Coming to an Internet box near you this summer may well be a blockbuster movie.

A number of companies are working on video delivery services and cable modem technologies for the Internet that could give users instant moving images and site owners a whole new way of making money.

For example, CellularVision USA has almost completed field-testing its wireless cable modem that allows users in New York City to surf the Web at 500Kbps, and the speed could jump to 35Mbps by summer.

"It makes the Internet experience a lot less frustrating, and images will pop up in seconds coupled with the availability of streaming video," says Shant Hovnanian, chairman and CEO of CellularVision USA, which has been granted the license by the FCC to operate such services in the New York metropolitan area.

Priced between $200 and $1,000, the modem from CellularVision is expected to be available in early summer, Hovnanian says. The company's goal is modest: its first shipment is only 6,000, and it has committed to buying 100,000 units from the manufacturer, New Media Communication, in the first two years.

Apart from the New York market, New Media is striking alliances with other firms to deliver these high-speed cable modems. For instance, Online System Services (OSS, Denver) is going to bundle New Media modems into a turnkey package that includes Internet access, maintenance, and billing for cable and wireless television operators seeking to offer high-speed Internet services. A company spokeswoman says cable operator Intermedia and OSS are beta-testing such services in Kingsport, TN.

At the content level, a start-up called InterVU (San Diego, CA) will make good use of these fast modems by signing up site operators that want to offer film libraries, major events, and video marketing messages over the Internet. By providing dedicated video servers, special plug-ins, and players, InterVU hopes to lure these site operators into paying anywhere from a few cents to a quarter per viewing by their customers.

"We'll be dropping a number of high-speed video delivery centers at the cable head-end, which will receive near-TV-quality video," says Steve Klein, vice president of sales at InterVU.

Source: ZD Internet Magazine