METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR REDUCTION OF BANDWIDTH REQUIREMENTS IN THE PROVISION OF ELECTRONIC INFORMATION AND TRANSACTION SERVICES THROUGH COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

A multimedia system for providing electronic information and transaction services that combines shared remote access to a utility database with local access to a local database. When information access is requested from an interactive multimedia player provided with the local database and coupled through a telecommunication network to the utility database, the information is first searched in the local database. If it is not found there, the request is forwarded to the utility database over the telecommunication network. Each data element is associated with a defined life span that determines an interval between the data element activation and deactivation.