COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for April 30, 2002
INTERNET
Indian Tribes Gain Special Domain Name Suffix
Commerce Secretary Vows Scrutiny of ICANN Reforms
BROADBAND
Coalition of 38 Organizations From Across The Nation Petition FCC To
Reject AT&T Comcast Merger
Nearly Half of Canada's Net Households Go Broadband
DIGITAL DIVIDE
Dateline: 'Digital Divide' Narrowing, Says Report
INTERNET
INDIAN TRIBES GAIN SPECIAL DOMAIN NAME SUFFIX
An agreement announced by the Interior Department and the General Services
Administration (GSA) provides federally recognized American Indian tribes
with a special domain name suffix identifying them as government entities. A
tribe's domain name will include a hyphen, the letters "nsn" (for native
sovereign nation) and the .gov designation. For example, the Hopi tribes'
domain name is currently 'www.hopi.nsn.us.' Their new domain name will be
'www.hopi-nsn.gov.' The Interior Department said the special tribal
designation is a step toward providing information about American Indian
programs and agencies over the Internet.
[SOURCE: Governmenet Computer News; AUTHOR: Wilson P. Dizard III]
(http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/18521-1.html)
COMMERCE SECRETARY VOWS SCRUTINY OF ICANN REFORMS
The U.S. Commerce Department is keeping close tabs on efforts to reform
ICANN. Don Evans, Commerce Secretary, told lawmakers last week that the
department will also strive to ensure that those reforms reflect the needs
of Internet users. The Commerce Department, which has final say in many
ICANN decisions, has been sharply criticized by its overseer, the U.S. House
Energy and Commerce Committee. In a letter to Commerce Committee Chairman
W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.), Evans assured that "the department is following
the ICANN reform activities and process closely. My staff is consulting with
U.S. business and public interest groups to garner their thoughts on reform.
The Department of Commerce's primary interest continues to be the stable and
secure management of the global Internet domain system." Under its current
structure, ICANN is required to have nine board members representing the
Internet public at large. Thus far, however, ICANN has been able to seat
only five members, the remaining four members remain from a provisional
board that helped launch the organization in the late 1990s.
[SOURCE: Washington Post; AUTHOR: David McGuire]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4283-2002Apr29.html)
BROADBAND
COALITION OF 38 ORGANIZATIONS FROM ACROSS THE NATION PETITION FCC TO REJECT
AT&T COMCAST MERGER
Thirty-eight national and state-level organizations filed a joint petition
calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reject the AT&T
Comcast merger. According to Dr. Mark Cooper, Consumer Federation of
America's Director of Research, "A combined AT&T Comcast, the nation's
largest cable company - would have the power to continue raising prices,
limit choice in programming, dictate technology standards and network
architecture, and ignore customer service issues - all to the detriment of
consumers." Among the groups signing the petition are Media Access Project,
Consumer Fraud Watch, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. In a
recent press release, Dr. Cooper stated, "The 38 groups signing the petition
reflect a strong current of public opinion against excessive concentration
in the communications industries, which is shaped by the real world abuses
of market power by cable operators." Included with the petition was a
statement submitted by the coalition to the Senate Judiciary Committee, an
analysis of efforts by Comcast to gain control over emerging digital
television services, and a study demonstrating the weakness in markets
dominated by cable.
[SOURCE: Consumer Federation of America]
(http://www.consumerfed.org/petitionreleasefinal.html)
NEARLY HALF OF CANADA'S NET HOUSEHOLDS GO BROADBAND
A new report says that approximately 48 percent of all online Canadian
adults who connect from home now use digital subscriber line (DSL) services
or cable modems. This means the penetration of broadband Internet access in
Canada has doubled since 2000. Chris Ferneyhough, vice-president of
technology research at Ipsos-Reid, pointed out that "The acceptance of
broadband in Canada and the U.S. couldn't be more different. The difference
is due to a myriad of factors, including lower access prices in Canada, a
less fragmented industry relative to the U.S.A., our regulatory framework,
better and more reliable access, and extremely positive responses from
consumers to marketing campaigns." However, the researchers said that the 63
percent of Canadians who have Internet access translates to only 15.1
million people while the 55 percent of the U.S. population with Internet
access represents 114 million people. "Ultimately," said Ferneyhough, "that
is why Americans are generally going to have a lot more choice, selection
and opportunity to purchase goods and services online."
[SOURCE: Newsbytes; AUTHOR: Steven Bonisteel]
(http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176221.html)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
DATELINE:'DIGITAL DIVIDE' NARROWING, SAYS REPORT
The recent report "A Nation Online" by the U.S. Commerce Department suggests
the digital divide has narrowed and federal intervention may no longer be
necessary. Proposed federal budgets for 2003 do not include funding for
technology programs targeted at bridging the digital divide. In this edition
of Dateline, Carol Castiel reports on whether the digital divide is
narrowing, how to define the divide, and what steps the nation should or
should not take to ensure that the digital divide is addressed. Andy Carvin,
Senior Associate at the Benton Foundation, Larry Irving, former Assistant
Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, Benjamin Compaine
a Research Consultant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and James
L. McQuivey, a director at Forrester Research Inc., share their thoughts on
the issues.
[SOURCE: Voice of America, AUTHOR: Dateline]
(http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=F8BD7ABA-AA76-4A5A-B81F820252A0
9241&Title=Dateline%3A%20%27Digital%20Divide%27%20Narrowing%2C%20says%20Repo
rt)
(Requires RealAudio)
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