Editing Prodigy (online service) (section)

==Early history==
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Prodigy login large.jpeg|thumb|right|300px|An MS-DOS Login Screen for Prodigy circa 1990.]] -->
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]].<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=[[InfoWorld]] |date=September 13, 1982 |page=6 |title=CBS Venture One videotex market test |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EDAEAAAAMBAJ}}</ref> The company conducted a market test of 100 homes in [[Ridgewood, New Jersey]]<ref>and 100 in Fair Lawn, NJ: {{cite book |title=On the Way to the Web: The Secret History of the Internet
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1430208708 |isbn=978-1430208709 |author=Michael Banks |year=2008| publisher=Apress }}</ref> 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 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]].<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[Computerworld]] |date=May 21, 1984 |page=113 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KAUpSdv4AO4C |title=Trintex CBS-IBM-Sears videotex venture}}</ref><ref>Tom Shea, [https://books.google.com/books?id=li4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA13 Big firms team up on videotex project], ''[[InfoWorld]]'', March 12, 1984</ref> The company was headed by Theodore Papes, a career IBM executive, until his retirement in 1992. CBS left the venture in 1986<ref name=Fund.Unv>{{cite web |url=http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/prodigy-communications-corporation-history |title=Prodigy Communications Corporation History|website=FundingUniverse.com|access-date=July 17, 2021}}</ref> 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, Georgia|Atlanta]], [[Hartford, Connecticut|Hartford]] and [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]] under the name Prodigy.<ref name=Fund.Unv/> 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 the Prodigy service over copper wire telephone "[[Plain old telephone service|POTS]]" service or [[X.25]] [[Dial-up Internet access|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 mainframe]]s located in [[Yorktown Heights, New York]].<ref name="ProdigyY2K" /><ref name="Inc1990">{{cite journal |last=Crockett |first=Barton |date=22 October 1990 |title=Distributed network pays off for Prodigy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ThAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA19 |journal=Network World |publisher=IDG Network World Inc |page=19,22 |issn=0887-7661}}</ref>

Thanks to an aggressive media marketing campaign, bundling with various consumer-oriented computers such as IBM's [[IBM PS/1|PS/1]] and [[IBM Personal System/2|PS/2]] as well as various [[IBM PC compatible|clones]] and [[Hayes Communications|Hayes]] modems, the Prodigy service soon had more than one million subscribers. To handle the traffic, Prodigy built a national network of POP ([[Point of presence|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 calling|long distance]] to access the service. The subscribers paid only for the [[local call]] (usually free), while Prodigy paid for the connection to its national data center in Yorktown.<ref>[https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/where-online-services-go-when-they-die/374099/ Atlantic magazine: "Rebuilding Prodigy" July 12, 2014]</ref>