Microsoft, Intel and Compaq will team up to offer net access over ordinary phone lines, at speeds up to 30 times faster than 28.8 modems, at least six times faster than ISDN...once they develop a new standard and manufacture the new modems...likely this Christmas or in early 1999. The service will be offered through most of the Baby Bells and GTE (Bell Atlantic is holding out for its own system).

Streetcats Foundation, a small Oakland, California non-profit, has announced an initiative to begin operating (http://www.child.net/kidsurf. htm) KIDSURFER after-school, free access computer centers in inner cities for at-risk kids. The first centers are expected to be up-and- running in San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles and San Jose in 1998.

What sets the Streetcats project apart is the cost---about $14,000 per center per year, (as opposed to hundreds of thousands of dollars for others plans) and the quick start-ups.

The Kidsurfer Project already has secured nearly 100 computers from private donors and now needs only the physical spaces required to house the centers and about $7,000 additional funding per center per year for additional and supplementary equipment.

American kids and teens, particularly those of low-income, still do not have enough computers to go around or teachers to train them. In addition to providing net access, for study and homework, each center will also offer classes in word-processing, college and career planning and other skills. An important focus will also be to provide a safe place to go for youth between the hours of 2-7pm, when often, with no one home, kids get themselves in trouble.

Streetcats will also offer assistance to other communities, outside of California, to start their own Kidsurfer Centers.