SW BELL OFFICIAL DISCUSSES PROJECTS

Missouri's information superhighway is going to happen soon.

"We should start building the new telecommunications network as early as next year," said Charles Roesslein, vice president and general manager for Southwestern Bell Telephone's Eastern Missouri district.

Roesslein, of St. Louis, was guest speaker during a daylong Southwestern Bell service seminar at Drury Lodge in Cape Girardeau Tuesday. He also announced that a new full-time communications consultant was in the plans for the Southeast Missouri region.

Meetings are being held in St. Louis this week to discuss the communications network.

"This is a result of Southwestern Bell Telephone's recent agreement with the Missouri Public Service Commission and the Office of the Public Counsel," said Roesslein.

The agreement, announced earlier this month by the PSC, calls for the telephone company to invest $1.1 billion in its telecommunications network over the next four years and offer some rate reductions and credits to customers. Under the agreement, Southwestern Bell will freeze rates through Dec. 31, 1998. The agreement requires the company to invest no less than $275 million a year for capital improvements over four years.

Roesslein, who has been with Southwestern Bell since 1970, said the information superhighway will be constructed in three phases:

-- Fiber optic connections between all Southwestern Bell offices.

-- Fiber optic connections to the doorstep of up to 75 schools and hospital each year.

-- Five "telecommunity centers" to be announced later.

He said procedures were being developed that will allow hospitals and schools to request the fiber deployment.

"The length of time it takes to put the schools and hospitals on line will depend a lot on them," said Roesslein. "They need to contact us and make arrangements."

The new fiber optic network will allow Missouri customers to receive benefits of interactive video services to bring educational and health-care services to schools and hospitals.

A new full-time communications consultant should be in place here by the first of the year, said Roesslein. "Southeast Missouri customers are important to Southwestern Bell," said Roesslein. "That's why we're dedicating additional resources and a consultant in Cape Girardeau."

The new consultant will provide support to the existing account representatives already assigned in the region.