Digital TV
WSJ: Mitsubishi's U.S. Unit Bets Big on Digital TV
FCC: NATPE Conference
Telephony
NYT: Bill Would Restrict Subsidy
NTIA: Section 271 of the Communications Act and
the Promotion of Local Exchange Competition
TelecomAM: Washington Gives U S West $58.8M Rate Hike;
Partially Offsets Recent Cut
Internet/Online Services
NYT: New Fiber Network to Be Based On Net Technology
WP: Phone Firms Race To Speed Web Access
WSJ: Sprinting Behind Cable in Race to Offer Fast Data Access, Bells
Back
New Way
WSJ: Intel's Quick Web Technology Aims To Cut Down on 'World Wide Wait'
WSJ: AOL Says Subscibers Number 11 Million
NYT: New Israelis Get Computers to Aid Assimilation
NYT: Email Trial May Set U.S. Precedent
Microsoft
WSJ: Microsoft Asks Court To Overturn Ruling On Internet Expert
WSJ: Microsoft to Streamline Operations at 'Sidewalk'
** Digital TV **
Title: Mitsubishi's U.S. Unit Bets Big on Digital TV
Source: Wall Street Journal (Jan. 19, B12)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Evan Ramstad
Issue: Digital TV
Description: Mitsubishi will stop selling tube-based TV sets in the U.S.
later this year to concentrate on projection, digital and flat-panel units.
In doing so, Mitsubishi will become the first major manufacturer to devote
all of its resources to advanced sets and abandon the screen technology that
has been the standard. The company said its decision was influenced by the
declining profitability of so-called direct-view TVs with diagonal screen
sizes of less than 36 inches, as well as a desire to stake out a leading
role in digital TV.
Title: NATPE Conference
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Kennard/spwek802.html
Author: FCC Chairman Kennard
Issue: Digital Television
Description: Chairman Kennard's remarks at the 35th Annual National
Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) Conference. "When the
history of communication in this decade is written, it will be a story of
how communications technologies -- all technologies -- telephones, cable TV,
cellular and broadcasting -- converted to digital technology. This is truly
a transforming event of our times. And people will exhibit all of the
reactions which typically accompany transforming events: confusion,
optimism, pessimism, denial, fear. And some people in [the broadcast]
industry will embrace this change. And they will be the pioneers. The point
to remember here is that you [broadcasters] are not alone. Every
communications technology is undergoing this transition. Different from
yours in many ways, to be sure. But all equally imperative. Because digital
technology allows us to do things unimaginable a few years back. Consumers
are waking up to that fact. Digital TV offers versatility and capacity that
will transform your medium. This is many magnitudes more significant than
the transition from black and white to color, because it has the power to
much more fundamentally change what you can offer to your audience."
** Telephony **
Title: Bill Would Restrict Subsidy
Source: New York/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/012198education.html
Author: Associated Press
Issue: Universal Service
Description: Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Senate Commerce Committee chairman
and an ardent critic of the Federal Communications Commission's Internet
subsidy program, said yesterday that he plans to introduce a bill that would
require schools using federal money to hook up to the Internet to restrict
student access to smutty material. McCain did not provide details on how the
student-access restriction would work. The subsidies provide schools,
libraries and rural health care specialists with discounted hookups to the
Internet. Under pressure from Republicans in Congress and telephone
companies this past December, the Federal Communications Commission agreed
to slow the phasing-in of the program. The Commerce
Committee, which has jurisdiction over the F.C.C., will hold a hearing on
indecency and pornography on the Internet on February 10. For more
information on Universal Service check out:
http://www.benton.org/Policy/Uniserv/.
Title: Section 271 of the Communications Act and
the Promotion of Local Exchange Competition
Source: NTIA
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/staffpapers/section271/index.html
Author: Tim Sloan, Senior Policy Analyst
Issue: Competition/Telecommunications Act of 1996
Description: "Because many parts of section 271 are neither unambiguous nor
self-executing, they have sparked much debate and disagreement among
interested parties. This paper offers an interpretation of section 271 that
is reasonable, is consistent with the language and intent of the 1996 Act,
and that furthers the overriding goal of that statute -- to promote
competition in all telecommunications markets, particularly the market for
local exchange services."
Title: Washington Gives U S West $58.8M Rate Hike; Partially Offsets Recent Cut
Source: Telecom AM---jan. 21, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Telephone Regulation
Description: The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission has
granted U S West $58.8 million of the $69.4 million rate increases sought by
the telco, significantly offsetting the impact of a $91.5 million rate cut
upheld in December by the state Supreme Court. The two rate orders will be
implemented Feb. 1, producing a net $32.7 million revenue increase.
** Internet **
Title: New Fiber Network to Be Based On Net Technology
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/012198telephone.html
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: Infrastructure
Description: Peter Kiewit Sons Inc. announced that it plans to spend up to
$3 billion over the next three years to build a 20,000-mile web of fiber
optic cable. This system would be the first national fiber optic network
based on Internet technology as opposed to the more common telephone
technology. If Kiewit's plan works, it could allow the company to charge
consumers for voice and data communications at prices much lower than those
of competitors while still allowing Kiewit to maintain healthy profit
margins. Peter Kiewit Sons plans to sell access to mostly small and medium
business customers.
Title: Phone Firms Race To Speed Web Access
Source: Washington Post (C11,C16)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-01/21/042l-012198-idx.html
Author: Mike Mills
Issue: Infrastructure
Description: The GTE Corporation and the regional Bells are getting ready to
announce an agreement with Microsoft, Intel and other computer industry
giants on standards for a new type of modem and phone company service that,
according to analysts, could bring mass-marketed, high-speed Internet access
to every home and business. These new standards will make modems much more
affordable while also easing the construction costs that have made this
technology unprofitable for phone companies in the past. "We're really at
the beginning of an era of competition in consumer Internet access," said
Frank Gens, an analyst for International Data Corp. in Farmingham, MA. "It's
still off in the distance, but you can really start to see the death of the
bandwidth crisis." Sources say that the agreement will include telephone
companies and more than two dozen hardware and software makers.
Title: Sprinting Behind Cable in Race to Offer Fast Data Access, Bells Back
New Way
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Dean Takahashi & Stephanie N. Mehta
Issue: Infrastructure
Description: The five Baby Bells, trying to catch up with the cable-TV
industry's foray into high-speed data access for the nation's homes, are
rallying around a standard for a rival technology backed by the computer
industry's Big Three -- Microsoft, Intel, and Compaq. The computer giants
are expected to announce widespread support for a high-speed digital PC
modem that works over ordinary copper phone wires. The consortium's aim is
to jump-start the modems' deployment by lowering their costs and making them
easier to use.
Title: Intel's Quick Web Technology Aims To Cut Down on 'World Wide Wait'
Source: Wall Street Journal (Jan. 19, B12)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Lisa Bransten
Issue: Internet
Description: Intel has developed a technology that it says can speed up
surfing for millions of Internet users, but speed demons will have to pay
extra for the service. The chip maker will unveil what it calls Quick Web
Technology, which allows ISPs to speed up their customers' access to Web
pages containing graphics. The technology compresses some of the information
from graphics so that there's less data to transmit. The result is
lower-quality graphics, but served at a higher speed. The technology also
offers Internet services a way to "cache" or store copies of Web pages
downloaded by their users. Erols Internet Inc. and Netcom On-Line have
already agreed to offer the product.
Title: AOL Says Subscibers Number 11 Million
Source: Wall Street Journal (B8)
http://wsj.com/
Issue: Online Services
Description: AOL said it now has 11 million subscribers, extending its lead
over online rivals. The announcement is a sign that AOL has restored much
of its marketing effort that was scaled back a year ago when the company
introduced flat-rate pricing that resulted in heavy usage and busy signals.
The company was subsequently forced to slow its subscriber growth when
numerous state attorneys raised objections that AOL was offering a service
it couldn't deliver.
Title: New Israelis Get Computers to Aid Assimilation
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/012198israel.html
Author: Matt Richtel
Issue: International
Description: Israel is using technology to absorb and assimilate hundreds of
thousands of Jewish refugees and Zionists. The idea is to use technology to
ease arrivals into the new Jewish melting pot while also helping to prepare
immigrants to compete in a high-tech economy. For example, most recently the
city of Kiryat Ekron has given 105 families new computers in a concerted
effort to educate its new additions about computers and technology. Dr.
Emmanuael Grupper, director of the Residential Education and Care Division
for Israel's Ministry of Education, said that immigrants have been "very
eager to learn" and that they "understand study is the key to success."
Other groups have started Internet chat sites so refugee teenagers can share
feelings and fears about their new surroundings. "It's very hard to come
here and be thrust into society," said Sarale Cohen, a retired developmental
psychologist from the Univ. of Calif. at Los Angeles who helped create a
chat site called Teen-to-Teen for recent immigrants. "We want to help
integrate them into Israeli society - give them a place to express their
concerns, their joys and then share with each other."
Title: Email Trial May Set U.S. Precedent
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/012198hate.html
Author: Rebecca Fairley Raney
Issue: Internet Crime
Description: Jurors for the second trial of Richard Machado, a 20-year-old
who sent an angry email to 59 Univ. of Calif. at Irvine students with
Asian-sounding names, will be addressing the question: "What kind of
behavior is appropriate -- and legal -- on the Internet?" The trial, which
starts next week in Santa Barbara, is the nation's first Federal prosecution
case of an alleged hate crime on the Internet. "We need to decide what it
takes to successfully prosecute a case like that," said Assistant U.S.
Attorney Michael J. Gennaco, co-prosecutor on the case and a specialist in
civil right cases. "There's always a gray area between distasteful messages
and threats. There's a line to be drawn from what we can successfully
prosecute. The lessons learned from this case will guide our office." The
first trial in November ended in a deadlock when jurors could not decide
whether Machado intended his email as a prank or as a serious threat.
** Microsoft **
Title: Microsoft Asks Court To Overturn Ruling On Internet Expert
Source: Wall Street Journal (Jan. 19, B12)
http://wsj.com/
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Microsoft asked an appeals court to overturn the appointment of
the special master, Professor Lawrence Lessig, who is overseeing the
company's legal battle with the Justice Dept. The company charged Mr. Lessig
with bias, citing an e-mail message Mr. Lessig wrote to a lawyer at
Netscape. In a strongly worded response, the judge dismissed Microsoft's
claims as "trivial" and found they weren't made in good faith. "Had they
been in a more formal matter, they might well have incurred sanctions,"
Judge Jackson wrote.
Title: Microsoft to Streamline Operations at 'Sidewalk'
Source: Wall Street Journal (B8)
http://wsj.com/
Issue: Online Services
Description: Microsoft is laying off staff and streamlining operations at 10
Web sites that offer local activity and entertainment guides for U.S.
cities, the latest in a series of moves to cut losses in its on-line
ventures. But the software company said it will continue to expand the
service, hoping to reach 50 cities by the end of 1998 while maintaining a
smaller staff in each location.
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