[Comments].
WavePhore is a communications R & D company founded in 1990. Its
technologies span the range of point-to-multipoint data broadcasting:
FM, television (VBI) data systems. Its primary innovation is the TVTI/4
datacasting system for TV broadcasters.
The three part TVTI/4 system consists of a hardware-based data encoder installed at the TV broadcast station. The encoder transmits digital data "imbedded" between the normal aural and visual broadcast signals reliably at 300 kbps.
Secondly, the data is recovered by a low cost decoder unit designed to physically connect with all existing computer systems, regardless of age or manufacturer.
The third part is the WavePhore Network using current industry/gov't standard access methods & protocols. WavePhore has been operating its TVTI/4 system for over two years in AZ, and has also operated in GA, OK, and FL. A WavePhore system is currently used for the AZ State University ITFS based distance learning program. It allows students at separate satellite campuses real-time participation in lectures and activities, and also transmits printed class lecture notes and student handouts. WavePhore also suggests possible uses for its technologies in health care, education, libraries, fire departments, and in meeting the needs of the blind.
WavePhore suggests that the definitions of universal service and support need to be very broad, and should clear barriers to the use of new technology. WavePhore believes that the law should support both wireline and wireless technologies; the model implemented should be competitively and technologically neutral.