This is hardly the smooth navigating you've been led to expect on the so-called information superhighway. The faith behind these trials is being sorely tested this spring. Most of them are running behind schedule, many don't work at all, and none are ready for prime time. Not only is the basic technology snarled, but the road ahead is cluttered with legal and regulatory obstacles. The interactive-TV pilot projects play a critical role in the race to build the communications networks of the future.
Reality seems to be hitting all over.
The TV trial that Viacom was supposed to launch in Castro Valley, California, next month has been postponed until the end of the year. Ameritech, which had ambitious plans to deliver interactive services to 200,000 homes in the Midwest by year's end, is waiting for government approval. US West says it is still set to bring video to 60,000 telephone customers in Omaha, Nebraska, by December but admits that ''some of the more speculative video services'' may have to wait. No company has risked more to bridge the gap between promise and reality than Time Warner. Early last year the company announced with great fanfare the launch of an ambitious experiment called the Full Service Network.