Journalism
NYT: Court Rules Against CNN
Online Services/Internet
NYT: U.S. Court Says Man Can't Sue America Online
NYT: Online Girls' Clubs Defy Stereotypes
TelecomAM: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Phone Directory
Launched On Internet
TelecomAM: Internet Merger: A Look Into the Future of MCI,
Worldcom Deal
Telephone
TelecomAM: FCC's Powell Settles In and Begins Answering Some
Pointed Questions
TelecomAM: Satellite Phones: Revenues May Be $35 Billion by 2005
TelecomAM: PCS-Cellular Competition Benefits to Drive Doubling
of Wireless by 2002
FCC: BellSouth's Application to Provide Long Distance in Louisiana
TelecomAM: Telcos Must Continually Connect With Customers, says new study
TelecomAM: BellSouth On Top Of Other Local Companies In Customer Satisfaction
Infrastructure
TelecomAM: New Report Says 63% of CATV Plant Miles Will
Be Hybrid Fiber-Coax By 2001
Microsoft
WP: Nader Joins Chorus of Microsoft Critics
NYT: Nader Conference Levels Sights on Microsoft
** Journalism **
Title: Court Rules Against CNN
Source: New York Times (C5)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/ranch.html
Author: James Sterngold
Issue: Journalism
Description: A Federal Court ruled that CNN news violated a Montana
rancher's rights when it recorded a search for evidence on the rancher's
property. The court ruled that the Government violated the rancher's Fourth
Amendment rights against improper search and seizure by allowing a CNN crew
to accompany law enforcement officials on a raid of the ranch. The judges
said the raid was used to advance commercial and entertainment interests,
not just law enforcement.
** Online Services/Internet **
Title: U.S. Court Says Man Can't Sue America Online
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/111497suit.html
Author: Associated Press
Issue: Online Services
Description: A Federal Court has ruled that the Communications Decency Act
of 1996 immunizes Internet and online service providers from lawsuits over
information that comes from third parties. Although AOL had been made aware
of the incendiary message, the three-judge panel said that it would be
impossible for an ISP to carefully investigate every defamatory posting
brought to its attention. If they were liable for such messages, providers
would "have a natural incentive to remove messages upon notification,
whether the contents were defamatory or not," the panel said. "Liability
upon notice has a chilling effect on the freedom of Internet speech."
Title: Online Girls' Clubs Defy Stereotypes
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/nation/111497nation.html
Author: Jason Chervokas & Tom Watson
Issue: Gender
Description: An entire subculture is forming on the Internet around clubs
created, organized, and maintained by and for teenage girls. Sites hosted by
GeoCities, Tripod, America Online and other Internet Service Providers
facilitate these groups' e-mail discussion groups, weekly newsletters, and
member-maintained websites. They allow girls to not only communicate, but to
develop their technology skills as well. See Dream Girlz
http://members.tripod.com/~Tomagotchi/Girlz.html, Net Galz
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Lights/8700/index.html, The Sisterhood
http://members.tripod.com/~Sisterhood_of_PLH/, and the Girls Interactive
Resource Library http://www.just4girls.com.
Title: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Phone Directory Launched On Internet
Source: Telecom A.M.---Nov. 12, 1997
http://www.capitol( at )cappubs.com/
Issue: Internet
Description: A number of directory services have cropped up on the 'Net.
New player www.Yellow-Page.Net contains about 18 million listings for the
U.S. and Canada. The site is a member of the Assoc. of Directory
Publishers and Yellow Page Publishers of America. The site is working in
partnership with OnVillage Communications and more than 70 other publishers
nationwide. The site even lists background info on its listed companies,
links to a company's e-mail or Web site. On average, the site draws an
average 500,000 hits each day.
Title: Internet Merger: A Look Into the Future of MCI, Worldcom Deal
Source: Telecom A.M.---Nov. 12, 1997
http://www.capitol( at )cappubs.com/
Issue: Mergers/Competition
Description: The 'Net began as a disorganized, decentralized network of
networks. There's no owner, no central guiding force, just a collection of
standards and some voluntary bodies to administer them. But recently a
handful of big companies have built up powerful roles in providing access to
the Internet and carrying its data. Worldcom owns UUNet, the biggest and
most international of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and has agreed to
buy the infrastructures of AOL and Compuserve. MCI provides the most heavily
used of the "fibre-optic backbones" for the system in the U.S. But, with so
many other big players like Sprint and AT&T, it's too early to say if the
Worldcom-MCI merger would make an undesirable concentration of power. But,
the mergers unites two of the biggest participants in the emerging Internet
industry. This makes for an ideal opportunity to examine competition issues.
** Telephone **
Title: FCC's Powell Settles In and Begins Answering Some Pointed Questions
Source: Telecom AM
http://capitol.cappubs.com/am/
Issue: FCC
Description: At a press briefing yesterday, new FCC Commissioner Michael
Powell addressed a number of issues facing the Commission: PCB C-Block
bankruptcies, mergers, cost models, interconnection, and local competition
-- "We have to see competition as a long term process," he said. "We're
talking about fundamental changes...The true measure if we did alright will
be judged by history." He went on to say that the success or failure of the
Telecommunications Act will be based on the level of local competition, as
it should be, because "competition in telephony is the most important aspect
of the '96 Act."
Title: Satellite Phones: Revenues May Be $35 Billion by 2005
Source: Telecom AM
http://capitol.cappubs.com/am/
Issue: Satellites
Description: The race is on to offer the first hand-held mobile phones that
provide voice services anywhere on Earth. During this year's Beijing-Paris
Motor Challenge, one team stayed in touch with their UK mechanic using a
Mobiq satellite phone -- which is the size of a notebook computer (and
really hard to hold up to your ear). The Mobiq costs $3,850, but someday
satellite phones will cost as little and be the same size as today's
cellular phones. Satellite systems are expected to be in great demand for
three markets: global telephone service, rural conventional telephone
service, and international broadband data transmission. Revenues are
expected to climb to $35 billion by 2005. Article includes look at players
in the race.
Title: PCS-Cellular Competition Benefits to Drive Doubling of Wireless by 2002
Source: Telecom AM
http://capitol.cappubs.com/am/
Issue: Competition
Description: A study by the Strategis Group Consulting Firm says compeition
for Personal Communications Services (PCS) is forcing cellular phone
companies to lower prices, improve service, and to increase marketing and
distribution. The competition will produce growth for both industries --
there are 57 million wireless customers today and the study estimates there
will be 118 million by 2002.
Title: BellSouth's Application to Provide Long Distance in Louisiana
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/in-region_applications/bellsou...
Issue: Long Distance
Description: Brief and Affidavits in Support of Application by Bellsouth for
Provision of In-Region, Interlata Services in Louisiana (CC Docket No. 97-231).
Title: Telcos Must Continually Connect With Customers, says new study
Source: Telecom A.M.---Nov. 12, 1997
http://www.capitol( at )cappubs.com/
Issue: Telephone
Description: According to Insight's report entitled "Carrier Customer
Services and Operations Support Systems," "some level of customer
satisfaction must be met on a monthly basis, or else customers will be lost
to the competition." As a result, Telcos are spending more than $10 billion
this year to retain market share by upgrading their customer care and
billing operations. The report concluded that competing telecom offers are
so abundant and similar in price and scope that customer care has become the
key differentiation for customers. Robert Rosenburg, president of Insight,
said, "Telco investment in customer care and billing over the next five
years will grow at nearly twice the rate of carrier revenue. Superior
customer service and accurate billing is the best way to ensure these
customers stay happy--and loyal."
Title: BellSouth On Top Of Other Local Companies In Customer Satisfaction
Source: Telecom A.M.---Nov. 12, 1997
http://www.capitol( at )cappubs.com/
Issue: Telephone
Description: A survey by the Yankee Group named BellSouth as the top
company in customer satisfaction. Areas surveyed were: accurate and easy to
understand bills timely resolution of problems, quick access to customer
service, and professional, courteous personnel.
** Infrastructure **
Title: New Report Says 63% of CATV Plant Miles Will Be Hybrid
Fiber-Coax By 2001
Source: Telecom A.M.---Nov. 12
http://www.capitol( at )cappubs.com/
Issue: Infrastructure
Description: A new report from Allied Business Intelligence, Inc.
entitled "CATV Infrastructure Changes: Advances and Implications for CATV
Equipment Markets, 1997-2001" stated that 63% of cable TV plant mileage
will be configured within hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) networks. But the
networks are already at capacity delivering analog TV signals; upgrading
CATV networks to HFC architectures will be costly. The report also warned
CATV operators of the competition from DBS and MMDS, suggesting that they
diversify their revenue base.
** Microsoft **
Title: Nader Joins Chorus of Microsoft Critics
Source: Washington Post (G1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-11/14/076l-111497-idx.html
Author: Elizabeth Corcoran & Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Veteran consumer activist Ralph Nader was presiding over a
Wash. conference where software company critics charged that Microsoft is
unfairly trying to dominate the Internet. John Richard, director of
Essential Information, a Nader organization, said, "What Ralph is trying to
do is get people in the business community mobilized about not rolling over
for Microsoft." This conference occurred amidst a confrontation between the
Justice Dept. and Microsoft over whether the company is honoring a 1995
consent decree. Some conference attendees who rely on computer technology,
like Phoenix Color Corp. VP Thomas Newell, expressed concern about lack of
competition. "I get worried about [being]...forced to use Microsoft." No
Microsoft exec spoke at the conference. Robert Herbold, Microsoft's COO,
said in a letter to Nader, "For us to participate in this kind of
environment would be like walking into an ambush with sharpshooters on every
hilltop."
Title: Nader Conference Levels Sights on Microsoft
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/111497nader.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Ralph Nader helped organize "Appraising Microsoft and Its
Global Strategy," a Washington DC conference on the software giant. "Imagine
going into a shoe store and being told there is only one shoe you can try
on," said Gary Reback, a California lawyer who has argued in cases against
Microsoft. "One shoe. One color. One size fits all. That's what we have in
the desktop computer industry today." Competitors and consumer advocates
contend that Microsoft is a monopoly and needs to be reigned in by the
Government. For conference info see http://www.appraising-microsoft.org/.
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