Microsoft and AT&T link up on Internet browser

AT&T, the telecommunications giant and software superpower Microsoft announced yesterday that they would jointly promote and distribute Microsoft's Web browser, Internet Explorer 3.0, and AT&T'S Internet service, WorldNet, starting this autumn.

The alliance was another plus for Redmond, Washington based Microsoft's effort to displace Netscape Communications' Navigator Web browser as the dominant software for accessing the burgeoning Web, the graphical, point and click section of the Internet.

It also gives AT&T's Internet access service, introduced in February, equal billing on the Windows 95 desktop with CompuServe, America Online and Microsoft's own Microsofi Network.

Under the agreement, AT&T WorldNet Service will be included as part of the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system pre loaded in computers that begin shipping later this year. AT&T WorldNet Service will also be included in future retail versions of Windows 95.

For its part, AT&T will offer Internet Explorer 3.0 - the third and latest version of Microsoft's Web browser - on the installation compact disks and floppy disks sent to AT&T WorldNet customers from this autumn.

An AT&T spokesman said customers would be able to pick either Microsoft's browser or Netscape's Navigator, which is currently included on WorldNet installation disks.

"We are pleased to offer the browser many of our customers have been asking for, Microsoft Internet Explorer," AT&T WorldNet vice president Mr Tom Evslin said in a statement.

Mr Evslin said the browser works well with other Microsoft products for personal computers and complies with such Internet standards as Java software.

When Windows 95, the latest upgrade of Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system, was introduced last summer, CompuServe, America Online and others protested that Microsoft was unfairly competing because it was offering its Microsoft Network via a single click on the software's opening screen.

In March, Microsoft announced an agreement with America Online to put the top online service's icon in an online services "folder" on Windows 95's main screen. It made a similar deal with CompuServe, the second biggest service, last month.