work like I described earlier cable World said if Orville and Wilbur Wright We're making their historic first airplane flight today. The Press would point out that the brothers first effort was postponed due to bad winds that construction of the plane was months behind schedule and that there was no real proof that consumers would ever be willing to fly in an airplane because everyone already had access to good train and boat service where you could sit on a seat instead of lying on your belly on that airplane end of quote never mind that this thing flies and so I believe will the multi media networks that uswest and others are building in Orlando and Omaha and I hope soon the Twin Cities. Our plan is not to sell you another Gadget our plan came from looking at people's lives from listening to what people say about the time crunch and the hassles of driving and parking and shopping and meeting and more. Listening to you and looking at the state of our art. We see a tremendous potential and the converging Technologies of communications entertainment and information phone calls computer signals movies all can travel the same digital Highway a two-way interactive Highway that can put you in control of those signals what you get when you want to get it from wear and make your life a little better and I hope a lot better. We don't see turning couch potatoes into couch Commandos. We do see turning your TV set or home computer under a faster lower cost substitute for cars buses airplanes and lines not to tether you to the home forever. But to make your Ventures out more productive and fun instead of calling the grandkids before you go to the store. How about shopping by video in one twentieth of the time and going? To see your grandkids. Another reporter at Orlando said I've seen the future and it's good. I want to get to the questions in a few minutes, but first I want to clarify something that a lot of people misunderstand about the new information age many people think that we have an ordinary telephone Network today that these wonderful plans for an interactive multimedia Network tomorrow and some dark hole in between not so I think for one thing we already have fiber optic networks and many of our Central cities enabling businesses to develop and use video conferencing remote computer assisted design and Manufacturing remote medical diagnosis distance learning some very exciting work at the Minnesota supercomputer Center and various other projects outside the cities. We're steadily expanding our networks can't capacity to deliver those kinds of services to rural areas as well. Many of you have heard about the illuminate project and Wenonah incredible Partnership of local government schools and colleges Health Care Providers businesses and others to build tomorrow's Network today. They're going to be doing what a lot of communities are still dreaming about because they approached this one as one project for many users. And of course, they also had a $600,000 grant from a local Foundation which helped an awful lot. But beyond that there were some excellent planning and coordinating and vision and arm-twisting that went into the leadership of Wenonah. We're proud to be working with them. But beyond those kind of projects we want to make sure people understand that you don't have to have a fiber optic cable to explore the new Communications age. You can develop some pretty exciting applications from ordinary telephone. On lines in other words. Our information to Lane is getting a lot of people where they want to go today in Rochester computer design engineers and IBM have enjoyed a flexible work at home environment for some time in a trial of an integrated digital phone service that makes extraordinary use of ordinary telephone lines in another Rochester project an orthopedic surgeon on the 14th floor of the Mayo Clinic checked x-rays on a video screen and discuss them with an intern in the emergency room at st. Mary's Hospital Doctrine in turn saw the same X-ray and each other on a large split screen image again over ordinary telephone lines English Lit students at Totino Grace High School in Fridley Central High and st. Paul and the University of Minnesota. Jointly discussed the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. They were miles apart physically but together on one another's Cooter screens using ordinary telephone lines five years ago. We did a trial with more data management to allow real estate agents to get multiple listing data instantly from the field last week. We announced a new generation of that in a new project with a diner Realty again using ordinary telephone lines. And so there are a lot of new things happening on the old telephone Network. Although I think old is perhaps a little bit of a misnomer. We are modernizing and expanding that Network every day of the year this year alone in Minnesota Ron and his people are committing 268 million dollars of capital to the Minnesota Network including modernizing the last of the rural exchanges to make those digital. The Five-Year construction program for Minnesota for u.s. West is 1.3 billion dollars. We are working closely with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission in the Minnesota Legislature. Both of whom have some Progressive ideas for giving us the flexibility and the incentive to deliver these new Services. We're working with Congress on proposals to free American companies to serve and compete and not handcuffed those companies understand that Bob Allen was here in 1994 from AT&T and gave some reasons for those handcuffs when he spoke here at that time. Well, I'm giving you another view today. The new Congress has asked all of us. Telephone companies cable companies long-distance companies all companies if there's any way we can come up with a shared View and we are working on that. I'm optimistic. There can be legislation this year to me. There's little doubt that the overriding question in all of this is can we build an information superhighway? That will be the route to a better life. For all Americans and I say yes, I've never had more fun in my entire career and I'm having right now and trying to put that together putting together. The alliance's the appliances the menus and the venue's to get that Highway built. It's been great being with you today and enjoyed it very much. Thank you. Thank you a reminder to our radio audience. You're listening to Richard McCormick the chairman and chief executive officer of USS. West talking to Minnesota meeting on these stations of Minnesota Public Radio. Our first question is from Bill dubs who's with Williams executive search. Thank you. Would you comment for a moment please on the Strategic alliances? First of all, there is no company anywhere in this country that can possibly do all of this alone. And you see all of us developing strategic alliances of one kind or another in our case. We have a strategic alliance with Time Warner entertainment putting together their content expertise with our telecommunications expertise. They're the second largest cable operator in the country. So we have a big alliance with them domestically. We have one with TCI in the UK and are exploring other International Ventures with them on this from the standpoint of equipment manufacturing and so forth. There are other alliances being formed with people that are developing either the hardware and the software to make this whole thing a reality and I think you'll see almost every company involved in some sort of an alliance because nobody has The skills and tools and resources to make this happen. Thank you. Our second question is from Karen Anderson. Karen. Anderson is the mayor of Minnetonka? Thank you. I wondered how uswest can make sure or how all of us can make sure that these wonderful new Services you're telling us about would be available or accessible to everyone and not just that first 20% who might be most likely to afford them. Okay, I do think the free market is going to to rule effectively, but I think we have an obligation to put this technology at everyone's fingertips and if we can get the market going I think it'll be affordable for everyone in terms of the demographics in looking at the network that we intended deploy here in the Twin Cities. It is going to cross all economic strata all-race strata so that it does it is truly representative and perhaps a little bit more. So of the Minnesota seen beyond that, I think there are plans in Congress to assure Universal service with respect to the telephone. That we know today in our hope is that we'll have a capability of universal access overtime for these services. Our next question thank you is from Gary capon. Thank you. What industries are likely to feel the greatest upheaval as a result of what you're talking about. In other words, what are the passenger Railway industries of a hundred years ago? That's a very difficult question because it involves may be picking winners and losers and I don't see this as a zero-sum game where because cable companies or we may be successful in developing this information highway. I don't think you're necessarily going to see industries that are going to go by the wayside in in great quantities. I do think that over time that could happen and as opposed to to us fighting each other for market share. I think we're assuming that we're going to capture some of that growth that exist today for example in catalog shopping. It's a 63 billion dollar business the video game business as we know it today, perhaps some of the point-of-sale aspects of videos. Certainly like to transform and translate that onto our Network. So I think if you look at all of the ways that we live and work our hope is to transfer some of that gasoline and energy to more productive use and do it through telecommunications, but I don't think I have any specific buggy whip companies that I want to name right now. Our next question is from Shannon Miller Shannon Miller is in high school student from Park Center and with the corporate sponsor st. Paul companies. I was wondering what you think the impact on society will be as far as like the big brother syndrome or raising a socially inept Society that's screen to screen telephone Etc. Well I think the beauty of technology is that people can choose to harness it and use it in ways that are productive for them. There will be some very good uses of this little make people's lives richer and better more productive. It will put people that are confined in touch with every part of the world to where they can see things and do things that they never before imagined on the other hand. There could be a lot of Coach Commandos created here if people choose to use it that way and I think that's that's the free choice that people have my sense is that They're going to be widely competing avenues for the consumer to choose from whether it's the cable company to provide these services or the telephone company or the electric utility or the direct broadcast satellite folks or whomever. It might be and my view is that there isn't one big brother out there that's going to have all the answer or have the connection to the home and have you the captive of that. I think consumers are going to have Choice both wired and Wireless in my view is that they're going to exercise that choice. Thank you. Mr. McCormick. Our next question is from Paul Burns president of unified Communications. Thank you. Will you ask West compete or cooperate with the local cable companies? I think you're going to see for the most part in in major metropolitan areas. These companies are already competing. Cable companies are in telecommunications businesses today to way transmission of data voice in many cases providing alternate long-distance access to the long-distance company. So the companies are already competing. I think the real question might be what's going to happen in the smaller communities back to the earlier question are about the availability of these Services universally to put them in front of everyone. I think I think when you look at the capital costs when you get to fairly small communities, it's going to be very hard to justify some of those costs and it's my hope that in some communities may be below 50,000 people or so that the cable company and the telephone company could get together and jointly provide an interactive Service as opposed to both of these companies having to step up to that Capital to do that because I don't think it's going to happen very quickly if that's the case. It'll take several years. We are exploring also with cable companies joint trenching. We're exploring the concept of condominium mising fiber optic cable so that they own part we own part. We don't have to put side by side cables down the street and so forth. So I think there are areas where we can cooperate but I think in the in the final analysis, I think we're going to provide vehicles of choice for the consumer cable companies coming from an entertainment medium and we coming from a telecommunications medium. Thank you. Our next question is from Randy Olson who works at the suburban community Channel and he is also a board member of the Northwest Alliance for Community media. Yes today in the Twin Cities cable TV provides access for the public to produce community-based programming. Do you plan to provide Spectrum space and fundraising for similar services that enhance Communications within a community especially due to the fact that because of the economics of scale Enterprises like this are not feasible for the private sector to provide them. Yeah Spectrum will be available on our Network likewise. Okay. Thank you. Mr. McCormick. Our next question is from Jorge mudra. He's the executive director of Dakota ink. So do has to do with Transportation. What do you think? You're the kind of data that you're giving us? Well, how would that be fed into the discussions that our state is having concerning airports larger and expanding our our highways like i-35w just that kind of a make a comment on that, please. Okay. Well coming from Denver. I'm an expert in airports. You know the difference between the White House and the Denver Airport, of course, that is the we've actually landed a plane at the White House. I think there are data that are people have today for example on the issue of telecommuting. I think IBM has done a terrific job as a corporation of really encouraging this with their own employees. We have set up inside uswest a Market unit telecommuting or the home office Market as we call it. I think the first month out of the box, we had a hundred thousand customers of that service. I think we're getting data as we speak that could be made available in these sorts of planning studies of what at least maybe some projections and I'm sure they're a little bit wild-eyed right now, but projections of what could happen in terms of transfer of say gasoline and and maybe some of the work habits and some of the travel habits that could be converted to Telecommunications. It's from Carolyn Hyatt who's with process Technologies. Thank you. The information superhighway is going to be a reality. I believe that the only question is when however security is security of the information is critical not just for the data that speeds on that highway but the interpretation of data that accumulates and can be used for marketing and sales initiatives. Can you comment on that? I think from the standpoint of the provider like ourselves and the cable companies and so forth. We've been in business a long time in terms of handling customer information cable companies today know which video on demand choices you make for example, we know what we're calls are made and so forth and we've protected that information that's been part of our value system forever. I think from the standpoint of the provider of the good or service that might be sold to you over that Network. My view is that the same sort of information that's available today by those companies will probably be available to those companies in the future. They have credit card data on you now and I think with respect to the Privacy aspects of that. I think my view is that in terms of the provider of the network itself. Our goal is to provide it with the same sorts of standards and not releasing proprietary data and not using that in any other way than what the customer intended and that's that's the way uswest is going to approach this. So that's kind of where I think it's it's going to fall out. Thank you. Our next question is by Harvey Del Harvey dough is a manufacturer agent. Does your video have a real time for motion and color balance and how many frames per second? Will it be you know, that's a question that I can't answer on the frames per second. I know we have someone in the audience that could answer that and why don't I get him with you after the meeting but we do have full motion. We've got we're talking about a gigabit of capacity virtually in each Direction here. So there is better than any quality. You can imagine capability there. I think we're only limited by the by the receiving devices. Terms of frames per second. I think I better defer that to mr. Beast Ricky who's in the audience today. So yes a reminder now to our radio audience, you are listening to Richard McCormick chairman and CEO of u.s. West and our next question is from another student that we have with us through our corporate sponsor program. This is Jessica Levine who is from an wotton middle school and they are sponsored by inter-regional Financial Group. How long would it take to fully integrate the information superhighway into a date until our daily lives? I think it's going to take decades to to Really assimilate what skate what's capable or what we're capable of what this technology and how it will affect our lives over time. I think it will begin with the trickle it'll begin with some simple applications. And I think it'll grow it will grow like a flood like a waterfall and the applications will be endless and they're only limited by the imagination of the people that provide the content and the various uses for the capability. So my view is that the Twin Cities could see In the year 2000 a very robust applications that in my view is in the year 2010 or the year 2020. It will make the year 2000 look like the Dark Ages it'll explode that quickly think about internet right now and I was talking to your teacher earlier about whether your school is on internet. I know you are in the multimedia Center but this service had something like 8 billion bytes of data going over it in a month's time period and it's 80 billion three years later. The explosion is unbelievable on this narrow band hard to excess hard to use service for the average consumer. So Think of making something that's full motion video easy to use in everyone's home through the television set and my view is it's going to explode but it's going to take a few decades to really know what the profound impact is going to be. Thank you. Our next question is by Nancy Halls Nancy hearts of the Minnesota Science Museum. Thank you on a more global scale. How will you hold the superhighway be affecting Global Communications? And would you comment on how ready you feel the world? Is it connect and exchange information across cultures and countries. I think the world is much further ahead than I would have guessed and having come from maybe one end of that Spectrum having been in India all week. It's incredible. What's happening in a community called Bangalore in the southern part of India. This is the Silicon Valley of India. If you will, this is a country with 900 million people with fewer phones than we have in u.s. West territory where we serve 25 million people we have about 13 million lines. They have about 10 for their entire country, but nevertheless so you might think what a terribly backward country that is on the other hand. There's a group of Engineers and in software people. There that are writing software for us today that's being used in the United States and it's being transmitted here daily by satellite entrepreneurs Galore government's involved in privatization of government-owned telephone companies and government owned businesses. Encouraging private Enterprise. I think telecommunications tore down the Berlin Wall. I think they I think they made what happened at Tiananmen Square on the front page of every newspaper possible. And I telecommunications is going to continue to break down those barriers and make this truly a global village if you will in terms of that that particular term and I think wherever you go whether it's China or wherever it is don't think of that these countries have to be wired. They can be Wireless and satellite scan transmit and do every day billions of bits of data in the darkest corners of the earth, and there is no society that in my view needs to be left off. I think they need to be Just by government policy and Entrepreneurship and the public development, but my view is it truly will involve all countries. We have a question now from Sandy Hill who's president of Enterprise Management International? Much as the laser was uncertain in all its broad applications in later years. Do you think there will be interactivity from satellites in the future? And is there research going on there now really complex interactivity possibilities? I think probably Stan Hubbard is the best person to give that answer and he might give one a little different than mine right now, but I think one of the limitations of direct broadcast satellite is is the difficulty with broadband interactivity and the cost of that and the use of spectrum and what it would mean in terms of equipment to transmit back to the satellite, but I think Stan and the people in direct saw broadcast satellite business think of using the landline Network in cooperation with direct broadcast satellite to wear perhaps if not full motion to a transmission at least telecommunications interactivity the most I know It exists today in terms of looking to manufacturers is is a fairly narrow band interactivity via satellite. Where were effectively the transmitted up capability back to the satellite is kind of collected and gathered at a centralized point and then sent back to the satellite and retransmitted back to Earth. There just isn't a real effective cost parameter. I think that'll that'll make to Way full motion video reality in the near future. I have no I never say never however with respect to technology, but that's one that I think is going to be several decades away. Thank you. Mr. McCormick. We have time for one last question. Our questioner is Josh right who's a film and video student at the Minneapolis Community College and they're sponsored by us West today. Well, yes, mr. Chairman, what will be the cost of information as far as charging goes and distance like will that affect it? Like it doesn't Ella Communications today and how will this better the existing information computer networks? Well, I think it's hard to say what the costs will be. I think the cost will be what the consumer is willing to pay in. My view is these services will rise or fall based on their economic viability and the utility that that service has for the end user for example video on demand. We we should be able to put that in people's hands at at a lower cost and what it would be to rent a movie at a video store and it should be much more convenient on the other hand. I don't think we really know yet what the various price points are going to be it'll be developed over time. So I guess I can't fully answer that question, but it's going to depend on the consumer and if the service is valuable the consumer will pay if it isn't the service will fail.