Level 1 gateway controlling broadband communications for video dial tone networks

A communication network comprising:

• a plurality of user terminals receiving and processing broadband information and transmitting control signals in response to user inputs;
• a plurality of information provider systems;
• a backbone subnetwork providing point-to-point two-way communication sessions for interactive multimedia communications with a selected one of the information provider systems;
• a backbone subnetwork controller controlling establishment of point-to-point communication sessions through the backbone subnetwork;
• an access subnetwork providing dynamically allocated two-way communications between one of the user terminals and the backbone subnetwork, and receiving broadcast information signals and distributing the broadcast information signals to authorized ones of the user terminals;
• an access subnetwork controller controlling the access subnetwork to provide two-way communications between the one user terminal and the backbone subnetwork and to control terminal authorizations for reception of the broadcast information signals;
• and
• a gateway interacting with the backbone subnetwork controller, the access subnetwork controller and the user terminals to control at least the two-way communications through the communication network.

A communication network comprising:

• a plurality terminals receiving and processing broadband information;
• a plurality of information provider systems;
• a backbone subnetwork providing point-to-point two-way communication sessions for interactive multimedia communications with a selected one of the information providers;
• an access subnetwork receiving broadcast information signals and distributing the broadcast information signals to authorized ones of the terminals;
• an access subnetwork controller controlling terminal authorizations for reception of the broadcast information signals;
• and
• a gateway interacting with the access subnetwork controller to activate reception of identified ones of the broadcast information signals at identified ones of the terminals.