Spectrum
WSJ: FCC May Alter Payment Plan For Licenses
WP: Virginia Tech Won't Get FCC Discount
FCC
FCC: Biennial Review Home Page
TelecomAM: FCC Chairman Challenges Industry To Create
Education Partnerships
FCC: Lessons from the Underground Railroad
Telephony
NYT: US West to Ask FCC Permission to Build Big Data Network
Technology
WP: High-Tech ID Cards Planned For Use on Mexican Boarder
WP: Intel Expands Pentium II Chip Line at High, Low Ends
Mergers
NYT: Hostile Offer For Computer Services Unit
WP: Computer Associates Bid For CSC Turns Hostile
WP: Illinois Company Buys Coherent Communications
WSJ: BellSouth, EDS Plan An Alliance to Offer Data Services
in Region
Microsoft
WSJ: Injunction Sought Against Microsoft Is Denied by Judge
NYT: Judge Dismisses Texas Challenge Against Microsoft
** Spectrum **
Title: FCC May Alter Payment Plan For Licenses
Source: Wall Street Journal (B2)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Bryan Gruley & Elizabeth Jensen
Issue: Spectrum
Description: Federal regulators are preparing to make small but significant
changes that would aid wireless companies that haven't been able to pay
billions of dollars for licenses they won in a government auction two years
ago. Bidders in the FCC auction offered $10.2 billion for licenses to use
the airwaves to provide a new generation of wireless phone service. But last
year, many said they couldn't pay on the FCC's installment plan, and the
commission adopted a plan letting bidders choose among four options to pay
or relinquish their licenses. Now, in response to pleas by several
companies, the FCC is considering changes that would give bidders more
flexibility in choosing an option and allow them to forfeit less of the
money they have paid the gov't., agency officials said.
Title: Virginia Tech Won't Get FCC Discount
Source: Washington Post (C13,C14)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/18/041l-021898-idx.html
Author: Mike Mills
Issue: Spectrum
Description: Bidding will begin today at a federal auction for the largest
blocks of airwaves ever to be put up for sale. An unlikely bidder among the
wireless industry giants and venture capitalists is Virginia Tech. The
university hopes to win a license covering the 7,000-square-mile area around
its Blacksburg campus. If it wins, student engineers hope to construct a
test project showing that "low-cost, high-speed Internet access to each home
and office, using small antenna, is possible in an area where mountains and
trees often cause radio interference." Yet the Federal Communications
Commission denied VA Tech's request to be classified as a bidder with no
revenue yesterday, a designation which would have given the university a 45
percent discount on the price of its license. The FCC said the reason for
its decision is because the nonprofit VA Tech Foundation, which is financing
and carrying out the project, has endowments totaling about $78 million, $3
million over the limit required for the "small business" designation. The
agency also counted the $500 million that the school receives annually from
state aid, tuition and other sources. The FCC "has not adopted any special
exemptions for not-for-profit entities," said a letter yesterday from
kathleen O'Brian Ham, chief of the FCC's wireless bureau, to Virginia Tech.
The university therefore, "does not meet the gross revenue requirements to
qualify as an entrepreneur." To make it worse, university officials say that
most of the wealthiest bidders qualified for the discounts of 25 to 45
percent because, despite their billions in assets, these companies have
little or no revenue.
** FCC **
Title: Biennial Review Home Page
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/biennial/
Issue: Regulation
Description: Section 11 of the Communications Act requires the Commission to
review all of its regulations applicable to providers of telecommunications
service in every even-numbered year, beginning in 1998, to determine whether
the regulations are no longer in the public interest due to meaningful
economic competition between providers of the service and whether such
regulations should be repealed or modified. Section 202(h) of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 also requires the Commission to review its
broadcast ownership rules biennially as part of the review conducted
pursuant to section 11. The Commission has determined that the first
biennial regulatory review presents an excellent opportunity for a serious
top-to-bottom examination of all of the Commission's regulations, not just
those statutorily required to be reviewed.
Title: FCC Chairman Challenges Industry To Create Education Partnerships
Source: Telecom AM---feb. 18, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Education/Jobs
Description: FCC Chairman Kennard challenged the telecom industry to
establish partnerships with universities to train and prepare high-tech
workers. Kennard said studies show a lack of trained workers will result in
345,000 unfilled technology jobs this year. Kennard also said that the
Virginia High-Technology Partnership Program should be a model for the rest
of the industry. "I would be delighted to the see the FCC
related-industries... consider setting up a partnership like this one." [see
speech at http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Kennard/spwek804.html]
Title: Lessons from the Underground Railroad
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Powell/spmkp802.html
Issue: Minorities
Description: Commissioner Powell's 2/17/98 Remarks to the Douglass Policy
Institute. "Let me ...commemorate Black History month by focusing my
comments on the apt theme of this forum: 'From the Underground Railroad to
the Information Superhighway.' To be honest, when I first heard this title I
thought it a bit strained. Is there really any connection between the
underground railroad and telecommunications policy? When we asked Faye
[Anderson, Douglass Policy Institute] for a little help with what she was
getting at, she dutifully pointed out that both the underground railroad and
the information superhighway are powerful metaphors for opportunity. In a
time before Black History Month even existed, some of our ancestors rode the
Underground Railroad, risking their lives and their families to trade
slavery and degradation for freedom and at least a chance for a better life.
It dawned on me that this last part -- freedom and a chance -- is what
serves as the common ground for both our ancestors migrating from the South
and those of us who are trying to make our way onto the information
superhighway."
** Telephony **
Title: US West to Ask FCC Permission to Build Big Data Network
Source: New York Times (D4)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/021798uswest.html
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: Telephony
Description: US West Communications Group, which provides local telephone
service in 14 western states, said Tuesday that it plans to ask federal
regulators for permission to build a large new data network. Their move
joins a new attack on rules that keep the Bell local telephone companies out
of the $80 billion long-distance market. Executives at US West said that
they intend to file a petition with the Federal Communications Commission
within a week. The company also announced yesterday agreements with six
major computer and software developers and with a company that is building a
new national fiber-optic network.
** Technology **
Title: High-Tech ID Cards Planned For Use on Mexican Boarder
Source: Washington Post (A19)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/18/059l-021898-idx.html
Author: William Branigin
Issue: Smart Cards
Description: In an effort to tighten control of the US-Mexican boarder, the
US government will soon begin replacing millions of Boarder Crossing Cards
with state-of-the-art documents that use compact-disc technology to store
information. The new cards, called"laser-visa" cards, will have security
features that will make them more difficult to counterfeit.
Title: Intel Expands Pentium II Chip Line at High, Low Ends
Source: Washington Post (C15)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/18/049l-021898-idx.html
Author: Elizabeth Corcoran
Issue: Computer Technology
Description: In an effort to better tailor its products to fit different
types of computers, the Intel Corp announced yesterday that it will
introduce two new lines of computer chips based on its Pentium II
microprocessor. Andrew Grove, chairman of Intel, told a group of software
and hardware developers that in the next few months the company will unveil
a new brand of chips intended for the sub-$1000 machines, one of the
fastest-growing segments of the computer market. The other new line will be
aimed at sophisticated workstations and servers. "One size certainly doesn't
fit all the processor business anymore," said Drew Peck, an analyst with
Cowen & Co. in Boston. With the growing enthusiasm for less expensive PCs,
Intel needed to develop another computer chip to reduce the price erosion
that has been reducing the profitability of its current mainstream chip, he
said.
** Mergers **
Title: Hostile Offer For Computer Services Unit
Source: New York Times (D1,D21)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/021898merger.html
Author: Saul Hansell
Issue: Merger
Description: Computer Associates International Inc. intensified its bid to
purchase Computer Sciences Corp. yesterday by filing a formal tender offer
to buy its stock for $108 a share in cash. Merger experts say that Computer
Associates' move towards a hostile takeover will increase the chances of the
Computer Sciences Corp. being sold -- if not to Computer Associates then to
another company. "One way or another, this company is going to get sold,"
said Moshe Katri, an analyst with UBS Securities. He said that Computer
Sciences' business appeared to be slowing down making it a more attractive
time to sell. "Fundamentally, business is kind of weak for these guys,"
Katri said, "and they have a more than generous offer."
Title: Computer Associates Bid For CSC Turns Hostile
Source: Washington Post (C13,C15)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/18/046l-021898-idx.html
Author: Mark Leibovich
Issue: Merger
Description: Computer Associates International Inc. turned hostile
yesterday after the Computer Sciences Corp. did not respond to overtures to
negotiate a friendly merger. CA revised their offer from $114 a share to
$108 a share after CSC did not respond to a letter that CA President Sanjay
Kumar wrote to CSC chief executive Van B. Honeycutt over the weekend. "If
substantive negotiations have not started by Monday at 12:00 noon EST, we
will have no choice but to move ahead on a unilateral basis at a
substantially lower price than we communicated," Kumar said in the letter.
CA would not comment yesterday. CS spokesman, Bruce Plowman, said his
company would respond later this week. "Until then, Computer Associates can
do whatever it wants," Plowman said. Computer Sciences has 10 days to
respond to Computer Associates' bid.
Title: Illinois Company Buys Coherent Communications
Source: Washington Post (C15)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/18/048l-021898-idx.html
Author: Mike Mills
Issue: Merger
Description: Tellabs Inc., based in Lisle, IL, announced yesterday that it
will merge with Coherent Communications Systems Corp., based in Ashburn, VA,
in a deal valued at approximately $670 million. The deal will combine
Tellabs' strength in the US market for products that improve voice quality
over traditional and wireless telephone networks with Coherent's strong
international presence with similar voice-enhancement products for
telecommunications companies. "The combination of Tellabs and Coherent
Communications allows us to bring sophisticated echo-canceler and
speech-processing technology to customers around the world and provides us
the resources to quickly explore new uses for this technology," said Michael
Birck,Tellabs president and chief executive.
Title: BellSouth, EDS Plan An Alliance to Offer Data Services in Region
Source: Wall Street Journal (B2)
http://wsj.com/
Issue: Merger
Description: Electronic Data Systems and BellSouth said they will form an
alliance to sell data services to small and midsize businesses in the nine
southeastern states where BellSouth provides phone service. The alliance
comes six months after BellSouth, Atlanta, chose EDS, Plano, Texas, to
operate the computer systems of its telecommunications subsidiary. Execs
said the companies jointly would invest $50 million in the alliance.
Initially, the alliance will sell Internet commerce services and management
help for wide-area computer networks.
** Microsoft **
Title: Injunction Sought Against Microsoft Is Denied by Judge
Source: Wall Street Journal (B10)
http://wsj.com/
Author: David Bank
Issue: Antitrust
Description: A Texas district-court judge rejected arguments by the state's
attorney general that provisions in Microsoft's licensing agreements
interfered with the state's antitrust investigation of the company's
marketing practices. Judge Joseph Harris refused to grant an injunction
sought by Texas Attorney General Dan Morales, who challenged the
nondisclosure agreements Microsoft requires of computer makers and others
that license its software. Mr. Morales said his probe of Microsoft's
business practices has been hampered by companies' fears that they will have
to report to Microsoft about any information they share with investigators.
Microsoft said Mr. Morales produced no evidence that the nondisclosure
agreement had interfered with his investigation.
Title: Judge Dismisses Texas Challenge Against Microsoft
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/021798texas.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Judge Joseph Hart of State district Court in Austin dismissed a
lawsuit by the state yesterday that challenged part of the licensing
agreements that the Microsoft Corp. has with computer manufacturers. Judge
Hart said that he would consider further evidence showing that the
non-disclosure provision, which require manufacturers to notify Microsoft
before releasing any information to government investigators, is hampering
the state's investigation. "We are please that the court recognized the
important role non-disclosure agreements play in protecting microsoft's
intellectual property -- out most valuable asset," said Tom Burt, associated
general counsel for Microsoft.
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