Gateway/AOL plan major ADSL strategy for Britain
Two of the biggest names in IT are joining forces to revolutionise broadband content in Britain, executives revealed Wednesday.
Gateway and AOL announced plans to combine their respective talents so the former can supply rich media content, including music and video over ADSL, using the growing media empire that is AOL/ Time Warner.
"That was the purpose of [the AOL] strategic alliance," says vice president of e-commerce with Gateway Europe Brian Nelson. "It gives us access to a lot of content from AOL and Time Warner. We're looking at supplying music and video over ADSL. We want to be first."
Nelson says that Gateway's broadband offering, which is to be bundled with desktop computers, will become available in Britain as soon as ADSL has been fully rolled out.
Gateway may have to get used to delaying its plans: BT (quote: BT) announced the fourth delay Tuesday, blaming ISPs for not attracting enough trialists to test the system.
Manager of emerging technologies at Gateway in Europe Michael Hughes also says that Gateways is eager to lead the revolution by enabling broadband content to transform the home.
"We believe that broadband is going to be a key technology for what we want to offer. Specifically home networking and Internet appliances," he says. "We're looking to roll ADSL out in Britain initially to see if we've got it right and then all across Europe."
Gateway plans to include a music download service in cooperation with record labels as part of a complete ADSL solution although Nelson reassures: "It won't be in the Napster model. You have to pay the artists."
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