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."
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