By Patrick McKenna

REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1998 MAR 17 (NB)

The Bloomberg report did not attribute the statement to anyone at Microsoft. However, the story surfaced on the same day Microsoft began several days of preliminary Windows 98 marketing to approximately 500 independent software vendors, retailers, and computer-makers in San Francisco, California. The event was not open to the press.

Microsoft previously revealed a pre-Windows 98 launch event called "Microsoft eXtreme" and scheduled for 34 to 45 theaters in the US and Canada on April 4. The satellite broadcast which is open to anyone who registers through Microsoft's World Wide Web site, at http:// www.microsoft.com

, will preview Windows 98 features. Attendees, currently numbering 34,000 registered, will also get t-shirts, popcorn, and sodas. Microsoft chief executive officer, Bill Gates, is not expected to participate.

Bloomberg's story claims Rob Enderle, an analyst with Giga Information Group, said Windows 98 will be shipped to personal computer makers by May 15 so they can install the software in their machines by June 25. Two versions will be available, one with the Internet Explorer browser icon and one without, to avoid any conflict with a preliminary court injunction against Microsoft."

Microsoft has officially said Windows 98 will not be a revolutionary product similar to Windows 95. Breyfogle told Newsbytes, the basic desktop will be similar to Windows 95, but the new Windows 98 desktop will have more of a three-dimensional (3-D) look and feel. Additionally, users can expect many new small navigation and customization features. "There is tons and tons of work under-the-hood," said Breyfogle.

Along with 3-D, Breyfogle said universal serial bus (USB) seems to be the feature beta testers find as the most significant change from Windows 95. USB is a connectivity technology which replaces the current conventions used to connect monitors, printers, pointing devices, speakers, scanners, digital cameras, and almost any device which connects to the back of a personal computer.

She also said the new Windows version provides a more stable Windows environment, faster application launches (30 to 50 percent faster), a more efficient hard drive management technology, more self-maintenance, and easier access to the Internet.

Given Microsoft's current legal proceedings over the company's Internet browser and browser integration into the Windows operating system, the software giant repeatedly says Internet Explorer, the Microsoft browser, will be integrated into Windows 98. Bloomberg, continuing to cite Enderle, wrote, "Windows 98 will be shipped to personal computer makers by May 15 so they can install the software in their machines by June 25. Two versions will be available, one with the Internet Explorer browser icon and one without, to avoid any conflict with a preliminary court injunction against Microsoft."

Microsoft has said Windows 98 will sell for approximately the same price, just under $100, as Windows 95 when it debuted several years ago. By June, 1999, analysts expect to see Microsoft earn $400 to $500 million from the sale of Windows 98.

Reported by Newsbytes News Network: http://www.newsbytes.com

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"There is a lot of speculation about when we will ship Windows 98 and June 25 is the popular guess right now, but we have not publicly stated a date," said Microsoft [NASDAQ:MSFT] product manager for Windows client, Stacy Breyfogle. Her response came after Bloomberg's news service claimed the software giant said Windows 98 will reach retail shelves on June 25.

By Craig Menefee

WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1998 MAR 17 (NB)

The report, datelined in San Jose, California, was published by Dow Jones newswire early Tuesday, in advance of an announced press conference by SIA in Washington, D.C.

According to the report, SIA acknowledges major growing pains, including the high cost of new plants and the much publicized shortage of skilled technical workers.

SIA predicts a shortage of 40,000 skilled workers by 2002. A bill now being considered would lower immigration barriers for non-US citizens who have needed skills, although critics charge the real aim is to help corporations give skilled jobs to lower paid immigrants.

As for the increasing cost of building new cutting- edge manufacturing plants, it currently sets a company back about $2 billion to build one from scratch. SIA predicts that could rise to $10 billion by 2002, the report said.

In terms of 1996 figures, SIA said its industry generated $70.9 billion in revenues. Higher ranked industries were motor vehicle at $206.2 billion, followed by petroleum at $162.9 billion, and motor vehicle parts at $110.1 billion.

According to the report, SIA says chips have accounted for nearly 8% of all US manufacturing growth, while the price of microprocessing capacity, measured in one million instructions a second, has declined approximately 30% a year since 1970.

Last week, the SIA said World semiconductor sales reached $10.97 billion in January, up $304 million from January 1997 totals, making January 1998 the second best of the 1990s. Europe sales grew the fastest, said the SIA report, up 10.5 percent from January 1997. The Americas jumped 7.3 percent while Asia-Pacific markets rose seven percent, said SIA. Only in Japan did chip sales remain depressed, down 12.8 percent from January 1997.

The SIA industry group, operating since 1977, claims a membership of companies that comprise 90 percent of US-based semiconductor production.

Reported by Newsbytes News Network: http://www.newsbytes.com

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A report says semiconductors were the fourth largest US industry in 1996 and the market continues a growth rate triple that of the overall US economy. At its current growth rate, the size of the industry will double by the year 2002, claimed the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

By Martyn Williams

TOKYO, JAPAN, 1998 MAR 17 (NB)

The system, designated ITU-T G.729 Annex A by the Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union (ITU), offers undistorted, toll-quality speech and this has led to it being used widely in digital telephones, on the Internet, in teleconferencing systems and other applications.

The involvement of large telecom organizations in the development of high-end codecs (encoder-decoders), and the resulting patents that were issued for proprietary technology, resulted in a confusing number of patent negotiations and copyright clearances before the system could be adopted. This is believed to have slowed adoption of the system, said NTT.

The new G.729 Consortium will offer a one-stop shop for licensing of all patents owned by the three founding members. More patent holders will be invited to join and become members of the consortium, said NTT, thus future helping companies wishing to license the technology.

NTT said it expects the development of LSI (large scale integrated circuits) chips for G.729 systems will be helped by the announcement.

Reported By Newsbytes News Network: http://www.newsbytes.com

France Telecom and the Universite de Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada, have jointly established the G.729 Consortium to simplify the licensing process for the international digital audio coding and decoding standard. Sipro Lab Telecom will act as the single licensing agent.

Bangkok Post

BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1998 MAR 18 (NB)

Here are his own words:

Wherever I travel in the world today, government and business leaders are interested in technology. They want to know how it can help their country compete in the fast-approaching information age. They wonder how they will develop the infrastructure. And they worry about how it will change their local cultures. No one has easy answers for all these questions, and many countries (including the United States) are struggling to formulate an overall approach.

This week I will be traveling in Southeast Asia, and it's exciting to see the hard thinking and long-term planning that countries are doing to put technology at the heart of their efforts to become fully developed nations.

One of the many great things about the IT industry is that it does not create a win-lose situation. If Singapore develops faster than other countries, it doesn't mean that they "win" and everyone else "loses," only that the region will be stronger when they all catch up. IT will make the entire region stronger. In fact, I think countries throughout the region can learn much from one another, and they will all benefit. A connected economy reaches critical mass only when everyone is connected.

Like many other emerging economies in the region, Thailand has moved from an agricultural to industrial base in the last 20 years. The country's leadership, despite the current short-term regional economic downturn, is starting to do the planning necessary to get to another, bigger transition by developing high- productivity information-based industries for the next century.

Although Thailand is in earlier stages of development compared to some of its regional neighbors, I think they are showing great progress through the research done on Software Park, and more recently in the protection of Intellectual Property rights. This is a good time for Thailand to think about what it wants to achieve and how technology can be used to the benefit of the population.

During my trip, I'll be talking a lot about two approaches that I have called the "digital nervous system" and the "Web lifestyle." These are ways to use technology to create greater efficiencies in government operations, to serve citizens better, to improve and broaden education, and to help businesses compete globally.

The digital nervous system is my term for how governments and business can use technology to provide better and richer information for everyone. For countries as a whole, it helps to improve the way people live, learn and work. Providing better and faster services, publishing information for citizens, providing access to knowledge from all over the world - these are all benefits of a digital nervous system.

A clear example that we have seen in a Malaysian organization is Tenaga Nasional Berhad's Customer Service Division's (CSD) Call Management Center (CMC). Using MS Exchange, CSD has built a power outage reporting and tracking system that is accessible nationwide. This results in closer supervision by experienced engineers and the management team, thereby ensuring customers' complaints are attended to on a timely basis.

The Web lifestyle is the same technology seen from the consumer or citizen's side-conducting business with governments and private firms online, quickly and easily, from work or home.

Today, 85 interactive applications are available on Singapore One, ranging from leisure and travel services to education (including interactive language courses) to a variety of specialty shopping venues. The National Computer Board sees the Internet as a way to create electronic "discount malls" that provides custom services to consumers without the high costs of shop space - since land is at a premium in Singapore. Already, at least one store accepts electronic orders and delivers groceries directly to customers.

If Thailand can use the combination of PCs, the Internet, and email technologies appropriately, the country will have an efficient "digital nervous system" behind the scenes to handle internal government transactions and external transactions with citizens efficiently. Citizens will be able to adopt the "Web lifestyle" to conduct business with the government without having to visit many different government offices.

I anticipate that over time, these initiatives will help to stimulate local business and enable local businesses to compete in the region and worldwide. They apply not just to large businesses or high- technology businesses. They can help small businesses become much more efficient and productive, and expand - without having to invest substantially - to reach new customers. They can help farmers to get information quickly on weather, commodity prices, and technical research on agriculture, to improve crops and get better prices.

Governments need to ensure that intellectual property is protected on the Internet, and I am very happy to see that Thailand has taken a step in doing this by establishing an Intellectual Property Court to raise awareness of legal software use. This is very important if you are to expect international companies to invest in Thailand.

If the law does not protect interesting and useful content from plagiarism and other unauthorized uses, authors will be unwilling to provide it. Consumers and users need to understand that the protection of intellectual property benefits everyone. It means that a local community whose livelihood is derived from developing intellectual property can thrive.

Governments also must let innovation flourish without heavy government regulation. Unlike the telecommunications and broadcast industries, which are limited by the number of frequencies available in each region, the Internet provides unlimited opportunities for content providers, and the cost of delivering content is relatively low.

Telecommunications deregulation is another important action to bring down costs and improve capabilities by fostering competition. Governments also need to ensure that private information can be protected. Smart cards are the best answer to this problem for citizen-type services. Users need some way to securely identify themselves when they are trying to access data such as information on benefits or taxes, or to receive benefits. At the same time, citizens are concerned that too much information about them could be placed on a single card.

Businesses and citizens also need to be able to send financial transactions across the Internet securely. Buyers want to be sure no one but the seller can get to the credit-card information, for instance, and sellers want to be sure the buyers are who they claim they to be, before shipping an order. Every country must ensure that proper encryption standards are in place to protect the confidentiality of a wide range of financial, commercial and personal data traveling through an open network, and that the servers where the information is stored are secure from break-in.

Local companies that develop this expertise will be able to take advantage of the Microsoft business model. Because we provide a software platform, our success requires a diverse local work force - hardware, software, service and support companies. This means the community is served by many competitive local providers, rather than just one.

In addition to providing a broad platform that fosters a vibrant marketplace, we also have a role to play in helping develop the skills of the third-party community. We look forward to working with business and government in Thailand to further these goals. I am excited over Thailand's progress.

Reported By Newsbytes News Network: http://www.newsbytes.com

Microsoft Corp. [NASDAQ:MSFT] chairman and chief executive officer Bill Gates wrote this letter to Thailand in advance of his visit to the region. In this Bangkok Post/Newsbytes exclusive, he says he is excited by Thailand's progress, praises the Software Park project and efforts to protect intellectual property rights, while cautioning about Internet regulation and urging telecommunications deregulation.

By Jacqueline Emigh

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1998 MAR 18 (NB)

Dow Jones Markets, a distributor of financial data such as foreign exchange rates and commodity prices, will become known as Bridge Telerate, a Dow Jones spokesperson told Newsbytes.

Initially launched by Dow Jones in 1969, the financial data service was first known as Telerate, the spokesperson said. Dow Jones changed the name of the service to Dow Jones Telerate in the early 1990s, and to Dow Jones Markets early last year, he added.

The $510 million purchase price consists of $360 million in cash and $150 million of five-year, four percent preferred stock for Bridge. The stock is convertible into 10 percent of Bridge's common equity, according to officials.

Under the deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter, the 3,500 employees of Dow Jones Markets will become employed by Bridge Telerate.

Dow Jones will retain The Wall Street Journal, including: its international and interactive editions; Barron's magazine and other periodicals; the Ottaway group of community newspapers; Dow Jones Newswires; Dow Jones Interactive; and Dow Jones Interactive.

The Dow Jones spokesperson noted that, although Dow Jones once delivered both its financial data and newswire services through dedicated terminals, both services are now being delivered mainly through electronic feeds to PCs and network servers.

Dow Jones is also co-owner with NBC of the CNBC television operations in Asia and Europe, with intentions to start delivering news content to CNBC in the US this spring.

Bridge provides terminal and feed products to more than 75,000 users at more than 6,500 organizations. Services include news and information on commodities, derivatives, foreign exchange rates, and equities. The company is also co-producer of the Nightly Business Report.

A spokesperson for Bridge told Newsbytes that a news conference on the deal will be held in Manhattan at 1 pm today.

The Dow Jones spokesperson told Newsbytes that Dow Jones is not participating in the news conference. Instead, the company will hold a conference call with financial analysts, he said.

Reported by Newsbytes News Network: http://www.newsbytes.com

Dow Jones & Company [NYSE:DJ] plans to sell its Dow Jones Markets online financial data service to Bridge, with a news conference on the $510 million deal slated for 1 pm today in New York City. Also under the agreement, Dow Jones will retain the Wall Street Journal and other publications, as well as online services such as Dow Jones Newswires, but Bridge will become a non-exclusive distributor of Dow Jones Newswires worldwide.

By Martyn Williams

TOKYO, JAPAN, 1998 MAR 18 (NB)

NCAA Basketball Live Online

In NCAA Basketball, the field of 64 has narrowed to the Sweet Sixteen and you can catch all the action live on the Internet. Listen to the drama unfold as the best college hoops players vie for the National Championship. Four games are live on Audionet tomorrow night and the Web site features a schedule for the upcoming games. World Wide Web: http://drew.audionet.com/acsn/basketball/ finalfour

Financial Survey Online

The Inter-American Development Bank has just completed a survey of financial and capital markets across the Americas and placed the results online. The database includes a large amount of market information and data on laws governing financial transactions in the Americas. The survey, which involved more than 3,000 questions sent to institutions in 29 countries, is posted in both English and Spanish. World Wide Web: http://www.financial- markets.iadb.org

ESPN Passes Million Hits Mark

ESPN Sportszone says the current NCAA college basketball tournament has pushed the daily number of daily visits passed one million. SportsZone attracted 1.1 million visits on March 9, 25 percent better than its previous high recorded during the Olympics. World Wide Web: http://espn.sportszone.com

Moore's Law And The Telecom Industry

Computer industry gadfly Bob Cringely looks at how Moore's Law will apply to the communications industry in the next few years. Find his thoughts at: "The Coming World of One Cent Per Minute Long Distance: Why Traditional Phone Companies are Scared of the Future Even Though They Should Not Be" World Wide Web: http://www.pbs.org/cringely

Dr. Jobb's Launches Radio Program

Dr. Dobb's Journal, a leading magazine for software developers, has announced the launch of its Dr. Dobb's TechNetCast Internet radio program. The new netcast promises listeners in-depth interviews with industry experts and professional programmers working on the cutting edge technologies. Hosted by Philippe Lourier and Joey Fortuna, Dr. Dobb's TechNetCast is available live from New York on Friday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. EST and then on demand from the site. World Wide Web: http://www.technetcast.com

Gebbie Expands Media Links

Gebbie Press offers a wealth of data on its Web site. Visitors may download Gebbie's entire weekly newspaper and TV station databases, which include addresses and contact details for hundreds of organizations. You can also find Internet links to 3,500 radio sites, 772 daily paper sites, 625 weekly paper sites, 995 TV sites and 1,320 magazine sites...plus other media organizations on the Internet. World Wide Web: http://www.gebbieinc.com

Danger, Danger, Will Robinson!

As part of the promotions for the new Lost in Space movie, coming on April 3, the movie producers are bringing to life online, the classic Robot character from the TV show. The infamous Robot with his trademark line, "Danger, danger, Will Robinson," will appear in a series of six, 60-second interactive cartoons available from the movie Web site. The system is backed by a new technology so that users not only interact with the Robot, but the Robot can actually take users to designated entertainment sites to find out show-times and where the "Lost in Space" film is playing locally. World Wide Web: http:// www.dangerwillrobinson.com/movie.html

How Can We Improve?

If you have any ideas about things you want to see in Internet Update please tell us about them. We also accept any criticisms about features and areas we cover now so tell us what's on your mind! Our e-mail address is inbox@newsbytes.com . Internet Update is a daily feature of the Newsbytes News Network.

Reported By Newsbytes News Network: http://www.newsbytes.com

This is a roundup of new and updated resources and services on the global Internet including: NCAA Basketball live online; financial survey online; ESPN passes million hits mark; Moore's Law and the telecom industry; Dr. Jobb's launches radio program; Gebbie expands media links; Danger, Danger, Will Robinson!

By Martyn Williams

TOKYO, JAPAN, 1998 MAR 18 (NB)

Under the terms of the agreement, SilkRoute has become an approved systems integrator for Netscape's ECXpert and PublishingXpert, both part of its CommerceXpert product line for Internet commerce.

The partnership will focus initially on business-to- business solutions for the manufacturing sector, an area where SilkRoute and its EDI/Internet company Asia Manufacturing Online is already active.

"We've been seeking companies with proven skills in providing Internet solutions for large enterprises in this region, and we are thrilled to enlist SilkRoute as our first E-Commerce regional systems integrator," said Ramesh Nava, managing director at Netscape Communications Asia South.

"This relationship with Netscape enables SilkRoute to deliver world-class, mission-critical Internet solutions to the enterprise market," said Wong Toon King, chairman and managing director of SilkRoute Ventures.

Asia Manufacturing Online currently operates a commercial Internet-based electronic commerce system from a Singapore base and has operations in Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong. The system links manufacturers with suppliers for electronic exchange of purchase orders and other data.

Earlier this month, Wong told Newsbytes the company was looking to expand its system into other Asian countries, particularly Japan, and the United States (Newsbytes, March 4, 1998).

Reported By Newsbytes News Network: http://www.newsbytes.com

Netscape Communications Corp. [NASDAQ:NSCP] has appointed Singapore's SilkRoute Ventures as its first Electronic Commerce Systems Integrator (ECSI) for Asia South, SilkRoute said today. The deal is part of Netscape's expansion away from pure Web servers and into the electronic commerce market.

By Craig Menefee

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1998 MAR 18 (NB)

The researchers said database markets grew at a stately seven percent last year, down from the previous year's 15 percent level, but should continue with slow, steady growth during the foreseeable future.

While IBM's OS/400 version of DB2 was on top in 1996 with a 27.2 percent market share, that share stayed constant in 1997 while Oracle's market share grew from 24.9 to 27.5 percent, according to preliminary 1997 figures. As a result, Oracle wrested a bare 0.3 percent market share lead over IBM.

Dataquest, a unit of Gartner Group, says the drop from 15 to seven percent overall growth translates to revenue growth from about $6.2 to about $6.6 billion. The market is growing, "just not as fast as in previous years," said the researchers.

Carolyn DiCenzo, director and principal analyst of Dataquest's database and data warehousing worldwide program, said "pockets of the market" saw high growth sparked mostly by the spread of Windows NT. She told Newsbytes, "You'll see NT continue moving forward, trying to go neck-in-neck with Unix. But you'll see Unix continue to grow too."

Of Unix and NT, DiCenzo commented: "I think both will live very healthily together, because they're appropriate to different types of applications. Just as MVS and the OS/400 IBM platforms still survive and do well because they are appropriate for certain applications, you'll see Unix continue to be a strong platform."

NT will take an ever greater share "until the market becomes balanced," DiCenzo predicted, adding that NT "might inch out Unix over the next five years, but you're still talking a $2 to $2.5 billion market for the two platforms."

DiCenzo said the Year 2000 or Y2K problem, caused by computer calendar systems that cannot properly handle a "00" in the year field when the year 2000 arrives, will drive additional revenues into vendor coffers "as companies scurry to replace or upgrade not-Y2K-compliant applications."

Among new database purchases in 1997, relational models dominated, with Oracle leading on both Unix and NT platforms. Total Unix sales declined compared to 1996, mostly because of Informix and Sybase weakness. The decline in total numbers came despite strong growth in Unix product sales by both IBM and NCR, said Dataquest.

As might be expected, given the proliferation of Microsoft Windows NT servers, databases made their strongest showings in the NT arena, with sales there up 91 percent. Oracle took a 41.5 percent share on NT platforms, followed by Microsoft at 38.8 percent.

In overall market share, the leading 1997 vendors were: Oracle, up from 24.9 to 27.5 percent; IBM, steady at 27.2 percent; Microsoft, up from 12.1 to 14.9 percent; Sybase, down from 5.7 to 4.5 percent; and Informix, down from 6.1 to 4.4 percent. All other vendors split a share down from 24.0 to 21.5 percent.

Dataquest's DiCenzo predicted vendors will continue to segment their products into base and add-on modules. Modules let vendors compete better on total pricing and get added revenues by selling value-added features instead of expensive whole-system upgrades. The segmented is made to order for products aimed at the Y2K problem, Newsbytes notes.

More information about Dataquest including descriptions of recent research reports is available on the Internet at http://www.dataquest.com

Reported by Newsbytes News Network: http://www.newsbytes.com

The database market has matured, with growth rates now in single digits, but recent proclamations of its death as a market were premature, says Dataquest. The market research firm said early figures show Oracle squeaked ahead of longtime front runner IBM to take a slim lead in a stable 1997 database market.

By Sami Menefee

SECAUCUS, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1998 MAR 18 (NB)

Mary Gelb, marketing specialist for Panasonic, told Newsbytes: "SOHO users can use their digital cameras in standard or lower resolution (512 by 384 pixels) to post electronic images like e-mailed attachments or putting small photos on World Wide Web sites."

High resolution quality gets lost in such situations because of the small size of photos posted on the Web, said Gelb, while higher resolutions (typically 1, 024 by 768 pixels) create larger file sizes. Larger files increase download times, "a real concern to most Web users," Gelb added.

However, she said higher resolutions make better quality prints, "and that's what most consumers are interested in." She added that Adobe PhotoDeluxe comes bundled with the camera.

The new camera has a footprint about the size of a credit card, with a million-pixel charged coupled device (CCD), similar to those used in a camcorder, that picks up color and light variations, changes those variations into voltage values, and stores the data.

The PalmCam's 5 millimeter (mm) 2.8 fixed lens is equivalent to a 36mm lens on a 35mm camera, the firm said. Shutter speed automatically adjusts from 1/4 to 1/2000th of a second. Other features include automatic white balance, a macro setting for close shots, an optical viewfinder, detachable electronic flash and a 2X zoom. Images can be previewed on a two-inch built-in color liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor, for immediate deletion or saving in standard Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format.

She said the camera used any ATA (AT Attachment) compatible card for extra memory storage, like SmartMedia, PC cards, and CompactFlash storage cards. The camera can accept storage cards as high as 30 megabytes (MB).

When ready to print, the user can plug the camera into a docking station (included in the package), connect to a TV using a composite video cable or remove the storage card, plug into a laptop's PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) slot using the optional adapter or insert the memory card directly into the Panasonic printer.

Gelb also talked about Panasonic's digital photo- quality printer, the PV-PD2000: "This a multi-input printer with a key feature being that you can take the CF (CompactFlash) card out of the camera and put it into the adapter that comes with the printer and print directly from the card slot, without the need to go through the computer -- it's basically computerless printing. Or you can print from the computer or from a video source like a camcorder or television.

"The printer has a special print set for customers to use with the printer, with special paper and ink cartridge in one box," she said. The firm offers three types of paper available, two types have adhesive backing and the third is regular four- by six- inch pre-cut photograph quality paper.

Panasonic's page on the World Wide Web is at http://www.panasonic.com . The PV-DC1580 PalmCam digital camera can be seen on the Web site at http://www.kodak.com/go/ kodakpn

Reported by Newsbytes News Network: http://www.newsbytes.com

Panasonic says it will ship a palm-sized digital camera, the PV-DC1580 PalmCam, this May. The new camera has high and low resolutions and is targeted for small office/home office (SOHO) and individual users.

By Martyn Williams

TOKYO, JAPAN, 1998 MAR 18 (NB)

The Guangzhou deal includes headend equipment, QPSK cable modems, and one way down cable modems with telephone return. The cable TV network operator has 600,000 subscribers in Guangzhou

It is the first result of the deal with GLW, which already operates in China. The agreement has the potential to generate up to $6.6 million in the first three years, said Hybrid. In addition to selling the systems, GLW will be responsible for service and support in China.

When the Guangzhou service is in place, it will serve as a real- world example system for selling onto other operaters, explained John Wee, GLW vice president of operations, "Over 200 cable operators in China previewed Hybrid's network solution and are excited about visiting the showcase location at Guangzhou CATV. There was a groundswell of support for the Hybrid solution and the company's partnership with China in building out data networks of the PRC and possibly telephony in the future."

Reported By Newsbytes News Network: http://www.newsbytes.com

ybrid Networks, Inc. [NASDAQ:HYBR], says it has won an order from Guangzhou CATV for cable modems and headend equipment. The broadband access technology vendor has also announced a deal that gives GLW, a California-based value added reseller, exclusive rights to sell Hybrid's broadband access systems China.