In London last week cable television entrepreneur Glenn R. Jones, whose interests include the Denver-based Mind Extension University, spoke about his latest venture which combines the massive information-carrying capacity of cable television with the global reach of the Internet.

The Internet Channel, a broadband Internet service delivered over television cables, was launched in Alexandria, Virginia in March.

For $39.95 a month and an installation fee of $99.95, subscribers get unlimited Internet access at data rates up to 10 million bits per second (mbps).

Subscribers get a splitter which allows a computer and a TV set to share a cable connection, and a cable modem which can send and receive computer data 300 times faster than a telephone modem.

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World Wide Web pages containing large images and animations that are bandwidth hungry appear on the screen in a fraction of second, though there is still a perceptible delay while the recipient's computer renders the raw bytes into a visible image.

Proponents of the technology believe it is the breakthrough that the Internet needs before it can become a mass medium like television.

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Other companies have run trials with cable modems, but Mr Jones insists that the Internet Channel is a genuine commercial venture, though there are still only about 100 subscribers.

As a way of getting onto the Internet, it is attractive when compared with the slower and more expensive ISDN service, which telephone companies offer as the next step up from a telephone modem. One customer is said to have moved to Alexandria for this reason alone.

The Internet Channel is a consumer service but the technology has obvious educational potential. The Mind Extension University, for example, uses cable TV, video and increasingly, the Internet to deliver courses developed by established universities.

With a share offering on the Nasdaq stock market imminent, Mr Jones was unable to comment on ME/U's future plans. But a possible scenario would see more and more cable TV systems being upgraded to carry two-way cable modem traffic, not only in the US but in Europe and Asia.

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ME/U could reduce its reliance on scheduled cable TV broadcasts and instead offer interactive multimedia course material of CD-Rom standard, which would be available at any time, anywhere in the world where a cable company offers Internet access.

ME/U has already announced its intention to open up in China, potentially the largest education market of all.