Start-up and Services
The FSN’s first households were plugged-in on December 1994 in Orlando, Florida.
According to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology the city of Orlando was chosen because of its worry-free weather, the fact that it was Time Warner Cable’s second largest division and because it already featured fiber-optic network installations (which would reduce implementation costs.) The city’s high growth demographics, with large percentages of households with children, complemented the decision.
The specific test area was suburban Orlando, including southwest Seminole County and parts of Orange County (Wekiva, Sweetwater, Lake Brantley, and Spring Lake Hills).
Available interactive services were added to the network bit by bit. They included on-demand games, sports and movies, food ordering, and also local information, events and shopping opportunities through GOtv, an interactive entertainment guide.
GOtv worked in association with other media, such as The Orlando Sentinel, in compiling reviews and other information on restaurants, their menus, prices, location and hours.
In 1996, the services of FSN were made available for the general public to check out at Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center Innoventions expo, where “Five stations are available for guests to interact with the television through the network's Carousel(tm) navigator.”
Michael Colglazier, General Manager of Innoventions, qualified the technology as life changing, and was very pleased to offer the Disney’s guests a chance to experience it.
Read more about this topic: Full Service Network
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—Elizabeth M. Gilmer (1861–1951)