LOW POWER RADIO
Congress Severely Curtails Plan for Low-Power Radio Stations (NYT)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
A Cell Phone Surge Among World's Poor in Haiti (NYT)
INTERNET
Health Care Online and in the Third Person (NYT)
Gates Urges Regulators to Address Instant Messaging (NYT)
Can Technology Fix Balloting Problems? (USA)
LOW POWER RADIO
CONGRESS SEVERELY CURTAILS PLAN FOR LOW-POWER RADIO STATIONS
Issue: Low Power Radio
President Clinton will soon sign into law a provision that will sharply
curtail the Federal Communications Commission ambitious plan to issue
licenses for low-power FM radio stations to 1,000 or more schools, churches
and other small community organizations. The provision will set new
technical standards that will make it all but impossible for licenses to be
issued in cities of even modest size. The new law also shifts the
policy-making authority from the FCC to Congress to set standards and issue
licenses for low-power FM stations. The FCC's low-power radio plan was
conceived last January to counter the huge consolidation in the broadcasting
industry that the agency's chairman, William E. Kennard, concluded had led
to a sharp decline in the diversity of voices on the airwaves. Large
broadcasters, including National Public Radio, had complained that the
creation of so many low- power stations would have produced interference
with their broadcast.
[SOURCE: New York Times (), AUTHOR: Stephen Labaton]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/19/business/19RADI.html)
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DIGITAL DIVIDE
WIRELESS SERVICE OFTEN THE ONLY CHOICE IN POOR COUNTRIES
Issue: Digital Divide
Cellular telephones may be increasingly popular in the United States and
other prosperous countries, but demand is growing even faster in the world's
poor nations, including Haiti. With financially distressed governments often
unable to provide adequate public services, including telephones, people are
turning to privately built wireless networks. Amid new political and
economic tension in Haiti, one of the few systems that works reliably is the
privately run cellular telephone network. Less than 1 percent of the
country's nearly 8 million people have conventional, fixed-line phone
service, compared with more than 95 percent in the United States. And while
regular telephone service is less expensive than wireless service, there are
400,000 Haitians on the waiting list. Haiti is not alone among poor
countries in witnessing the growth of wireless communications services. In
some Latin American countries, wireless subscribers now outnumber customers
of traditional fixed-line telephone companies. And while the number of
wireless users was growing by 24 percent in the United States last year and
70 percent in Europe, the growth rate in Africa was 116 percent.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Simon Romero]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/19/technology/19CELL.html)
(requires registration)
INTERNET
CAN TECHNOLOGY FIX BALLOTING PROBLEMS?
Issue: Internet
This year's presidential race, according to John Chambers, President and CEO
of Cisco Systems, has highlighted the fact that our system of conducting
elections is out of date. "We live in the Internet age, but we vote with
punch-card technology that's as old as radio," says Chambers. He suggests
that a potential solution lies in the Internet, which has enormous potential
to make voting much more easily available to all Americans. He points to
evidence that young Americans would be particularly likely to vote online. A
poll by ABC News found that 61% of 18- to 34-year-olds would like to vote
online. He touts the great strength of the Internet is that it will be
available to everyone everywhere -- at schools, at libraries and in homes.
[SOURCE: USAToday (15A), AUTHOR: John Chambers (President and CEO of Cisco
Systems)]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20001219/2927205s.htm)
INTERNET USERS FIND MEDICAL HELP FOR THEMSELVES, OTHERS
Issue: Internet
People who use the Internet to research health questions are as likely to be
looking for information about a friend or relative as about themselves,
according to a study undertaken as part of the Pew Internet and American
Life Project. The study indicated that slightly more than half of Americans
with Internet access use it at least once a month for health information.
And about 40 percent of those health seekers said that their Web searches
affected their decisions about whether to go to the doctor, what questions
to ask and how to treat an illness. These health seekers were more often
middle-aged than young or old and about 60 percent of them were women, the
report said. Men outnumbered women in one category: searches on sensitive
topics.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John O'Neil]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/19/science/19PEWE.html)
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GATES ASKS FCC TO SCRUTINIZE AOL'S INSTANT MESSAGING DOMINANCE
Issue: Internet
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates telephoned the chairman of the Federal
Communications Commission last week to urge a close examination of America
Online's dominance in instant messaging, a Microsoft representative has
confirmed. The call came as the FCC closes in on a recommendation concerning
AOL's proposed merger with Time Warner, which could include requiring AOL to
make concessions on instant messaging. The FCC and AOL declined to comment.
Microsoft declined to comment further. AOL has an overwhelming lead in the
sector with its IM population, a distinction that many competitors,
including Microsoft and Yahoo, say should require it to open its network to
rivals.
[SOURCE: CNET NEWS.COM, AUTHOR: Jim Hu]
(http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_0_4_4175384_00.html)
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