TELEVISION
Local Signals May Be Costly for Satellite TV Providers (NYT)
Anniversary of Gore Commission Report (PBTV)
MERGERS
The Curse of Bigness (NYT)
FCC Staff Member Objects To Sprint-MCI Buyout Plan (WSJ)
Upstart NTL Agrees to Acquire Cablecom for About $3.7 Billion (WSJ)
BROADBAND
Bell Atlantic Agrees To Set Up New DSL Unit (SJM)
Letter to FCC Chairman Kennard (MAP)
Deployment of Wireline Services Offering Advanced
Telecommunications Capability (FCC)
INTERNET
Candidates Eager to Negotiate Cyberspace and Cyber-Issues (NYT)
To Politically Connect, And Profitably Collect (WP)
E-COMMERCE
Online Sales Heating Up Tax Debate (WP)
OLD VS NEW MEDIA
Brave New World For Traditional Media Cos (SJM)
SPECTRUM
NTIA Spectrum Newsletter (NTIA)
UNIVERSAL SERVICE
Extending Telecommunications Services To Tribal Lands (NTIA)
TELEVISION
LOCAL SIGNALS MAY BE COSTLY FOR SATELLITE TV PROVIDERS
Issue: Satellites
Now that satellite carriers have finally won the right to include local
broadcasters in their services, they face several challenges to their dreams
of providing direct competition to cable operators. Until two weeks ago,
satellite providers were forbidden from transmitting local channels to most
customers. Now that these restrictions have been lifted by the Satellite
Television Home Viewers Act, the major satellite companies may have to spend
as much as $1 billion to deliver
local stations to dozens of markets nationwide. In addition to the enormous
expense, satellites also fear that they do not have sufficient capacity to
offer all the local channels the FCC is expected to require.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Seth Schiesel]
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/satellite-tv.html)
ANNIVERSARY OF GORE COMMISSION REPORT
Issue: Digital Television
From News Advisory: December 18 marks the one-year anniversary of the
release of the so-called Gore Commission report on the future of television.
The report calls for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to set
guidelines for the nation's local TV broadcasters as they move to the
expanded airwaves provided by digital TV technology. Former Senator Bob
Dole, while Senate Majority leader, put a $70 billion price tag on these new
public airwaves. Mark Lloyd, coordinator of People for Better TV and
Executive Director of the Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy, will
discuss the Gore Commission Report, the FCC and the coalition's petition to
require "public interest obligations" of the nation's TV broadcasters at a
Morning Newsmaker event sponsored by the National Press Club, on Friday,
December 17. The event will take place at 10:00 a.m. in the Zenger Room of
the Press Club, 14th & F Street, NW.
[SOURCE: People for Better Television]
(http://www.bettertv.org/release128.html)
MERGERS
THE CURSE OF BIGNESS
Issue: Competition vs. Concentration
[Op-Ed] Competition is the driving force of free enterprise, Safire begins.
Concentrated power is the greatest danger to capitalism. The essay is an
examination of the growing concentration of American big business and how
only behemoth's can compete against each other (or, at least, that's how the
antitrust argument goes). Safire then aims to explode the following myths:
Myth No. 1: Globalization requires American-based multinational giants to
compete with giants overseas. Myth No. 2: Democrats crack down on too-big
business, while Republicans defend it. Myth No. 3: If a cartel or an
industry with only two companies can deliver the efficiencies of low cost,
the consumer benefits. Myth No. 4: Mere size is no sin; each case should be
handled on its own merits. Myth No. 5: Technology is changing so fast that a
little pipsqueak company can bring a giant to its knees. Safire claims that
the conservative zeal to protect competition is missing in Congress and the
White House and is not even mentioned on the campaign trail.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A37), AUTHOR: ]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/safire/121399safi.html)
FCC STAFF MEMBER OBJECTS TO SPRINT-MCI BUYOUT PLAN
Issue: Merger/Regulation
According to Saturday's Washington Post, an October 21st letter to Federal
Communications Commissioners says Tom Krattenmaker, research director of
the FCC's policy office, objected to the combination of the Internet
backbone networks of Sprint and MCI, as well as to a greater concentration
in long-distance services. FCC Chairman William Kennard has said the deal
will get a tough review, saying that "the parties will bear a heavy burden
to show that consumers will be better off." An FCC spokeswoman said the
letter was a "very preliminary assessment" by a staff member and doesn't
represent the views of the Commission. Earlier this year, Krattenmaker
expressed serious reservations about the merger of SBC and Ameritech, which
the commission approved with conditions.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Staff Reporter]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB94503967290858969.htm)
UPSTART NTL AGREES TO ACQUIRE CABLECOM FOR ABOUT $3.7 BILLION
Issue: Merger/Cable
Today, NTL agreed to acquire Cablecom, the cable-television business
controlled by Switzerland's Swisscom and others, for about 5.8 billion Swiss
francs ($3.7 billion). NTL has its headquarters in the U.S. and is run by
U.S. executives, but almost all of its assets are in Britain. NTL is run by
Barclay Knapp, an aggressive Nebraskan who, with a partner, acquired some
cable assets in the U.S. and used a Nasdaq Stock Market listing to raise
billions in financing. They then purchased a string of smaller cable players
until NTL was a force to be reckoned with in Europe. NTL acquired Cable &
Wireless with the help of France Telecom, and that acquisition made NTL the
largest cable-TV provider in Britain and a rival to British
Telecommunications and British Sky Broadcasting. Cablecom was formed in 1994
through the merger of four cable companies and reaches nearly 1.5 million
homes.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Steven Lipin and Anita Raghavan]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB945039764896667804.htm)
BROADBAND
BELL ATLANTIC AGREES TO SET UP NEW DSL UNIT
Issue: Competition/Broadband
Last Friday, Bell Atlantic said it would set up a separate affiliate to
sell digital subscriber line (DSL) connections in New York state, as the
company wants to assure regulatory approval of its bid to offer long
distance service there. In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission
an agreement was established for a separate unit to assure regulators that
competing providers of high-speed data links would get equal treatment from
local carrier Bell Atlantic. The separate unit would have to pay for access
to Bell Atlantic's facilities under the same terms provided to competitors,
ensuring a level playing field. But, Bell Atlantic is a dominant provider of
local phone service in 13 states stretching from Maine to Virginia.
Carriers that compete with Bell Atlantic to provide high-speed service using
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology in New York complained that Bell
Atlantic was not giving them equal access to local loops, the basic copper
wire lines running to customers. The FCC asked for comments on Bell
Atlantic's pledge by December 17th and The FCC will decide by December 28th
whether to approve Bell Atlantic's request to enter the New York market.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury, AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/breaking/internet/docs/1180629l.htm)
See Also:
BELL ATLANTIC CLOSE TO LONG-DISTANCE MARKET
[SOURCE: USA Today (1B), AUTHOR: Paul Davidson]
(http://www.usatoday.com)
FCC's Homepage
(http://www.fcc.gov/)
LETTER TO FCC CHAIRMAN KENNARD
Issue: Open Access/Broadband
In a 12/6 letter to FCC Chairman Kennard, MAP President and CEO Andrew Jay
Schwartzman
outlines his reasons for not signing onto AT&T's letter on Open Access: 1)
AT&T was unwilling to discuss, much less consider, several criteria which
are essential to insuring that cable operators will not abuse their monopoly
position to favor certain content and certain business partners. This
inhibits the Internet's current role as a renewable source of constant
innovation, economic growth and free expression. 2) With the unexplained
withdrawal of Excite( at )Home from the discussions, there was no longer any
assurance that Excite( at )Home would cooperate in the planning and
implementation of AT&T's commitments, or in preparing for broader access in
the "post
exclusivity" period. 3) Widespread mischaracterization of the recent FCC
staff report on broadband access, including misleading statements by a high
level Commission official at a public meeting that demonstrated
the letter could be misused to make
it seem that AT&T has in fact agreed to provide "open access." [See more at
the URL below]
[SOURCE: Media Access Project]
(http://www.mediaaccess.org/filings/MAPLTR.pdf)
See Also:
Public-Interest Advocates Reject AT&T's Empty Promise,
Call for FCC Policy
[SOURCE: Center For Media Education]
(http://www.cme.org/openroad/press_1206.html)
DEPLOYMENT OF WIRELINE SERVICES OFFERING ADVANCED TELECOMMUNICATIONS
CAPABILITY
Issue: Advanced Services
From Report & Order ["we" being the FCC]: In this Order we adopt measures to
promote the availability of competitive broadband xDSL-based services,
especially to residential and small business customers. We amend our
unbundling rules to require incumbent LECs to provide unbundled access to a
new network element, the high frequency portion of the local loop. This
will enable competitive LECs to compete with incumbent LECs to provide to
consumers xDSL-based services through telephone lines that the competitive
LECs can share with incumbent LECs. The provision of xDSL-based service by
a competitive LEC and voiceband service by an incumbent LEC on the same loop
is frequently called "line sharing." In addition, we adopt spectrum
management policies and rules to facilitate the competitive deployment of
advanced services.
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Orders/1999/fcc99355.txt)
INTERNET
CANDIDATES EAGER TO NEGOTIATE CYBERSPACE AND CYBER-ISSUES
Issue: Politics/Internet
As campaigns for the 2000 presidential elections begin to heat up, the
candidates are eager to prove themselves Internet savvy and tech industry
friendly. "The pace of candidate education is nearly as rapid as the pace of
technological development," said Rep. Christopher Cox, (R-CA) "In not very
many years, politics has moved from a lot of smoke-filled rooms and ward
bosses giving out turkeys to constituents to dueling e-mails," said Sen. Ron
Wyden (D-OR). When it comes to Internet policy, one of the most politically
charged of the issues may be whether and how to apply sales taxes to
electronic commerce.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A25), AUTHOR: Richard W. Stevenson]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/12/biztech/articles/13politics.html)
TO POLITICALLY CONNECT, AND PROFITABLY COLLECT
Issue: Politics/Internet
SpeakOut is the latest political activism site to make itself heard on the
Web. The site will allow visitors to gather information on politicians and
issues and then voice their opinions about each. Critics consider polling on
the Internet to be highly controversial. Ron Howard, who came up with the
idea for SpeakOut, says the site will be nonpartisan and fully
operational in January. SpeakOut will collect opinions from people who
write in and conduct Internet polls and then sell the results to special
interest groups, campaigns and other organizations or individuals. Howard
has lured former Reagan White House deputy chief of staff Michael Deaver,
Kerry Kennedy Cuomo and Susan Eisenhower to serve on a board of advisers.
SpeakOut will sell only statistical results, not personal information such
as names and e-mail addresses.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (F10), AUTHOR: Sarah Schafer]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/13/021l-121399-idx.html)
E-COMMERCE
ONLINE SALES HEATING UP TAX DEBATE
Issue: Regulation/Internet
A political fight is building over whether electronic purchases should be
subject to the same sales taxes as goods bought in a store, with states and
local governments worrying that they could lose as much as $10 billion per
year in tax revenue to online commerce by 2003, according to the National
Governors' Association. On one side of the arguments are many state and
local government officials, who say they will lose needed tax revenue for
schools, police officers and other basic municipal services, and
bricks-and-mortar merchants who argue that they can't compete if online
rivals play by different rules. On the other side of the argument are
Republican congressional leaders, anti-tax activists, some business
executives and even a few local officials, including Virginia Gov. James S.
Gilmore III (R), who say a lack of hassles over sales tax has accelerated
the growth of e-commerce and the $30 billion Internet retail market
has contribution to the U.S. economic boom. The two sides will meet in
San Francisco tomorrow for a two-day meeting of the Advisory Commission on
Electronic Commerce, a 19-member panel created by Congress last year.
Gov Gilmore, the group's chairman, will push a proposal to give online
commerce a permanent tax exemption. A rival proposal that arrange for
third-party clearinghouses to work with online merchants to compute the
appropriate tax and remit it to the states.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A1), AUTHOR: Rajiv Chandrasekaran]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/13/078l-121399-idx.html)
OLD VS NEW MEDIA
BRAVE NEW WORLD FOR TRADITIONAL MEDIA COS
Issue: Old Media vs. New Media
Wall Street analysts say it's not enough to just sell newspapers or movies
and that media companies who want to survive in the 21st century must
embrace "omni-media". A major media industry conference this week
highlighted the traditional media's need to adjust to a computerized era for
delivering information. PaineWebber analyst Leland Westerfield said "It's
finding an audience by knowing their interests. It's branding and using
brands to integrate into interactive media like the Internet, TV and
magazines." Harold McGraw, McGraw-Hill's chairman and chief executive
officer, said, "It's a very different environment now and we are looking at
different partners and different types of penetration. If you don't do that,
you'll be shut out of markets." The Washington Post is a traditional media
company that is getting involved in the different areas opened up by
the Internet or digital technology. At the conference President and Chief
Operating Officer Alan Spoon outlined Internet services and broadcasting
outlets the company has branched into besides print.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury, AUTHOR: Steve James - Reuters]
(http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/breaking/internet/docs/1180632l.htm)
SPECTRUM
NTIA SPECTRUM NEWSLETTER
Issue: Spectrum
A new newsletter on spectrum management offered by the NTIA. First issue
includes stories on GPS; Fixed Wireless Access; Panama; Adjacent Band
Interference -- yeah, right, nightstand reading.
[SOURCE: NTIA]
(http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/newsletr/spectrum.htm)
UNIVERSAL SERVICE
EXTENDING TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES TO TRIBAL LANDS
Issue: Universal Service
NTIA recently filed reply comments in the above titled FCC proceeding. NTIA
applauds the Commission in its efforts to identify potential terrestrial
wireless and satellite policy initiatives to address the telecommunications
needs of Indians living on tribal lands and to consumers in other unserved
areas. NTIA further commends the Commission's efforts through this
proceeding to secure for consumers living on tribal lands and other unserved
areas the same
opportunities to take advantage of telecommunications capabilities that are
available to other Americans.
[SOURCE: NTIA]
(http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fccfilings/reply120999cmts99-266.htm)
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