At&T; Now Offers Access To Internet

AT&T Corp. splashed its way into the consumer Internet business Tuesday by deciding to give its long-distance customers free access to the global data network.

The free service is limited to only five hours per month, after which customers will be billed $2.50 per hour.

Other Internet providers say most of their customers routinely log on for longer than that. So the nation’s No. 1 long-distance carrier has a second offer: $20 per month for unlimited access for its long-distance customers or $25 per month for customers of other long-distance companies.

The free service is available only for a year to people who sign up during 1996.

The move represents a price challenge to other services, which generally start with monthly charges of $5 to $10 and can range to many times that for heavy users. It also represents another step in the company’s ability to combine several kinds of telecommunications service.

Stocks of several Internet-related companies, including America Online Inc., plunged on the news Tuesday. AT&T’s own stock closed down $1 to $64.

Eventually, AT&T will extend lower Internet pricing to people who use its cellular service, too. The plan is typical of a bundling of services that many telecommunications firms hope to do in the future.

MCI Communications Corp., the No. 2 long distance firm, has offered Internet access for 18 months but marketed it mostly to businesses. It charges $20 for 20 hours of use each month and plans no immediate price changes, said Brian Brewer, vice president of business marketing.

Meanwhile, the third-largest long distance firm, Sprint Corp., announced several new Internet services to businesses, including some that allow people to easily use it for connecting to their office.

About 10 to 20 million Americans now use the Internet, chiefly through work or school. Less than 10 million log on to any on-line service from home and less than 2 million are Internet-only subscribers from home.

“We believe people, once they have the time to try out the Internet, will find this a compelling and useful part of their lives,” said Tom Evslin, vice president of the AT&T WorldNet Service, which has also provided Internet access to businesses for several months.

The company is taking orders from consumers immediately for WorldNet Service but it won’t be available until March 14. AT&T will market the service chiefly to its 80 million long distance customers and won’t spend much on outside advertising for it.

AT&T’s access software for the Internet at first will only be available for computers that run the Windows operating system but DOS and Macintosh versions will follow soon.