Full Service Network
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Founded in 1989 by University of Pittsburgh student David E. Schwencke, Full Service Network is a Western Pennsylvania facility based Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) providing services which include High Speed Internet and Broadband Phone Service.
Formerly, Full Service Network was a digital video trial performed by Time Warner in Orlando, Florida which launched on December 14, 1994 and lasted for 18 months. During that time, 4,000 customers had free access to the interactive digital system, which included a selection of custom services for video-on-demand, shopping, games, program guide and US Postal Service functions.
Technology partners in the venture included some high profile vendors:
Investors in the system at the time included: Time-Warner Inc., US West, Toshiba and ITOCHU (the world's largest trading group).
It was deemed an expensive failure because of the high cost of set-top boxes, which were basically SGI Indy workstations, in black cases, with turnkey software, connected using ATM networking. The rise of the Internet also rendered many of the shopping and walled garden online services obsolete.
See also: interactive television
