Webcast of PIAC meeting Friday, January 16 at
http://www.real.com/corporate/digitaltv. For more info see
http://www.benton.org/Policy/TV/piac.html.
Telephony
WSJ: FCC Offers To Try to Help Baby Bells
FCC: Report to Congress on Universal Service
TelecomAM: North Carolina Gives BellSouth Approval, With Reservations
TelecomAM: Teleport Purchase Is Near-Term Credit Negative For AT&T,
Says Fitch IBCA
Microsoft
WSJ: Judge Rejects Attempt by Microsoft To Remove Special Master in U.S.
Action
NYT: Microsoft Rebuffed in Bid to Exclude Expert in Antitrust Case
WP: Microsoft Executive Questioned Sharply
NYT: Gates Helped Draft Microsoft's Response to Judge
Lifestyles
WP: Technostress on the Net
NYT: At Capitol, Still Few Use Email
** Telephony **
Title: FCC Offers To Try to Help Baby Bells
Source: Wall Street Journal (A3)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Bryan Gruley & Stephanie N. Mehta
Issue: Long Distance
Description: The FCC has offered to work more closely with the Bells long
before they file formal applications to enter the long-distance market.
Regulators say they hope to give the companies clearer guidance on how they
can meet requirements to open their own networks to competition. Once a Bell
files an application, the FCC has 90 days to approve or reject it. The
deadline allows little time for staffers to determine and suggest
specifically what a Bell might do to jump legal hurdles. Now staffers are
offering to collaborate early on with Bell officials, state officials,
Justice Dept. lawyers and long-distance companies in hopes of finding the
most serious flaws in an application and agreeing on ways to fix them.
Title: Report to Congress on Universal Service
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Orders/1998/da980063.html
Issue: Universal Service
Description: Comments must be filed on or before January 26, 1998, and reply
comments must be filed on or before February 6, 1998
Title: North Carolina Gives BellSouth Approval, With Reservations
Source: Telecom AM---jan. 15, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Long Distance
Description: A sharply divided North Carolina Utilities Commission gave
BellSouth the go-ahead to file with the FCC to provide long distance service
in the state, but the company had failed to meet two of the 14 points
required by the Section 271 checklist. BellSouth's long distance entry would
encourage more local competition and lower long distance rates. The NCUC
said it advised BellSouth to improve their support systems and performance
measurements before filing with the FCC.
Title: Teleport Purchase Is Near-Term Credit Negative For AT&T, Says Fitch IBCA
Source: Telecom AM---jan. 15, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Merger
Description: AT&T's proposed acquisition of Teleport Communications Group
(TCG) valued at $11.3 billion will result in a marginal deterioration in
AT&T's credit profile in the near-term, while that of TCG will be enhanced,
analyst firm Fitch IBCA said. According to Fitch, "TCG is expected to have
approximately $1.1 billion in debt at closing which AT&T may assume or
guarantee. The transaction is structured as a tax-free stock-for-stock
exchange and is expected to close by mid- to late-1998, following requisite
shareholder and regulatory approvals..."
** Microsoft **
Title: Judge Rejects Attempt by Microsoft To Remove Special Master in U.S.
Action
Source: Wall Street Journal (B12)
http://wsj.com/
Author: John R. Wilke & Don Clark
Issue: Antitrust
Description: A federal judge rejected Microsoft's attempt to remove a
special master overseeing the company's legal battle with the Justice Dept.,
castigating the company for what the judge called "defamatory" allegations
of bias. U.S. District Judge Jackson released a harshly worded order that
suggested that the judge has lost patience with the software giant and its
legal strategy. The court is also considering the Justice Dept.'s charge
that Microsoft defied the court by offering computer makers a nonworking
version of its operating system after it was ordered to remove the Internet
software. Judge Jackson skeptically questioned David Cole, a Microsoft
software developer, after Mr. Cole said company managers had no choice under
the order but to offer Windows that way. "It seemed absolutely clear to you
that I entered an order that required you to distribute a product that WOULD
NOT WORK -- that's what you're telling me?" Judge Jackson asked Mr. Cole.
"In plain English, yes...we followed the order, and it wasn't my place to
consider the consequences," he answered (give me a break...-p.h.).
Title: Microsoft Rebuffed in Bid to Exclude Expert in Antitrust Case
Source: New York Times (D6)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/011598microsoft-expert.html
Author: Amy Harmon
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Yesterday, a federal judge denied the Microsoft Corporation's
request to remove Internet law expert, Lawrence Lessig, from the software
giant's antitrust dispute with the Justice Department. Judge Thomas Penfield
Jackson described Microsoft's accusations that Mr. Lessig is biased against
the company as "trivial" and "defamatory," adding that if these comments had
been made under oath "they might well have incurred sanctions." Greg Shaw, a
Microsoft spokesperson, said "We're naturally disappointed with the
decision. We felt the evidence spoke for itself. We'll naturally work with
Professor Lessig as we have up to this point." Microsoft will review the
decision before they decide whether or not to appeal.
Title: Microsoft Executive Questioned Sharply
Source: Washington Post (C1,C3)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-01/15/177l-011598-idx.html
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Antitrust
Description: A federal judge sharply questioned a Microsoft executive
yesterday who contended that a court order effectively required the company
to offer an inoperable version of Windows 95. "It seemed absolutely clear to
you that I entered an order that required that you distribute a product that
would not work? Is that what you're telling me?" a skeptical Judge Thomas
Penfield Jackson asked David Cole, a Microsoft vice-president. "In plain
English, yes...We followed that order. It wasn't my place to consider the
consequences," Cole retorted. The exchange took place at the end of a
two-day hearing into allegations that Microsoft violated a preliminary order
that the company offer personal computer makers a version of Windows 95
without its Internet browser software. Judge Jackson wants the court
injunction to remain in place until the court appointed "special master" has
determined whether Microsoft's integration of their browser and operating
system violates a 1995 consent decree with the government.
Title: Gates Helped Draft Microsoft's Response to Judge
Source: New York Times (D1,D6)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/011598microsoft.html
Author: Stephen Labaton
Issue: Antitrust
Description: A senior executive at Microsoft testified yesterday that
despite a judge's prohibition, the company's chairman, Willian H. Gates, and
other executives came up with the plan to offer computer makers a choice
between selling their equipment with a nonworking version of Windows 95 or
continuing to give consumers the operating system with the Microsoft
Internet browser already included. Justice Department officials said that
the testimony demonstrated Microsoft's hubris, and showed how the
corporation was deliberately thumbing its nose at the Government. Judge
Thomas Penfield Jackson is considering whether Microsoft should be held in
contempt and fine them $1 million a day for failing to comply with the court
order.
** Lifestyles! **
Title: Technostress on the Net
Source: Washington Post (B5)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-01/15/111l-011598-idx.html
Author: Michelle V. Rafter
Issue: Lifestyles
Description: Technostress is defined by researchers as the negative effect
technology has on people's thoughts, attitudes, behaviors and bodies. Many
Internet users say that technostress affects their lives. Michelle M. Weil
and Larry D. Rosen, authors of a new book on the topic, believe that
Internet users are particularly susceptible because of the stress created by
high expectations of technology and the constant waiting endured for online
connections, email and Web pages. Other signs of technostress include: loss
of productivity at work, changing sleeping hours or habits to spend more
time online, insomnia, a constant urge to check email, and losing your train
of thought in conversation or work. For Tim Whalen, a Coast Guard officer in
NYC, technostress for him means feeling compelled to check his email, even
at 2 a.m. "How could I possibly let an email sit for another eight hours,"
he says. Whalen also says that his heavy use of the Internet is affecting
his grammar and punctuation: "I seem to prefer the use of three
dots...Sometimes, I feel like a modern-day James Joyce as I type...never
completing a thought...moving on from this to that in a
techno-stream-of-consciousness."
Title: At Capitol, Still Few Use Email
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/011598congress.html
Author: Jeri Clausing and Rebecca Fairly Raney
Issue: Lifestyle
Description: As the U.S. Congress becomes increasingly involved in
regulating the Internet, a special CyberTimes study shows that most
representatives show little facility in using the technology to communicate
with the public. The study was created to test how Congressional offices
handle email. 70 percent of the offices surveyed did not respond
specifically to an email inquiry that identified the sender as a reporter
who was testing how, if and when members of Congress answered email.
Individual email messages were sent the second week of October to the 261
offices that list public email addresses on their Web sites that can be
accessed through the Thomas Congressional site http://thomas.loc.gov/. The
overall number that responded to the inquiry represent only 17 percent of
Congressional offices. Half of the returns came in the form of automatic
responses while 19 legislators responded personally. Staff members who
responded often expressed frustration with the technology. "It's too soon to
say the Internet is a bust, but it's not turning Congress on its head," said
Bruce Bimber, a political scientist at the University of California in Santa
Barbara who has studied constituent contact with representatives online. The
results of the study did show improvement from a response rate to a similar
survey conducted by CyberTimes in May 1996.
*********
Webcast of PIAC meeting Friday, January 16 at
http://www.real.com/corporate/digitaltv.
There will be no Headlines Monday, January 19 in observance of Dr. Martin
Luther King Day.