The Ford-Microsoft venture on Carpoint, as it was described today, will directly link customers to Ford's manufacturing-system data base.

But the Internet hookups that link customers to their suppliers are still in their infancy.

The name alludes to the company's place as a modern, online version of the Silk Road linking customers between China and abroad.

Websites, especially travel firms, use Google Maps to link customers to a view of the destinations they inquire about.

These include small fiber-optics companies that directly link big corporate customers to their long-distance carriers.

OnStar uses global positioning satellites and cellular phones to link customers to a center that can provide directions, make dinner reservations and send emergency help.

More than 60 percent of the plants had built computer networks linking customers to the plant and linking machinery within the plant.

Sprint will provide the high-speed data lines and equipment that link customers to the networks.

Some of these rivals are already operating, with their own cables linking large customers to long-distance services.

Traditionally, these networks link big corporate customers directly to their long-distance carrier and allow them to cut down on the "access charges" normally paid to local telephone carriers.