December 1997

The Benton Foundation's Headlines team has once again volunteered as back-up
elves at Macy's for the following dates and, therefore, will be unable to
provide you, our dedicated readers, with the headline service from
December 24 to January 2. Headlines will resume on Monday, January 5. We wish
everyone communications-filled holidays!

Arts
NYT: Southerner Is Selected to Head Arts Endowment
WP: White House Taps New Arts Chief

Telephone
TelecomAM: AT&T Won't Assess Residential Callers for Universal Service Costs
TelecomAM: MCI Business Customers Also Will See Universal Service Assessment
WP: AT&T Corp. Halts Efforts to Sell Local Residential Phone Service
WSJ: AT&T Chief Halts Hiring, Shifts Budget
WP: "Cram" and Punishment: Adding Up Mystery Phone Charges

Children's Television
WP: Japan's Cartoon Violence

Antitrust
WP: U.S. Recruits a Top Gun For Microsoft Showdown
WSJ: Antitrust Whiz Joins Justice Team vs. Microsoft
WSJ: Microsoft Seeks Alternative Ways to Comply With Court
NYT: Settlement Reached in Data-Storage Case

Online Services
WSJ: AOL Declares Victory Over Junk E-Mail Firm
NYT: AOL Wins Spam Battle

FCC Round-up
FCC: DTV Ancillary or Supplementary Services Fees
FCC: Commission Adopts Streamlined Auction Rules
TelecomAM: FCC Proposes Rulemaking on Rules for Spectrum Auctions
FCC: Commission Seeks Comment on Proposals to Improve Program Access
Rules
NYT: Freeze Unlikely On Cable Rates
CCB: O building on 19th & M

** Arts **

Title: Southerner Is Selected to Head Arts Endowment
Source: New York Times (A20)
http://www.nytimes.com
Author: Irvin Molotsky
Issue: Arts
Description: The White House announced last night that William Ivey, the
executive director of the Country Music Foundation, has been selected to be
the next chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Mr. Ivey is a
musicologist and folklorist who has served on panels at the NEA since 1976.
As a nominee from the South, it is expected that Mr. Ivey will easily move
through the Senate confirmation process, where much of the opposition to the
endowment comes from Southern members.

Title: White House Taps New Arts Chief
Source: Washington Post (D1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/19/062l-121997-idx.html
Author: Jacqueline Trescott
Issue: Arts
Description: The White House has selected the Country Music Foundation's
William Ivey to be the new chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Mr. Ivey is best known in Washington as a proponent for the preservation of
historical recordings. He has also served on the President's Committee on
the Arts and Humanities. The NEA is the largest source of funding for the
arts in the US. Mr. Ivey will face Senate confirmation.

** Telephone **

Title: AT&T Won't Assess Residential Callers for Universal Service Costs
Source: Telecom AM---Dec. 19, 1997
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: AT&T has become the first long-distance carrier to announce
that its customers will not face new charges in the first half of 1998 to
support the carrier's higher universal service contributions. Instead, they
will use
the anticipated reductions in access charges, which it pays to local telcos
to access the local switched network, to offset its contribution. The
company's announcement follows a decision by the FCC to reduce the subsidy
paid to schools, libraries and rural healthcare providers to $675 million
in the first half of 1998. Fees collected from long distance carriers such
as AT&T, MCI, Sprint,
and Worldcom pay for the bulk of the federal fund.

Title: MCI Business Customers Also Will See Universal Service Assessment
Source: Telecom AM---Dec. 19, 1997
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: MCI, like AT&T, plans to assess business customers an
undetermined charge on their bills to help support its contribution to
federal universal fund. MCI, which already has passed on savings from 1997
access charge cuts and anticipated 1998 reductions to customers, said it has
no current plans to raise residential rates but could reevaluate that once
it reviews universal service costs.

Title: AT&T Corp. Halts Efforts to Sell Local Residential Phone Service
Source: Washington Post (G1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/19/125l-121997-idx.html
Author: Mike Mills
Issue: Competition
Description: After investing $3-$4 billion dollars over the last three years
on resale of local phone service, AT&T has formally halted all spending on
efforts to sell local service. The company only receives $65 million in
annual revenue from local service and loses $1.50 - $2 per local phone
subscriber monthly through resale of local service. A high-level AT&T
official said, "The courts better figure out how to define an economically
viable way to provide local service [to residential customers] or nobody's
going to invest in it." AT&T's new chairman, C. Michael Armstrong, is
expected to announce sweeping changes in the company next month. [For more
on competition in the local phone market see
http://www.benton.org/Policy/96act/#phone]

Title: AT&T Chief Halts Hiring, Shifts Budget
Source: Wall Street Journal (A3)
http://wsj.com/
Author: John J. Keller
Issue: Corporate Retrenchment
Description: AT&T Chairman C. Michael Armstrong has frozen all hiring,
set stringent new compensation guidelines and redirected more than $2
billion in local-phone services spending. He hopes to plow much of the
savings into new networks and services that should correct AT&T's paltry
revenue growth. The redirected funding resulted in the sale of AT&T's
Universal Card unit to Citicorp for $4 billion. The hiring freeze could lead
to work-force cuts larger than the 17,000 planned 2 years ago,
according to people familiar with the company's plans. Mr. Armstrong is also
trying to cut expenses, which are currently more than $45 billion a year. To
do this, AT&T plans to find alternatives to the regional Bell companies to
cut local carrier fees; maybe even build their own systems.

Title: "Cram" and Punishment: Adding Up Mystery Phone Charges
Source: Washington Post (G1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/19/142l-121997-idx.html
Author: Cindy Skrzycki
Issue: Telephone Regulation
Description: In "The Regulators" column, a look at the mystery phone charges
that are starting to appear on customers' bills in the "Wild West of the
telecommunications industry." The deregulation of telecommunications
industry is causing a proliferation of providers and carriers -- some that
may add charges to your bill even if they are not legitimate. The Federal
Communications Commission is dealing with consumer complaints about
receiving bills for services -- Internet access, paging, etc -- customers
never ordered and do not want. The bad guys use a variety of ploys
including: running a contest, getting people to fill out entry cards that
include phone numbers and automatically sign people up for calling cards
with monthly fees.

** Children's Television **

Title: Japan's Cartoon Violence
Source: Washington Post (D1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/19/059l-121997-idx.html
Author: Lloyd Rose
Issue: Children's Television
Description: "Is there really such a thing a killer cartoon?" Nearly 700
people were taken to the hospital with seizures, convulsions or loss of
vision after watching a popular television cartoon in Japan on Tuesday. Some
200 victims -- mostly children -- remained hospitalized yesterday. Outraged
mothers are saying that the television networks are putting ratings before
children's health and are calling for the introduction of an electronic
screening device like the American V-chip. The show in question --
"Pokemon," or "Pocket Monsters" -- was developed by Nintendo which also
makes video games.

** Antitrust **

Title: U.S. Recruits a Top Gun For Microsoft Showdown
Source: Washington Post (G1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/19/130l-121997-idx.html
Author: David Segal
Issue: Antitrust
Description: The Justice Department -- the biggest law firm in the world --
has a staff of 340 antitrust lawyers, but has hired New York
"super-litigator" (he briefs, he files, he bills by the hour) David Boies to
handle the Microsoft case. Mr. Boies has been working for DOJ for about a
week and a half and is only charging half of his normal fee -- $550/hr (Gee,
Mom, you were right after all. What was I thinking when I majored in
English?) Tapping Mr. Boies signals "a stop-at-nothing eagerness to prevail
in its high-stakes fight over the marketing practices of the Redmond,
Wash.-based software giant."

Title: Antitrust Whiz Joins Justice Team vs. Microsoft
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Paul M. Barrett & John R. Wilke
Issue: Antitrust
Description: The Justice Dept. has fortified their ranks by hiring David
Boies, one of the nation's best-known antitrust litigators, to assist them
in their war with Microsoft. Mr. Boies said that one assignment he may take
on is helping the gov't. try to broaden its case beyond the allegation of
monopoly. He may also appear in court for the Justice Dept., he added, but
his precise role hasn't been determined. Mr. Boies impressive credentials
include the time when he helped IBM with a successful defense against a
massive governmental antitrust suit. Mr. Boies also said that he's still
"trying to understand what the facts are," but that ultimately he will help
determine whether Microsoft's behavior might be grounds for new claims under
the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Title: Microsoft Seeks Alternative Ways to Comply With Court
Source: Wall Street Journal (B4)
http://wsj.com/
Author: David Bank & Dean Takahashi
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Microsoft said it has considered alternative ways of
complying with a federal judge's preliminary injunction, implying it has a
fallback position for settling an escalating dispute with the Justice Dept.
The company said it would give PC makers 3 choices: 1) the integrated
operating system, 2) one without the browser that will not work properly, or
3) a
two-year-old version of Windows 95 that does not share files with the browser.
This response infuriated the DOJ and the agency asked Judge Jackson to fine the
company $1 million a day for alleged noncompliance with his order. Microsoft
VP, Brad Chase, said the judge's order meant "we're damned if we do, we're
damned if we don't." He admitted there are simple ways to deactivate
Internet Explorer, but asserted that they wouldn't comply with a literal
interpretation of the judge's order. "Competitors and the Justice Department
are trying to manipulate the situation to make it look like we are being
unreasonable," Mr. Chase said.

Title: Settlement Reached in Data-Storage Case
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/121997ibm.html
Author: Associated Press
Issue: Antitrust
Description: The IBM Corp. and Storage Technology Corp. reached a tentative
agreement with the U.S. Justice Department yesterday to resolve an
investigation of antitrust activities in the mainframe computer market. The
two corporations agreed to modify a 1996 agreement that would free Storage
Technology to sell its computer data storage systems to other channels. "As
a result of this case, StorgeTek will once again be able to compete
vigorously in the mainframe disk storage system market," said Joel Klein,
assistant Attorney General for antitrust. [no need to rub your eyes - this
antitrust story, believe it or not, REALLY isn't about Microsoft!]

** Online Services **

Title: AOL Declares Victory Over Junk E-Mail Firm
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Jared Sandberg
Issue: Online Services
Description: AOL proclaimed a major victory in federal court against Over
the Air Equipment, a sex-oriented junk e-mail company. "Over the Air" agreed
to pay undisclosed damages and cease sending unsolicited e-mail messages,
known as spam, to AOL members. The "victorious" announcement is part of a
public relations campaign to show that AOL, which receives as much
as 2.5 million pieces of spam a day, is aggressively targeting spammers. But
many observers are skeptical that success in the courts will bring success
against spam. The issue of junk sex mail is particularly nettlesome for
AOL, which has the largest concentration of child users in cyberspace.

Title: AOL Wins Spam Battle
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/121997spam.html
Author: Matt Richtel
Issue: Online Services
Description: In the first settlement of its kind, a company sending out bulk
email has agreed to pay damages to an Internet service provider. The ruling
is in response to a lawsuit filed by America Online this past October
against Over the Air Equipment Inc. for spamming AOL users with its
advertisements. While the settlement does not itself make law, it does
build onto an emerging picture of what bulk emailing practices will be allowed.

** FCC Round-up **

Title: DTV Ancillary or Supplementary Services Fees
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Mass_Media/News_Releases/1997/nrmm7021.html
Issue: Digital TV
Description: Commission Seeks Comments on Fee Alternatives for Ancillary or
Supplementary Services Offered by Digital Television Broadcasters.

Title: FCC Adopts Streamlined Auction Rules
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Wireless/News_Releases/1997/nrwl7047.html
Issue: Spectrum
Description: "The Commission adopted comprehensive and streamlined rules for
all auctionable services, replacing rules adopted in 1994 which require the
Commission to adopt separate rules for each auction. The Commission also
sought further comment on the use of installment payments and other
financial incentives for small businesses, women, minorities, and rural
telephone companies."

Title: FCC Proposes Rulemaking on Rules for Spectrum Auctions
Source: Telecom AM---Dec. 19, 1997
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Spectrum
Description: The FCC adopted a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on its
spectrum rules, emphasizing the need for simplification and greater
efficiency. Chairman Kennard called the rulemaking "the culmination of a lot
of learning." Specific proposals included: 1) Bringing all auctions under
uniform rules; 2) Suspending installment payments until the Commission gets
authority to revoke licenses for nonpayment; 3) Tightening anti-collusion
rules; 4) Mandating minimum opening bids; and 5) Bidding in real time.
Commissioner Furchtgott-Roth said the plan "makes the Commission a banker"
without having the necessary expertise.

Title: Commission Seeks Comment on Proposals to Improve Program Access Rules
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/News_Releases/1997/nrcb7024.html
Issue: Cable
Description: "In order to ensure that all providers of multichannel video
services have a reasonable opportunity to secure the programming they need
to satisfy viewers, the Commission has adopted a notice seeking comment on
revisions to its program access rules. In enacting the program access
provisions of the 1992 Cable Act, Congress expressed its concern that
potential competitors to incumbent cable operators were unable to gain
access to the programming needed to provide a viable and competitive
multichannel alternative to cable. "

Title: Freeze Unlikely On Cable Rates
Source: New York Times (C2)
http://www.nytimes.com/
Author: Reuters
Issue: Cable
Description: Consumer groups and some politicians want the Federal
Communications Commission to impose a rate freeze on cable companies.
Commissioner Susan
Ness said, "regulation of rates is an absolute,
absolute last resort." William Kennard, FCC chairman, also said that
regulation should be a last resort but added, "I'm not ready to rule
anything out." The commission has proposed tightening rules that require
cable operators to share more lucrative programs with satellite-TV
companies and others selling rival video services and telephone carriers.

Thanks to the Washington Post for printing this new song coined by the FCC's
Common Carrier Bureau about the long proposed move of the Commission to The
Portals, a new building in Washington's southwest district:

(set to tune of "O Little Town of Bethlehem)

O building on 19th & M,
how we will miss thee;
Even though the date we move,
is still a mystery.

We will miss your ecru walls,
and oft waxed floors;
Not to mention ATMs,
and the convenient stores...

*********
...and we are outta here! Don't spend too much time in the malls and we'll
see you Monday.

Telephone
TelecomAM: FCC Announces Slower Ramp-Up for Universal Service
NYT: Crossed Wires In South Africa

Microsoft & Monopoly
NYT: Microsoft's Legal Problems Grow As States Join in
Antitrust Effort
WSJ: Officials of as Many as Nine States Met To Coordinate
Action Against Microsoft
WP: Programmers Say Microsoft, US Exaggerate
NYT: Administration Seeks Counsel on Domain Names

Cable & Satellite TV
WSJ: TCI Is Close To Announcing NextLevel Pact
WSJ: FCC Balks At Freezing Cable Rates
FCC: Commission Releases Report on Cable Industry Prices
WSJ: A Massive Investment In British Cable TV Sours for U.S. Firms
WSJ: DirecTV Seeks New Partners, Fresh Programs

The Wonders of Telecom & InfoTech
NYT: Edison Project Reports Measurable Progress in Reading and Math
at Its Schools
NYT: Limits on the Work-at-Home Life
WSJ: Silicon Graphics, Microsoft to Unveil Alliance on
Three-Dimensional Displays

Civic Participation
WP: Beyond "Bowling Alone"

Radio/Media & Politics
WP: Md. Grant to Radio Firm Approved

FCC
FCC: Commissioner Michael Powell Supports Flexible, Timely
Pro-Competitive Telecommunications Policies

** Telephone **

Title: FCC Announces Slower Ramp-Up for Universal Service
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: After days of rumors that long distance carriers were urging
the Federal Communications Commission to "rethink its original figures," FCC
Chairman William Kennard has announced an approximate one-third cut in
universal service funding for schools, libraries, and rural health care
providers. Chairman Kennard said that there is not enough demand to justify
the full amount announced in may. He also said the new plan, coupled with
reductions in access charges, should allow long distance carriers to
continue to reduce rates. Schools and libraries will be allotted $300
million in the first quarter of 1998 and $325 in the second quarter; rural
health care providers will receive $25 million in each quarter. If demand
reaches the original cap of $2.65 billion for the two programs, the FCC will
find a way to meet the demand that "doesn't result in rate shock for
consumers," Chairman Kennard said. He is adamant that universal service
funding should not force long distance carriers to increase their rates --
mainly because of access charge reductions. [Update from ALA to follow]

Title: Crossed Wires In South Africa
Source: New York Times (D1, D8)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/safrica-phone.html
Author: Donald G. McNeil, Jr.
Issue: International
Description: Over the years SA Telkom had become known for its high prices,
slow service, a bloated work force, and a network engineered for white
neighborhoods. After two years of debate, the South African government
decided that it would be better to open the market up to competition, hoping
that the new entrants would wire the neglected black areas. Last year,
South Africa put 30 percent of SA Telkom up for sale. In March it was bought
in a joint bid by SBC Communications International and Telekom Malaysia.
Now, six months later, the company is making huge strides. Company
officials said that Telkom has installed 171,000 new lines -- almost triple
the pace of before -- with over 115,000 of them going "into previously
neglected areas." Telkom now fixes "57 percent of all home phone problems
within 24 hours, up from 42 percent in April." It promises to have 35
percent black managers within five years and plans to have the whole network
digital by 1999. Jay Naidoo, the Posts and Telecommunications Minister,
said he is "philosophically very satisfied" with the monopoly-for-investment
deal.

** Microsoft **

Title: Microsoft's Legal Problems Grow As States Join in Antitrust Effort
Source: New York Times (A1,D3)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/121797microsoft.html
Author: John Markoff
Issue: Antitrust
Description: While a Federal district judge was ruling on the antitrust suit
brought against Microsoft by the Justice Department, "attorneys general from
some of the nation's most populous states were concluding a secret three-day
meeting in Chicago to assess their own strategy for a possible antitrust
action against Microsoft's marketing practices." At this time, California,
Connecticut, Massachusetts and Oregon have each opened their own
investigations into Microsoft's business practices. Texas is already suing
the company due to an inquiry in their state over policies and nine states
have subpoenaed information from Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rasati in Palo
CA, the firm that represents a number of Microsoft competitors. Couple this
with government investigations that are underway in Europe and Asia and
Microsoft could soon find that it has become a "Gulliver enmeshed in
Lilliputian legal entanglements around the globe."

Title: Officials of as Many as Nine States Met To Coordinate
Action Against Microsoft
Source: Wall Street Journal (A6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Don Clark & David Bank
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Representatives from nine states met in Chicago to
coordinate possible antitrust enforcement actions against Microsoft. This
could signal more vigorous efforts to restrain Microsoft's marketing
practices, which are under scrutiny by the Department of Justice and
antitrust regulators in
Europe and Asia. Microsoft filed an expedited appeal of a federal court
order affecting its Internet software, arguing that the ruling and resulting
doubts about their Windows 98 operating system could harm significant parts
of the U.S. economy.

Title: Programmers Say Microsoft, US Exaggerate
Source: Washington Post (C15)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/17/088l-121797-idx.html
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Implementing Judge Jackson's order to make a version of Windows
95 available without Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser software will not
be the Herculean effort the software giant claims it will be nor is it a
task that can be completed in days as the Justice Department contends.
Microsoft claims that Windows 95 will be inoperable without the Explorer files.

Title: Administration Seeks Counsel on Domain Names
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/121797domain.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Internet
Description: A month and a half after the Clinton Administration promised
Congress a report on the Internet address and registration system, top
Internet adviser Ira Magaziner is convening a series of meetings with
Internet groups and telecommunications companies to break the gridlock on
the matter. [ok, breathe] "It's a very complicated and difficult issue, and
stability of the Internet has got to be our No. 1 concern," says Becky Burr,
a senior Commerce Department adviser who has been leading an interagency
task force on the matter and who has been selected by Assistant Commerce
Secretary Larry Irving to write the report. The lack of consensus within the
Administration mirrors that of the Internet community. Most industry and
trade groups support a plan to open the system to competition -- but they
can't agree on how to transition.

** Cable & Satellite TV **

Title: TCI Is Close To Announcing NextLevel Pact
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Leslie Cauley
Issue: Set-Top Boxes
Description: TCI and other big cable operators are close to announcing an
agreement for NextLevel Systems to build as many as 25 million advanced
digital-TV set-top devices for the cable industry during the next 3 to 5
years. The selection of NextLevel is the first step in the cable industry's
campaign to equip the nation's TV sets with gizmos smaller than VCRs that
improve on today's set-top boxes by adding high-resolution movies, e-mail,
and easy Internet access. Still to be decided is which companies will get
which slice of the various technologies -- Microsoft and Intel are
fighting with various rivals for business. [Gizmo...is that a technical term?]

Title: FCC Balks At Freezing Cable Rates
Source: Wall Street Journal (A3)
http://wsj.com/
Author: John R. Wilke & Leslie Cauley
Issue: Cable
Description: The FCC is balking at freezing cable rates despite reports
that show stiff rate increases around the nation. The commission is expected
to propose stiffer rules to encourage cable competition. These include
measures that force cable companies to share programming with competitors
such as direct-broadcast satellites and phone companies. The commission
hopes these new measures can head off a need for rate regulation.
Commissioner Susan Ness said, "We're hearing reports of double-digit rate
increases in some cities, and we're not going to tolerate that...rate
regulation is a last resort."

Title: Commission Releases Report on Cable Industry Prices
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Reports/fcc97409.html
Issue: Cable
Description: "The Commission has released the results of a survey of cable
industry prices covering the period from July 1, 1995 to July 1, 1997. The
survey (FCC 97-409) is mandated by section 623(k) of the Communications Act
of 1934 and reflects information gathered from cable operators. Beyond
reporting on the level of price increases, the survey compares subscriber
rates in competitive service areas and noncompetitive service areas."

Title: A Massive Investment In British Cable TV Sours for U.S. Firms
Source: Wall Street Journal (A1)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Robert Frank & Matthew Rose
Issue: International
Description: Betting that British viewers would want their MTV and CNN
just like Americans, U.S. phone and cable companies built one of the most
advanced communications networks in the world: more than 40,000 miles of
fiber-optic lines that could carry everything from "Seinfeld" and
pay-per-view movies to local phone calls and e-mail. But U S West
hasn't reached half of the predicted 45% of British cable TV customers.
Telewest Comm. PLC reported a loss of $450 million last year. Other U.S.
Bell companies have packed up and gone home. Stephen Davidson, Telewest's
chief exec, said, "Five years age, [Britons] watched four channels, and now
most of them still only watch four channels. The growth has been much less
than we anticipated."

Title: DirecTV Seeks New Partners, Fresh Programs
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Frederic M. Biddle & Leslie Cauley
Issue: Satellite
Description: DirecTV, the market leader for direct
satellite broadcasting, is aggressively looking for new ways to attract
subscribers. A number of Baby Bells, including Bell Atlantic and SBC, are
currently negotiating with DirecTV to become its agents within their
respective territories. DirecTV also signed a $200 million deal for eight
prime-time action-adventure series produced by Francis Ford Coppola and
others. They also announced an agreement with Time Warner's pay-TV unit to
produce a new half-hour weekly music series exclusively for DirecTV's
subscribers. The company said the move into programming is a natural way to
stay ahead and expects to sign more deals.

** The Wonders of Telecom & InfoTech **

Title: Edison Project Reports Measurable Progress in Reading and Math
at Its Schools
Source: New York Times (A30)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/edison-project-educ.html
Author: Jacques Steinberg
Issue: Education
Description: The Edison Project, started in 1995, is an ambitious for-profit
educational plan designed to develop a revolutionary model for overhauling
schools. After two years, the project, which includes everything from
longer school years to placing computers in every student's home, shows
measurable gains in students reading and math scores. Project leaders hail
these findings as exceeding their expectations and providing solid evidence
that public school systems can be improved through outside intervention.
However, officials acknowledge that these gains need to be sustained for an
extended period of time in order for the project to be considered
substantially persuasive.

Title: Limits on the Work-at-Home Life
Source: New York Times (A31)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/121797telecommute.html
Author: Kirk Johnson
Issue: Telecommuting
Description: In recent years millions of Americans have sought the
flexibility of working at home, usually under informal arrangements. As an
increasing number of corporations acknowledge that telecommuting is here to
stay, they are moving to impose structure and supervision on the
arrangement. The goal is to provide workers with the flexibility and support
they want while addressing supervisors' concerns about productivity,
fairness and liability. So, no need to shrink from your boss when she
doesn't recognize you at this years Christmas party -- next year you will
most certainly be kept in the loop with regular surveys and mandatory office
meetings and appearances.

Title: Silicon Graphics, Microsoft to Unveil Alliance on Three-Dimensional
Displays
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Dean Takahashi
Issue: InfoTech
Description: Microsoft and Silicon Graphics will announce an alliance to
collaborate on technology for displaying 3-D graphics on future computers.
The partnership is expected to end a battle over technical standards that
has delayed some advances in graphics technology and could influence the
design of software used by engineers. Analysts say that if Silicon Graphics
can influence Microsoft's software with its own 3-D technology, it will have
a better chance of differentiating its computers when it adapts them to run
Windows NT, instead of the Unix software the company uses. Otherwise,
Silicon Graphics' NT-based workstations might not be any better than those
made by PC makers.

** Civic Participation **

Title: Beyond "Bowling Alone"
Source: Washington Post (A25)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/17/008l-121797-idx.html
Author: David Broder
Issue: Civic Participation
Description: In an influential essay called "Bowling Alone," Harvard
Professor Robert Putnam argued that Americans were becoming increasingly
disconnected from each other -- depleting the supply of "social capital" on
which our government depends. A new survey by the Center for Survey Research
at the University of Virginia for the American Association of Retired
Persons (AARP) finds that Americans may not be the "civic slugs" many fear
we are. AARP's numbers show that the average American adult has four
affiliations outside of family and work -- only one in seven has none.
Political activity is low, but volunteering is high and -- at the local
level -- "civic engagement" numbers are high. The survey finds the trust
element of "social capital" is weak -- only 28% of Americans believe the
national government can be trusted to do what is right most or all of the
time. AARP's director of research, Constance Swank says, "Despite their lack
of trust in government, most Americans have not lost their sense of what
they can do individually or collectively in their communities." Broder ends
the editorial: "In a sobering national picture, that is something on which
leaders at all levels may be able to build."

** Radio **

Title: Md. Grant to Radio Firm Approved
Source: Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/17/112l-121797-idx.html
Author: Charles Babington
Issue: Radio
Description: In a case many fear blurs the line between media and
government, Maryland approved its first business grant to a minority-owned
company yesterday. Radio One will receive a $500,000 loan for the Maryland
government -- $400,000 will be forgiven if the company adds 40 new employees
to its 110-person workforce and keeps them; the remaining $100,000 will have
to be repaid at 6% interest after five years. Radio One runs two radio
stations is core Democratic precincts and some of the legislators voting on
the issue are frequent guests on the stations' talk shows. But the grant is
very small compared to others in the Sunny Day grants program: for example,
Bethlehem Steel Corp got a $5.5 million grant and loan package to rebuild
its "cold rolling mill" in Baltimore County.

** FCC **

Title: Commissioner Michael Powell Supports Flexible, Timely
Pro-Competitive Telecommunications Policies
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Powell/spmkp701.html
Author: Michael Powell
Issue: Regulation
Description: "The FCC must pursue procompetitive policies that are flexible,
timely and will promote technological innovation," FCC Commissioner Michael
K. Powell said today to the Winter 1997 Seminar of the America's Carriers
Telecommunications Association, in McLean, Va. In his first speech since
joining the Commission last month, Powell said his "first priority" will be
to "encourage procompetitive policies." He said, "We must be procompetitive
because rapidly developing high technology markets demand it. It is nearly
impossible for regulators to be able to predict accurately the direction and
impact of changing technology or to keep pace with it."
*********
Are we obsessed with monopoly or what? Who's got next game?

Telephone
NYT: Fund to Aid Technology in Schools Facing Big F.C.C. Cuts
WSJ: Open and Closed: Genuine Competition In Local Phone Service
Is a Long Distance Off
NYT: Down Country Roads, Come Modern Phones

Cable
WSJ: TCI in Talks Over New Cable-TV Boxes
B&C: TCI eyes box mega-buy
NYT: Internet Ties Help to Revive the Cable Industry as Satellite
Sales Lag Behind
B&C: FCC zeros in on competition

Television
B&C: Another banner year (financially) for NBC
B&C: It all ads up
NYT: Executives Seeking Ways to Make Conventional TV Look Better
in a High-Definition World
WP: PBS's Money Channels

Ownership
B&C: A case for minority tax certificates

Antitrust
WSJ: Microsoft Judge Taps a Pioneer Of Internet Law
NYT: Theorist's Task: Make Old Laws Fit in Digital World of Microsoft
WP: A Tangled Web

Internet
NYT: Cyberspace Staying Duty-Free
NYT: Digital Commerce: Censorship Problems Increase When Moved to
Private Sector
WP: A United Front for the Internet

Philanthropy
NYT: Philanthropic magazines' Circulation Rises, Along With Interest
in Giving

First Amendment/Free Speech
WP: Klan, NPR Station at Odds Over Paid Sponsorship

** Telephone **

Title: Fund to Aid Technology in Schools Facing Big F.C.C. Cuts
Source: New York Times (D1,D10)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/121597fund.html
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: Education Technology - FCC Regulation
Description: The Telecommunications Act of 1996 established that large
long distance telephone companies would help pay for the telecommunications
needs of schools, libraries and health care institutions with a ceiling of
$2.65 billion. Now, due to pressure from these phone companies, the Federal
Communications Commission has tentatively decided to cut these fees by more
than 25 percent - about $750 million less than the original amount. Lynne
Bradley, a lobbyist for the American Library Association, said yesterday,
"We worry that if there is a slower ramp-up of the program, that the bigger
schools with more professional technology operations will get their money
first while the communities that have lacked access for which this program
was intended will be left out." "After meeting with AT&T and MCI
Communications Corp., the FCC has decided on spending levels of about $1.8
billion for the schools and libraries and about $100 million for the health
care centers, according to people close to the commission." The FCC is
planning to meet this week to further discuss the reductions. [See "The Boy
Who Cried 'Tax'" by Andrew Blau http://www.benton.org/Blau/taxboy.html]

Title: Open and Closed: Genuine Competition In Local Phone Service Is a
Long Distance Off
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (A1)
Author: Leslie Cauley
Issue: Competition
Description: Almost two years after the passage of the Telecommunications
Act of 1996, the Baby Bells and GTE still dominate local phone service and
the Big Three long distance providers -- AT&T, Sprint, and MCI -- hold more
than 80% of the long distance market. Instead of competition, the Telecom
Act has resulted in merger mania -- $100 billion in deals so far including
WorldCom's purchase of MCI for $37 billion in cash and stock, the largest
takeover ever. Of the original seven Baby Bells, only five remain and AT&T,
Sprint and GTE may be looking for mates, too. Baby Bells must open their
local markets in order to be allowed to enter the long distance market. But
these local phone companies are concentrating their efforts on opening
markets where competition is least likely.

Title: Down Country Roads, Come Modern Phones
Source: New York Times (D6)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/calif-phone-midget.html
Author: David Batstone
Issue: Universal Service
Description: There are 94 privately owned telephone companies with less than
500 customers across the U.S. These small companies provide much needed
communications to residents in remote areas. With constant advancements in
telecommunications technology, these companies do everything possible to
keep up with the rapid changes. But many of these privately owned
businesses could not keep pace with new technologies without the aid of the
Universal Service Fund - a $793 million Federal program that puts tax on all
phone customers and then uses the proceeds to assist phone companies that
provide service to people in areas that are more costly to serve, like these
rural areas. Rex Bryan, who runs the Pinnacles Telephone Company in
Paicines, CA, says that remote areas would become isolated if Universal
Service didn't exist. "The valuable stakes are the metropolitan zones," he
explains. "Large phone companies can't make money out here."

** Cable **

Title: TCI in Talks Over New Cable-TV Boxes
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (A3)
Author: David Bank
Issue: Cable
Description: As personal computer penetration has stalled at ~40% of all US
households, the industry is turning to cable television as a way of
extending its reach to include nearly all of the nation's 100 million TV
households. Today is the deadline to submit technical and financial
proposals to become the provider of as many as 10 million "network
computers" for the next generation of cable television for
Tele-Communications Inc. The deal is valued at $3 billion and PC giants
Microsoft and Intel are major players. TCI is asking for bids to provide the
ultimate set-top box that will be able to provide: 1) 10-12 channels for
every one that is offered today (through digital compression), 2) Internet
links to enhance traditional programming with background info, statistics
and online transactions, 3) electronic programming guides linked to VCR's,
4) high-speed Internet access for both televisions and PCs, and 5) future
services like "video-on-demand," electronic mail, games, "jukeboxes," and
educational services.

Title: TCI eyes box mega-buy
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.6)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Price Colman & John Higgins
Issue: Cable
Description: Tele-Communications Inc's Chairman John Malone says the company
is close to ordering 5-10 million digital set-top boxes to be delivered over
the next 2-3 years to TCI systems and "friend and family." Mr. malone says
TCI expects the biggest chuck of the $1.3-$3 billion price tag will be
picked up by advertisers eager to sell products electronically. There may be
some backing from AT&T as well which is rumored to be considering 1)
investing $1.5 billion into TCI-backed high-speed Internet service ( at )Home and
2) purchasing Teleport Communications Group, the competitive local telephone
access provider backed by TCI and other cable operators.

Title: Internet Ties Help to Revive the Cable Industry as Satellite Sales
Lag Behind
Source: New York Times (D6)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/121597cable.html
Author: Peter H. Lewis
Issue: Cable
Description: The cable television industry is reveling in the wealth of
choices that are now available to them. Choices that range from
programming, telephony, email, high-speed Internet access, electronic
commerce, distance education, interactive games, music, and high-definition
television and movies. All of these new services mean more revenue which
puts a smile on the faces of cable operators who were fearing the worst with
Americans switching to direct broadcast satellite dishes, telephone
companies threatening their turf, the Internet and online service providers
cutting into tv viewing time, and Wall Street, along with their customers,
waning in their support of the cable industry. "Cable is a hero again and
AOL is the Antichrist," said Michael W. Harris, president of Kinetic
Strategies Inc., a market research firm. "Instead of throwing rocks at the
cable truck in the neighborhood, customers are chasing it to order new
Internet services that are a hundred times as fast as today's computer modems."

Title: FCC zeros in on competition
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.18)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Chris McConnell
Issue: Cable/Competition
Description: Following the Federal Communications Commission open meeting on
Thursday, December 18, there will be an en banc hearing on cable
competition. Regulators will hear from National Cable Television Association
President Decker Anstrom, Consumers Union's Gene Kimmelman, the Consumer
Federation of America's Mark Cooper, and People's Choice TV Matthew
Oristano, who chairs the Wireless Cable Association's government relations
committee.

** Television **

Title: Another banner year (financially) for NBC
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.80)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Steve McClellan
Issue: Television Economics
Description: 1997 revenues for NBC will be ~$5.2 billion -- about the same
as last year when the network had $700 million in Atlanta's Olympics
advertising. NBC's total profit will be about $1.15 billion -- up 21% from
last year. NBC president Bob Wright says the company is now worth $17
billion including $4 billion in global cable assets and NBC owned TV
stations worth some $7.5 billion. Mr. Wright expects profit growth in '98 as
well. Network ad rates continue to rise because that advertising is "an
auction marketplace" in which demand for a limited supply of time dictates
pricing.

Title: It all ads up
Source: Broadcasting&Cable
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Steve McClellan
Issue: Television Economics/Advertising
Description: Industry forecasters predict that ad spending will continue to
grow even though the economy shows signs of slowing. Estimated ad growth for
the four major television networks in 1998 are 5.5-5.9% and one group,
projecting out to 2005, said the Big Four will see a climb of 65% to $23.2
billion.

Title: Executives Seeking Ways to Make Conventional TV Look Better in a
High-Definition World
Source: New York Times (D13)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/121597hdtv.html
Author: Joel Brinkley
Issue: Digital TV
Description: Starting next fall, a portion of network's daily programming
will be broadcast in high-definition format. This creates a problem for TV
stations, cable companies and major networks that want to broadcast shows
produced the "old way". And what about advertisers that have not adapted
their format to high-definition? Anticipating these problems, almost every
segment of the television industry is planning to use devices, called
line-doublers, to make conventional television look better in a
high-definition world. "Since not all of our programming will be in
high-definition, at least not at first," said Charles Jablonski, a senior
NBC executive, "we need something to fill the gap. So we plan to use some
up-conversion
equipment from Faroudja or Snell & Wilcox." (Faroudja Laboratories and
Snell & Wilcox are both manufacturers of line-doublers.)

Title: PBS's Money Channels
Source: Washington Post (WashTech, p.12)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/15/010l-121597-idx.html
Author: Paul Farhi
Issue: Television
Description: PBS's new entrepreneurialism is now evident in major efforts
under its PBS Learning Ventures division, started in early 1995. It serves
consumer and retail markets, the professional education market and schools
and colleges. Major partnerships and initiatives include: "PBS: The Business
Channel", "PBS Adult Learning Service", "PBS Home Video", "PBS Online" , and
"PBS Records."

** Ownership **

Title: A case for minority tax certificates
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.80)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Erwin Krasow, partner at Verner, Lipfert, Berhard, McPherson and Hand
Issue: Minority Ownership
Description: The minority tax certificate policy was adopted in 1978 to
improve minority ownership of broadcast stations. Tax certificates gave
minority entrepreneurs increased access to the market for broadcast and
cable properties by deferring capital gains to owners selling these mass
media outlets to minorities and investors who provided start-up capital to
minority-owned businesses. During the 15 years the policy existed, it helped
minority-owned companies buy 288 radio stations, 43 television stations, and
31 cable systems -- before 1978 minorities owned 40 of 8,500 broadcast
stations. In 1995, Congress killed the policy when Viacom planned to sell
its cable systems to a minority-led group for $2.3 billion in a move to
defer more than $400 million in federal taxes and $200 million in state
taxes. The tax certificate program should be reinstated "because it is the
right thing to do...it can be reformed in such a way that it addresses the
concerns of Congress and makes it easier for minorities to acquire
broadcasting and cable properties without government mandates, set-asides or
quotas."

** Antitrust **

Title: Microsoft Judge Taps a Pioneer Of Internet Law
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (B1)
Author: Ann Davis
Issue: Antitrust
Description: US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson has named Harvard
Professor Lawrence Lessig "special master" to evaluate evidence and make
recommendations in the Microsoft antitrust case. Mr. Lessig's writings
denote a political moderate who supports some government regulation. He
argues passionately for consumer choice on the Internet -- an outlook some
legal experts say could bode poorly for Microsoft. How software is written
has "vast social and political implications," he said recently. "With the
law, we as citizens have the right to complain. When (software) code instead
of law regulates, to whom do we complain?"

Title: Theorist's Task: Make Old Laws Fit in Digital World of Microsoft
Source: New York Times (D1,D14)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/121597microsoft-lawyer.html
Author: Amy Harmon
Issue: Technological Regulation
Description: Lawrence Lessig, Harvard law professor, has been anointed
"special master" in the Justice Departments antitrust suit against
Microsoft. Mr. Lessig, who specializes in how traditional legal practices
translate into cyberspace, will have five months to interpret questions
raised by the case.

Title: A Tangled Web
Source: Washington Post (Op-eds, A26)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/15/021l-121597-idx.html
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Federal District Court Judge Thomas P. Jackson decided to
order Microsoft to temporarily decouple it's operating system from its new
Web browser while the software giant and the DOJ fight about what facts and
metaphors should govern the relationship between the two products. This is a
tough case with enormous financial implications both for Microsoft and its
competitors. The Justice Dept. and Microsoft's competitors have a legitimate
concern that the company is using its entrenched power in the
operating-system market to inflate its presence in the world of browsers.
The product is free, however, and doesn't preclude the use of competing
packages, and most manufacturers want to integrate into their systems. But,
Judge Jackson's decision was thoughtful and well-reasoned. Microsoft
shouldn't be able to overwhelm the browser market before it establishes that
its legal position is correct.

** Internet **

Title: Cyberspace Staying Duty-Free
Source: New York Times (D14)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/121597tariffs.html
Author: Steve Lohr
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: Last week, the Clinton administration announced that it reached
an agreement with the European Union to impose no new tariff duties on
Internet commerce. This initiative applies to goods, like computer
software, that are purchased and delivered over the Internet. Administration
officials hail the agreement as an important step in the American approach
of keeping new government regulation and taxation to a minimum in cyberspace.

Title: Digital Commerce: Censorship Problems Increase When Moved to Private
Sector
Source: New York Times (D6)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/digicom/121597digicom.html
Author: Denise Caruso
Issue: Digital Commerce
Description: Free-speech advocates have long-warned of the dangers of
allowing the government to regulate the Internet. Now they are also
beginning to sound alarms about self-regulation. They are pointing to the
Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS), a software that makes it
possible for people to filter the Internet by blocking access to various
types of material. Initially, PICS was embraced by opponents to the
Communications Decency Act as a neutral alternative to government
censorship. But under closer evaluation, these same opponents fear that this
new technology is turning the Internet into a censorship machine because any
group could develop their own version of a PICS-based system. This is of
particular concern, because unlike many of today's filtering systems that
alert the user that they are not seeing certain sites, PICS allows groups to
silently block access. "As a result, outraged critics say PICS is the most
effective global censorship technology ever designed."

Title: A United Front for the Internet
Source: Washington Post (WashTech, p.15)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/15/011l-121597-idx.html
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Mergers
Description: While Washington's interest in the Internet has grown, the
Internet industry's presence in this city hasn't. Almost 20 different
organizations claim to represent the interests of the industry, yet some of
the disparate Internet group have bickered among themselves at times when
the industry needed to present a united front. The Interactive Services
Assoc. and the Assoc. of Online Professionals decided to join forces to
create the biggest Internet industry association. David P. McClure, the
AOP's exec director, said, "If we don't get our act together, Congress is
going to do it for us." By merging, the groups hope to bring together two
different segments of the industry. The ISA largely represents businesses
that create content for the network. The AOP represents Internet service
providers and businesses that support the network's infrastructure. Jeff
Richards, the ISA's exec director, said the new organization intends to
reach out to other industry groups, pitching the benefits of working together.

** Philanthropy **

Title: Philanthropic magazines' Circulation Rises, Along With Interest in
Giving
Source: New York Times (D13)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/charity-mags-media.html
Author: Robin Pogrebin
Issue: Philanthropy
Description: With charitable giving, as a whole, being on the rise, new
publications are appearing on the scene to offer donors philanthropic
advice. "People are looking more to philanthropic sources for new ideas and
leadership in a period where government is shrinking," said Susan Vail
Berresford, the president of the Ford Foundation. "And people who publish
magazines and newspapers see that as a new market." Check out today's
article in the paper or at the above site for descriptions of different
charitable related publications.

** First Amendment/Free Speech **

Title: Klan, NPR Station at Odds Over Paid Sponsorship
Source: Washington Post (B1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/15/047l-121597-idx.html
Author: Howard Kurtz
Issue: First Amendment/Free Speech
Description: Michael Cuffley's organization want to buy a $50 15-second
spot on the local National Public Radio station. But, his organization is
the Ku Klux Klan and that fact has led to a battle that may test the
boundaries of the First Amendment. The Klan is suing KWMU, a St. Louis
station owned by the Univ. of Missouri, contending that a state-run
enterprise cannot discriminate advertisers on the basis of their beliefs.
Cuffley said, "I'm trying to change the image. If you didn't know the stigma
attached to me, you'd think I was one of the best persons you'd ever met."
Robert Samples, the University's communications director, said Federal
broadcasting rules do not require stations to accept advertising from
everyone who wants to buy airtime. "We felt it was in the best public
interest not to let the Ku Klux Klan serve as an underwriter," he said.

*********

Telephone
TelecomAM: Library Association Alerts Members on AT&T and MCI Plans
TelecomAM: Nader Calls on All Long Distance Companies to Bill by the Second
TelecomAM: FCC asked to Adopt Prescriptive Access Charge Reduction Plan
WSJ: FCC Is Likely to Rebuff BellSouth Bid To Enter the
Long Distance Business
FCC: Biennial Review of Common Carrier Rules

Internet & Online Services
WSJ: Adult Net Users In U.S., Canada Put at 58 Million
NYT: Filtering Companies Assailed For Blocking 'Unpopular' Voices
WP: AOL to Open Some of Its Services to Nonsubscribers
NYT: New Getty Museum Goes Virtual From the Start
NYT: Reno Says Plan Will 'Match Wits' With Technological Criminals

Digital TV
NTIA: PIAC Meeting Transcript

FCC
TelecomAM: Hatfield Returns to FCC as Chief Technologist

News of the Right
WP: The Heritage Foundation's Solid Footing

** Telephone **

Title: Library Association Alerts Members on AT&T and MCI Plans
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: The American Library Association (ALA) has sent an action alert
to members to warn against "assaults on the library/school
telecommunications discounts" program. "The message appears to be to blame
universal service and the school/library discount program for increases in
long distance rates," ALA wrote. The association said long distance carriers
have not passed reductions in access charges on to consumers, but now want
to pass on the costs of universal service. ALA urged members to invite
legislators to their libraries to show how they plan to use the discounts
and to let sales representatives at AT&T and MCI know they are not happy
with their companies' plans to add a line item on customers' bills to cover
universal service costs.

Title: Nader Calls on All Long Distance Companies to Bill by the Second
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Long Distance
Description: LCI International has moved to charge consumers by the second
instead of by the minute for long distance calls. Consumer advocate Ralph
Nader is urging the CEOs of AT&T, MCI, Sprint, and WorldCom to do the same.
"We wouldn't expect customers to pay for two pounds of beef at a supermarket
when the sale registers 17 ounces...LCI obviously considers exact billing a
plus, and does not appear to be concerned about consumer confusion and has
invested in the technology required to generate accurate bills." A Sprint
spokeswoman said that per-second billing still requires carriers to round up
to the nearest penny.

Title: FCC asked to Adopt Prescriptive Access Charge Reduction Plan
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Long Distance
Description: The Consumer Federation of America (CFA), the International
Communications Association (ICA), and the National Retail Federation (NRF)
have asked the FCC to begin a rulemaking on a regulatory-based approach to
reducing access charges to forward-looking economic costs. Because "it is
clear that meaningful levels of local telephone service competition will not
develop in the foreseeable future," the groups said, the FCC must "ensure
that captive telephone consumers are not subjected to bloated rates while
yet another set of local competition plans are contemplated and tested." The
groups estimate that 40 to 45 cents of each long distance dollar go to
access charges -- twice what they would be if based on forward-looking costs.

Title: FCC Is Likely to Rebuff BellSouth Bid To Enter the
Long Distance Business
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (B12)
Author: John Wilke & Bryan Gruley
Issue: Long Distance
Description: Despite an aggressive lobbying campaign, the Federal
Communications Commission is expected to reject Atlanta-based BellSouth's
bid to provide long distance service in South Carolina and Louisiana. The
Commission has until Dec 29 to rule in the South Carolina application, but
approval is unlikely, "This isn't even close," said an FCC official who said
BellSouth's application was not credible.

Title: Biennial Review of Common Carrier Rules
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Public_Notices/1997/da972546.html
Issue: Regulation
Description: The Office of General Counsel and the Common Carrier Bureau
will hold a public forum on Wednesday, December 17, 1997, from 9:30 a.m.
until 12:30 p.m., to receive ideas regarding Commission regulations
administered by the Common Carrier Bureau that are potential candidates for
repeal or modification during the first biennial review of Commission
regulations pursuant to Section 11 of the Communications Act of 1934, as
amended. The public is invited to attend and participate in the discussion.
[This will probably be the busiest site on the Internet over the next week,
so keep trying if you can't get through the first time]

** Internet & Online Service **

Title: Adult Net Users In U.S., Canada Put at 58 Million
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (A11)
Author: G. Christian Hill
Issue: Internet Demographics
Description: A survey by Nielsen Media Research and CommerceNet, an
electronic commerce trade group, estimates that 58 million adults in the US
and Canada use the Internet. Nielsen's biannual study has consistently been
on the high side of Internet usage and this estimate is the highest ever.
Six months ago, the study estimated 51 million adult users. The 32% annual
growth rate shows a slowing -- past years had seen a doubling of users.
World Wide Web use is up 26% to 48 million users. The study is based on
9,000 interviews and also found that half of the users had been online
within the last 24 hours. 20 to 25% of web users go online every day. A
large group of users still use the Internet just for email or chat groups.

Title: Filtering Companies Assailed For Blocking 'Unpopular' Voices
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/law/121197law.html
Author: Carl S. Kaplan
Issue: Internet Regulation/Discrimination
Description: A parent who wants to shield their child from harmful
adult-oriented material can turn to a variety of software filtering products
on the market. While people might agree that the sites these products block
may be harmful to children, some of the products are offering filtering
options that screen-out sites containing non-sexual gay and lesbian content.
That has some people worried. A 43-page report recently issued by the Gay
and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) asserted that companies
offering software filtering products to consumers are pandering to a popular
prejudice against homosexuals in their rush to make the Internet safe for
children, commerce and families. The report, titled "Access Denied," was
released at last week's Internet/Online Summit: Focus on Children. The
upshot of "Access Denied" is that gay men and lesbians may be faced with the
prospect of becoming invisible on a filtered Internet to themselves and the
majority culture.

Title: AOL to Open Some of Its Services to Nonsubscribers
Source: Washington Post (E1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/11/228l-121197-idx.html
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Online Services
Description: America Online (AOL) will announce today that it is opening
some of its content to nonsubscribers in hopes of drawing more visitors to
its site and increasing ad revenue. AOL will also announce 1) that
subscribers can check their email without using AOL software and 2) a deal
to increase distribution of its electronic conversation software. Web
content will now include, for example, Entertainment Asylum
http://www.asylum.com/index.html -- information about movies, music and
television.

Title: New Getty Museum Goes Virtual From the Start
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/mirapaul/121197mirapaul.html
Author: Matthew Mirapaul
Issue: Arts
Description: When the Getty Center arts complex opens its doors next
Thursday, visitors to the Digital Lab will be invited to leave - virtually.
The lab is very different from the rest of the museum's collection. It is a
windowless, cube-shaped room that plays home to 14 computers, all with
high-speed connections to the Internet and to "Adventures in Cyberspace," a
20-minute multimedia presentation developed to steer the user into exploring
the Web. "Their likely starting point will be the 'Surf's Up' section of
the lab's just-launched 'Digital Experience' Web site, a set of
culture-oriented links assembled under such colorful rubrics as 'Awesome
Audio' for music pages and 'Dig This' for archeology sites." When
discussing visitors' reactions to the Digital Lab, David Jensen, program
manager for the Getty Information Institute, said the reaction starts as,
"'I'm in the Getty Museum. What is this thing?' And then the light bulb goes
on. There's a range of culture here. Online culture [is still] culture.
Technology can transport them outside the walls of the Getty to look at
other things that the Getty might not collect." To learn more about the
Getty's Digital Lab check out http://www.getty.edu/digital/.

Title: Reno Says Plan Will 'Match Wits' With Technological Criminals
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/121197crime.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Technological Regulation
Description: Justice officials from the world's largest industrial countries
met yesterday in D.C. to draft an international plan designed to catch
cybercriminals and ensure no safe haven exists for them. Interior and
justice ministers agreed to outline several steps aimed at improving the
ability to investigate and prosecute computer-related and high-tech crimes.
Attorney General Janet Reno said, The corporate plan will help law
enforcers "continue to match wits with technological geniuses who may be on
the wrong side of the law."

** Digital TV **

Title: PIAC Meeting Transcript
Source: NTIA
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/pubintadvcom/decmtg/transcript.htm
Issue: Digital TV
Description: The transcript of the second meeting of the Advisory Committee
on Public
Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters is now available
through the PIAC website. [A summary is available from the Benton Foundation
at http://www.benton.org/Policy/TV/meeting2.html]

** FCC **

Title: Hatfield Returns to FCC as Chief Technologist
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: FCC
Description: "FCC Chairman William Kennard has announced the appointment of
Dale
Hatfield, a former FCC staffer and current Boulder-based consultant, as
chief technologist. Hatfield served as chief of the Office of Plans & Policy
in the mid-1970s, and before that held posts in the White House Office of
Telecommunications Policy."

** News of the Right **

Title: The Heritage Foundation's Solid Footing
Source: Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/11/211l-121197-idx.html
(C1)
Author: Roxanne Roberts
Issue: Heritage Response
Description: "If you thought conservatives were in a teensy slump, think
again." The heritage Foundation celebrated its 25th anniversary last night
and announced that it has already raised $25 million in a campaign to raise
$85 million to top the $25 million it gets in annual donations. Heritage has
grown from a small group of conservative scholars into one of Washington's
most powerful think tanks. The foundation hit the "big time" when it
published the "Mandate for Leadership" in 1980 -- it became "the bible of
the Reagan Revolution."
*********