Prodigy (online Service)

Prodigy (online Service)

Prodigy Communications Corporation (Prodigy Services Corp., Prodigy Services Co., Trintex) was an online service that offered its subscribers access to a broad range of networked services, including news, weather, shopping, bulletin boards, games, polls, expert columns, banking, stocks, travel, and a variety of other features.

Initially, subscribers using personal computers accessed the Prodigy service by means of POTS or X.25 dialup. For its initial roll-out, Prodigy supported 1200 bit/s modems. To provide faster service and to stabilize the diverse modem market, Prodigy offered low-cost 2400 bit/s internal modems to subscribers at a discount.

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 a command line interface.

By 1990 it was the second-largest online service provider, with 465,000 subscribers trailing only CompuServe's 600,000. Its headquarters were in White Plains, New York until 2000, when they moved to Austin, Texas.