Intel employees to get free PC, Net access

Intel has become the latest company in what appears to become a big trend by

announcing that it will provide each of its 70,000 full-time and part-time

employees a free home computer and Internet access. Last month, Ford Motor

became the first major industrial company to make PCs and Internet access

available to all of its employees. Delta Air Lines, American Air Lines and AMR

have since announced similar intentions.

"Our attitude when we first saw the Ford announcement was that's a great

idea. Why can't we do that?" said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. "We

want our employees and their families to participate fully in the Internet

revolution," added Craig Barrett, Intel's president and chief executive, in

a statement. "We see these employer-based programs as a positive trend

illustrating the importance of technology literacy to us all."

Intel said it is seeking bids from computer makers and Internet service

providers. Intel plans to give its employees high performance PCs, with Pentium

III processors running at clock speeds of 667 megahertz, a 20 gigabyte hard

drive, 128 megabytes of memory, a printer, speakers, unlimited Internet access,

office productivity software and the choice of one Intel Play product that it

developed with Mattel. Employees will be allowed to get product upgrades every

three years.

Mulloy also noted that the motivation to give PCs is not for employees to do

work at home. "This is for the employee and the employee's family. It's an

attractive benefit to employees. If you want to telecommute, we have

laptops."