Misplaced Pages

#350649

58-654: Telmex , the largest communications company in Mexico, sponsored the auditorium and is one of the main centerpieces of the University Cultural Center, which is a large cultural project created by the University of Guadalajara . The building was designed by Mexican architect José de Arimatea Moyao and it is located on Parres Arias Av., in Zapopan. Throughout its short history, it has hosted a number of events and concerts and it

116-564: A command-line interface . Prodigy was described by the New York Times as "family-oriented" and one of "the Big Three information services" in 1994. By 1990, it was the second-largest online service provider with 465,000 subscribers, trailing only CompuServe 's 600,000. In 1993 it was the largest. In 2001, it was acquired by SBC Communications , which in 2005 became the present iteration of AT&T . The Mexican branch of Prodigy, however,

174-403: A 43% interest in the company, and Prodigy became the exclusive provider to SBC's 77 million high-speed Internet customers. More than a year later after the launch of Prodigy Broadband (conceived and led by Chris Spanos), SBC bought controlling interest for $ 465 million when Prodigy was the fourth-largest Internet service provider behind America Online, Microsoft's MSN, and EarthLink. Prodigy in 2000

232-559: A 43% ownership interest in Prodigy. On November 6, 2001, SBC purchased 100% interest in Prodigy and brought it private. On November 14, 2001, SBC and Yahoo! announced the strategic alliance to create the cobranded SBC Yahoo! . Sometime after that, SBC ceased offering new Prodigy accounts, and customers were encouraged to migrate to the SBC Yahoo! product line while maintaining their existing Prodigy email addresses. Prodigy's first headquarters

290-426: A flat monthly fee that provided unlimited access. Initially, a monthly rate was set for unlimited usage time and 30 personal messages. In addition, subscribers could purchase additional messages. Later, Prodigy divided its service into "Core" and "Plus" sections. Core section usage remained unlimited, but Plus sections were limited by usage time. Subscribers were afforded a monthly allotment of Plus time, but if that time

348-562: A letter to members, Prodigy explained that upgrades to Prodigy Classic to resolve its Y2K issues were just too expensive and that it felt investing in Prodigy Internet was the best long-term strategy, as many of the popular services offered by Prodigy Classic could be found elsewhere. This decision was consistent with what other online service providers (AOL, CompuServe, MSN) were doing at the time. Still, with these providers competing primarily on ease of ISP setup rather than exclusive content,

406-582: A partial fiber optic network throughout the nation, thus offering service to 30% of the Mexican territory. In 1991, the Mexican government sold its remaining stock in Telmex. In the 1990s, Telmex formed a subsidiary Radio Móvil Dipsa to provide mobile communications under the brand Telcel . In 2000, Telmex spun off their mobile unit, creating América Móvil , which controls Radio Móvil Dipsa. It started with 80% of

464-545: A pioneer in selling "dial-up" connections to the World Wide Web and sold hosting services for Web publishers. Prodigy regularly became the focus of discussions on The Howard Stern Show in the mid-nineties. Numerous shows were devoted to it. In addition, Howard met face-to-face with people he had talked to in Prodigy chat groups under a pseudonym. Howard was the most prominent radio name in America, gaining excellent ratings at

522-403: A policy that was later rescinded. In the summer of 1993, it began charging hourly rates for several of its most popular features, including its most popular feature, the message boards. This policy was later rescinded after tens of thousands of members left the service. The price increases prompted an increase of "underground IDs" by which multiple users would share a single account and manipulate

580-552: A return of the message. Prodigy was slow to adopt features that made its rival AOL appealing, such as anonymous handles and real-time chat . Eventually, the emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web threatened to leave Prodigy behind. In 1994, Prodigy became the first of the early-generation dialup services to offer full access to the World Wide Web and to offer Web page hosting to its members. However, since Prodigy

638-477: Is a Mexican telecommunications company headquartered in Mexico City that provides telecommunications products and services in Mexico. In 2014, Telmex was the dominant fixed-line phone carrier in Mexico. In addition to traditional fixed-line telephone service , Telmex offers Internet access through their Infinitum brand of Wi-Fi networks , data, hosted services and IT services. Telmex owns 90 percent of

SECTION 10

#1732875819351

696-418: Is also the leader in broadband access with its brand Prodigy Infinitum (ADSL). In 2001, Telmex sold the U.S. branch of Prodigy Communications to SBC , which was dubbed SBC Prodigy. However, Telmex continues to own and operate Prodigy in Mexico. In 2004, Telmex claimed that the number of users of Prodigy Internet grew by 190%. Telmex dropped the Prodigy name from its advertising in 2009, replacing it with

754-632: Is considered the main show center in Western Mexico. On September 1, 2007 the auditorium was officially opened with a grand opening event hosted by Plácido Domingo . During its construction, the University of Guadalajara was supported by the federal government of Mexico, the government of Jalisco , the Municipality of Zapopan , the Chamber of Deputies of Congress and the state Congress. The auditorium

812-481: Is constructed to suit events both small and large as it is equipped with mechanically movable platforms and the sound stage can be adjusted in size by moving its movable walls. There are also 27 suites built in and an underground parking lot with direct access to the venue is available. 20°43′59″N 103°22′52″W  /  20.73306°N 103.38111°W  / 20.73306; -103.38111 Telmex Teléfonos de México, S.A.B. de C.V., known as Telmex

870-713: The Caribbean . The reports said that the operation can include the wireless operation on each market. The total amount of this sale was estimated at nearly US$ 300 million. In November 2006, an American embassy cable listed Telmex as among "Mexico's monopolists", with a 95% share of landlines. Its sister company Telcel was listed with a market share of 80% of cellular service. In December 2006, Telmex announced agreement to acquire TV Cable and Cable Pacifico in Colombia. TV Cable offers cable television, Internet and Voice over IP services and has been in operation for 20 years. As of 2013 ,

928-617: The United States . In the same year, Telmex bought from MCI Brazil's largest and most important long-distance operator, Embratel , acquired Chile's Chilesat, took control of Argentina's Techtel (operating in Argentina and Uruguay), of which it already owned 60%, by purchasing the remaining 40% from the Techint group, and purchased Argentina's Metrored. In the US, Telmex bought 13.4% of bankrupt MCI. At

986-435: The "Infinitum" brand of Telmex internet services since that year. The name Prodigy is still used in the Mexican local site of MSN . Telmex owns TV UNO and Claro Sports. In the mid-1990s, AT&T Corporation and WorldCom ( MCI ), among others, began operating in Mexico, representing for the first time serious competition to Telmex. After spinning off América Móvil, Telmex started an expansion plan, which started with

1044-698: The Prodigy service over copper wire telephone " POTS " service or X.25 dialup . Prodigy employed 1,200 bit/s modem connections for its initial rollout and offered low-cost 2,400 bit/s internal modems to subscribers at a discount to provide faster service and stabilize the diverse modem market. The host systems used were regionally distributed IBM Series/1 minicomputers managed by central IBM mainframes located in Yorktown Heights, New York . Thanks to an aggressive media marketing campaign, bundling with various consumer-oriented computers such as IBM's PS/1 and PS/2 as well as various clones and Hayes modems,

1102-434: The Prodigy service soon had more than one million subscribers. To handle the traffic, Prodigy built a national network of POP ( points of presence ) sites that made local access numbers available for most homes in the U.S. This significantly expanded the service because subscribers were not required to dial long distance to access the service. The subscribers paid only for the local call (usually free), while Prodigy paid for

1160-559: The River Place Pointe building in northwest Austin; the building, then under construction, was scheduled to be completed in 2001. Prodigy moved its headquarters in December 2000. Unlike many other competing services, Prodigy started with flat-rate pricing. When Prodigy moved to per-hour charging for its most popular services in June 1993, tens of thousands of users left the service. Prodigy

1218-461: The aging software was not Y2K compliant. The service had 209,000 members when it was discontinued. In 1996, Prodigy was acquired by the former founders of Boston Technology and their new firm International Wireless, with Mexican businessman Carlos Slim Helú , a principal owner of Telmex , as a minority investor. IBM and Sears sold their interests to the group for $ 200 million. It was estimated that IBM and Sears had invested more than $ 1 billion in

SECTION 20

#1732875819351

1276-409: The brand Uninet. A year later, the brand was changed to Telmex Internet Directo Personal (Telmex Direct Personal Internet). In 1996, Telmex bought Prodigy Communications and took the brand to Mexico, renaming the service Prodigy Internet de Telmex. Thanks to their national coverage, Telmex rapidly became the leading national ISP . As of 2005 , Telmex holds more than 80% of the market as an ISP , and

1334-417: The caller for subsequent processing. This approach anticipated innovations such as Java applets and JavaScript . Prodigy also helped pioneer true distributed object-oriented client-server implementations as well as incidental innovations such as the equivalent of HTML frames and prefetching technology. Prodigy patented its inventions, which continue to be relevant and valuable. By 1994, Prodigy became

1392-527: The company operates in more than 50 cities in Colombia including Bogota, Cucuta, Bucaramanga, Ibague and Neiva, among others. SATELCARIBE offers cable TV and Internet access services and has been in operation for 7 years. Currently, the company operates in more than 15 cities in Colombia. In December 2007, Telmex transferred its Latin American and yellow pages directory businesses to a new, separate entity, Telmex Internacional. In January 2010, América Móvil ,

1450-429: The company retooled itself as a true Internet service provider, making its main offering Internet access branded as Prodigy Internet. This new service featured personalized web content, news alerts to pagers , and Java chat. At the same time, Prodigy deemphasized its antiquated proprietary interface and editorial content, which were relabeled as Prodigy Classic. Prodigy Classic was discontinued on October 1, 1999 because

1508-638: The company serves 164,000 homes in Bogotá and Cali . Cable Pacifico serves nine states and its main operation is in Medellín . As of 2013 , Cable Pacifico has approximately 100,000 subscribers. In January 2007, America Movil bought the Verizon operations in Puerto Rico, and days later Telmex and America Movil announced that their equally owned joint venture had agreed with Verizon Communications Inc. ("Verizon") to terminate

1566-934: The connection to its national data center in Yorktown. Under the guidance of Henry Heilbrunn, Prodigy developed a fully staffed 24/7 newsroom with editors, writers and graphic artists intent on building the world's first true online medium. The initial result was that Prodigy pioneered the concept of an online content portal —a single site offering news, weather, sports, communication with other members and shopping for goods and services such as groceries, general merchandise, brokerage services and airline reservations. The service provided several lifestyle features, including popular syndicated columnists, Zagat restaurant surveys, Consumer Reports articles and test reports, games for children and adults, in-depth original features called "Timely Topics", bulletin boards moderated by subject matter experts, movie reviews and email. Working with Heilbrunn in

1624-587: The display of colors and graphics supporting electronic advertising, publishing and commerce. The initial emphasis was on DOS and later Microsoft Windows . After that, users could use the Apple Macintosh , but some Prodigy screens were not properly configured to the Mac standard, resulting in wasted space or partial graphics. Prodigy's initial business model relied more on advertising and online shopping for cash flow than on monthly subscriptions. Subscribers were charged

1682-481: The domain www.prodigy.net redirected to my.att.net, which appeared to be a Yahoo! -based content and search portal mainly linking to other online services. AT&T stopped serving Prodigy-created webpages in 2011, severing yet another tie with the brand. As of March 6, 2024, www.prodigy.net redirects to https://currently.att.yahoo.com . In Mexico, Prodigy Internet is the main ISP with an estimated 92% of market share. It

1740-695: The early stages of Prodigy's design, Bob Bedard pioneered the business model for electronic commerce. Prodigy was the service that launched ESPN 's online presence. Prodigy quickly implemented application standard code modules loaded from diskette. These modules relied upon real-time tokenized data from Prodigy database servers to drive core Prodigy service functionality on local user PCs. This client-server design worked well; by staging application-specific and reusable common code modules on Prodigy end-user diskettes, millisecond "click-to-available-cursor" response times were achieved that were otherwise unachievable in 1986 over slow 1,200-to-2,400 bit/s modems. The service

1798-410: The email service to act as private bulletin boards. This was accomplished by sending emails to intentionally invalid addresses containing the name of the intended recipients. The service would return the emails, which were not billed, and users of the shared account would find the returned messages there. Replies were sent by entering the name of the first sender as the addressee, which would again trigger

Telmex Auditorium - Misplaced Pages Continue

1856-608: The first Wi-Max network in Chile, offering local, long-distance and Internet services to 98% of the Chilean population. In March 2007, Telmex bought Ecutel , a small telecommunications company in Ecuador that offers services to the corporate market. In April 2007, Telmex announced agreement to acquire CABLECENTRO and SATELCARIBE in Colombia. CABLECENTRO offers cable TV and Internet access services and has been in operation for 7 years. Currently,

1914-532: The former parent company. [REDACTED] Media related to Telmex at Wikimedia Commons Prodigy (ISP) Prodigy Communications Corporation was an online service from 1984 to 2001 that offered its subscribers access to a broad range of networked services. It was one of the major internet service providers of the 1990s. The company claimed it was the first consumer online service, citing its graphical user interface and basic architecture as differentiation from CompuServe , which started in 1979 and used

1972-649: The joint venture's agreement to acquire Verizon's indirect equity interests in Compañía Anónima Nacional Teléfonos de Venezuela (CANTV); subsequently, all of Verizon's holdings in CANTV were acquired in May 2007 by the Venezuelan government, reaching 86.2% of its total shares. In January 2007, Telmex launched Prodigy Media, the first step to offer triple play services to the Mexican market. Days later, Telmex started

2030-534: The largest mobile phone company in Latin America, made an offer to buy Telmex and Telmex International in order to better compete against Spain's Telefonica and Malaysia's Telekom Malaysia . The acquisition was approved by the CFC (Comisión Federal de Competencia) Antitrust Office in Mexico on February 11, 2010. América Móvil was once the mobile arm of Telmex, but in 2001, América Móvil was split off and grew larger than

2088-406: The market test, CBS and AT&T took the data and went their separate ways in pursuit of developing and profiting from this market demand. Prodigy was founded on February 13, 1984 as Trintex, a joint venture including CBS, computer manufacturer IBM and retailer Sears, Roebuck and Company . The company was headed by Theodore Papes, a career IBM executive, until his retirement in 1992. CBS left

2146-498: The mobile market. In 2010, America Móvil (an independent company from its former parent company, Telmex) bought 60% of Telmex, paying over 23 billion dollars. In 2011, America Móvil purchased the remaining 40% of Telmex. In August 2012, America Móvil started the process to de-list Telmex from the Mexican Stock Exchange. In the mid-1990s, Telmex began providing Internet access as an Internet service provider (ISP) with

2204-504: The only telephone provider in the country. In 1972, the Mexican government bought the company. In 1990, Telmex was bought by a group of investors formed principally by Carlos Slim Helú , France Télécom , and Southwestern Bell Corporation , whose tender was the largest. However, controversially, the payment itself took place over the course of the next several years, using revenues from the phone service. After privatization , Telmex began investing in new modern infrastructure, creating

2262-447: The product's poor graphics that resulted from the limitations of current technology. Using the early NAPLPS graphic standard, rendering realistic images of products was impossible, presenting great difficulty for online merchants to market products. Despite these challenges, Prodigy was primarily responsible for helping merchants such as PC Flowers become some of the earliest e-commerce success stories. However, revenue from advertising

2320-616: The purchase of Guatemala's Telgua . Later, Telmex bought former state-owned phone companies in Central America, and began operations in the US with Telmex USA. In 2004, Telmex went into a shopping spree for undervalued operators in South America, including the purchase of AT&T's Latin American operations, giving it presence in Colombia , Venezuela , Peru , Paraguay , Chile , Argentina , Brazil , and Uruguay , and increased reach in

2378-668: The retention value was lost. Many members found more affordable ways to access the online content and services they were used to. In 1999 the company, now led by a cadre of ex-MCI executives to turn the brand around, became Prodigy Internet, marketing a full range of services, applications, and content, including dial-up and DSL for consumers and small businesses, instant messaging, e-mail, and communities. In 2000, with subscriber growth exploding and brand attributes at an all-time high, Prodigy explored several partnership deals, including what would have been an unprecedented three-way merger with Earthlink and Mindspring . Ultimately, SBC bought

Telmex Auditorium - Misplaced Pages Continue

2436-570: The same time, sister company America Movil pursued a similar strategy by acquiring cellular operators CTI Movil in Argentina and Uruguay, Claro in Brazil and Peru, Porta in Ecuador and Comcel in Colombia. In 2005, Telmex sold its holdings in MCI to Verizon. As of January 2006, Telmex continued buying assets in Latin America and in the USA. In March 2006, there were rumors that Telmex was buying Verizon operations in

2494-653: The service since its founding. Prodigy continued to operate as it had previously, while Telmex provided Internet access under the Prodigy brand in Mexico and other parts of Latin America , with some services provided by Prodigy Communications in the US. Prodigy went public in 1999, trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol PRGY. Later that year, Prodigy entered a strategic partnership with SBC Communications by which Prodigy would provide Internet services and SBC would provide exclusive sales opportunities and network, particularly DSL , facilities. The strategic partnership also gave SBC

2552-458: The service, similar to AOL's. Access to Usenet newsgroups was made available and Prodigy's first web presence, Astranet, was released shortly afterward. Astranet was to be a web-based news and information service supported partly by advertising. However, the site was considered experimental and incomplete. Another innovation was Skimmer, a market trial ISP service that became the base for Prodigy Internet. In 1996, with Gregory C. Carr as chair,

2610-582: The telephone lines in Mexico City and 80 percent of the lines in the country. Telmex is a wholly owned subsidiary of América Móvil . Telmex was founded in Mexico the January ;1, 1947 ; 77 years ago  ( 1947-01-01 ) , when a group of Mexican investors bought Swedish Ericsson 's Mexican branch. In 1950, the same investors bought the Mexican branch of the ITT Corporation , thus becoming

2668-403: The time. So it could only have been a positive for the Prodigy brand. As the company shifted from its focus on its exclusive "Prodigy Classic" content and started transitioning to "Prodigy Internet" as an ISP in the late 1990s, Prodigy found itself competing with many other lower-priced ISPs, and the price didn't support the value of the Prodigy Internet exclusive content available for members. In

2726-574: The venture in 1986 when CBS CEO Tom Wyman was divesting properties outside of CBS's core broadcasting business. The company's service was launched regionally in 1988 in Atlanta , Hartford and San Francisco under the name Prodigy. The marketing rollout plan closely followed IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA) network backbone. A nationwide launch developed by ad agency J. Walter Thompson and sister company JWT Direct followed on September 6, 1990. Subscribers using personal computers initially accessed

2784-551: Was acquired by Telmex . The roots of Prodigy date to 1980 when broadcaster CBS and telecommunications firm AT&T Corporation formed a joint venture named Venture One in Fair Lawn, New Jersey . The company conducted a market test of 100 homes in Ridgewood, New Jersey to gauge consumer interest in a Videotex -based TV set-top device that would allow consumers to shop at home and receive news, sports and weather. After concluding

2842-400: Was also one of the first online services to offer a user-friendly GUI when competing services, such as CompuServe and GEnie , were still text-based. Prodigy used this graphical capability to deploy advertising, expecting it to result in a significant revenue stream. Prodigy offered online banking, stock trading, advertising and online shopping before the World Wide Web became widely used, but

2900-403: Was exceeded, the subscriber would incur additional charges based on usage time. A blue indicator in the bottom-right corner of the screen indicated the subscriber's section. Prodigy's shopping applications initially underperformed relative to expectations. This was attributed to the company's misperception that online shoppers would pay a premium rather than expect discounts for merchandise and to

2958-629: Was in White Plains Plaza in White Plains, New York . Prodigy announced plans to renew its lease in August 1992, occupying all 340,000 square feet (32,000 m ) of space in the building. In 1992, the facility had 1,000 employees. In 2000, the company announced that it would move its headquarters to Austin, Texas in order to work more closely with SBC Communications . During that year, Prodigy leased 112,000 square feet (10,400 m ) of space in

SECTION 50

#1732875819351

3016-635: Was initially developed primarily to aid shopping. However, it later found much greater usage as a means of general communication between users. The popularity of Prodigy's message boards caused users to remain connected to the service far longer than had been projected. This resulted in escalating expenses that adversely affected the service's cash flow and profitability. To control costs and raise revenue, in January 1991, Prodigy modified its basic subscriber plans by allowing only 30 free email messages each month, while charging 25 cents for each additional email message,

3074-400: Was largely unable to capitalize on these first-mover advantages. Decades later, IBM , which now owns some of the original Prodigy patents, continues to sell licenses for basic ecommerce concepts. Prodigy was a forerunner in caching data on and near users' personal computers to minimize networking and server expenses while improving the experience for users. Prodigy's legacy architecture

3132-482: Was limited. By 1993, Prodigy was developing a network architecture now known as a content delivery network in which the network caches its most frequently accessed content as close as possible to the users. The company sold private versions of it within customers' private corporate networks. Two of Prodigy's most popular services were its message boards and email. Because Prodigy's business model depended on rapidly growing advertising and online shopping revenue, email

3190-527: Was not an actual Internet service provider , programs that needed an Internet connection, such as Internet Explorer and the Quake multiplayer game, could not be used with the service. Prodigy developed its own web browser, but it compared poorly to other mainstream browsers in terms of features. In 1995/1996, Prodigy hired Ed Bennett and Will Lansing. From 1995 through 1996, Prodigy unveiled several Internet-related products. It debuted its real-time chat area within

3248-467: Was novel at the time and anticipated much of current web-browser technology. It leveraged the power of the subscriber's PC to maintain the session state, handle the user interface and process applications formed from data and interpretative program objects largely pulled from the network when needed. At a time when distributed objects were handled by RPC equivalents, Prodigy pioneered the concept of returning interpretable, platform-independent objects to

3306-527: Was presented using a graphical user interface . The Data Object Architecture wrapped vector and incremental point graphics, encoded as per NAPLPS , along with interpretative programs written in the proprietary languages TBOL (Trintex Basic Object Language) and PAL (Prodigy Application Language). NAPLPS grew out of the Canadian Telidon project, becoming an international standard in 1983 after some extensions were added by AT&T Corporation . NAPLPS enabled

3364-618: Was reported to have 3.1 million subscribers, of which 1.3 million were DSL customers. Attempts by SBC to sell the Prodigy brand became public knowledge on December 9, 2005. In late 2006, SBC purchased AT&T Corporation and re-branded itself as AT&T Inc. As of early 2007, there remained within AT&;T's Internet operations a small group of former Prodigy employees located in AT&T's Austin , Texas, and White Plains, New York , facilities. What had started 27 years earlier as an AT&T online experiment had come full circle. Through 2009,

#350649