Internet & Online Services
NYT: Gore Announces Efforts to Patrol Internet
WSJ: Internet Child-Pornography Peddlers, Sex Predators
Targeted By White House
WP: Internet Obscenity: Prosecute Now
WP: A Game of Hide vs. Seek
WSJ: AT&T Start-up Is Planning Service For Internet Calls
Electronic Commerce
WSJ: Uneasy Banks Must Make a Deposit on On-Line Future
TelecomAM: Web-Based Services Will Generate 50% Of Telecom Industry
Revenue By 2010, report states
Telephone
WP: That New Number: 1-800-BLOCKED
TelecomAM: FCC Mandates Access Charge Refunds, Wireless 911
Mergers & Competition
TelecomAM: British Telecom Rumored To Seek Three-way Merger With GTE and
Unnamed CLEC
TelecomAM: Worldcom Raises Projections of Synergies From MCI Merger
WSJ: AT&T's New Chief Plans Bold Agenda
TelecomAM: Bell Atlantic Predicts Double-digit Earnings Growth Next Year
** Internet & Online Services **
Title: Gore Announces Efforts to Patrol Internet
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/120397decency.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: Vice President Al Gore announced a series of steps to help
parents and law enforcement make the Internet safer for children at the
"Internet/Online Summit: Focus on Children" yesterday. These steps include
patrols by Internet service providers; a special telephone tip line provided
by a Justice Dept. grant awarded to the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children; and a national public awareness campaign called "Think
Then Link." This new commitment "is a warning to criminals and a promise to
parents that there are Internet police for those activities that are
illegal, and
they will capture and punish those who abuse the Internet to harm and hurt
our children," Gore said. Hear a Gore soundbyte
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/120397decency.ram.
Title: Internet Child-Pornography Peddlers, Sex Predators
Targeted By White House
Source: Wall Street Journal (B4)
http://wsj.com/
Author: John Simons
Issue: Internet Content
Description: Vice President Al Gore announced a new "zero tolerance"
policy on Internet child pornography that calls for increased cooperation
between leading Internet service providers (ISPs) and law enforcement
officials. The administration also laid out plans to help educate parents
about the benefits and dangers of the new electronic medium. No specifics
were given by the Administration, however, and it's unclear how these
efforts will be any different from ones that are presently implemented. The
new electronic-policing commitment that Gore unveiled is part of a
four-pronged White House initiative designed to make the 'Net safer for
children. He even responded to critics like the ACLU, which opposes the
filtering and rating of Internet websites. He said, "Some say that we should
refrain from action, that all action to block children's access to
objectionable content amounts to censorship. To them I say, blocking your
child's access to objectionable Internet content is not censoring; that's
called parenting."
Title: Internet Obscenity: Prosecute Now
Source: Washington Post (A25)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/03/009l-120397-idx.html
Author: Michael Kelly
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: At the Internet/Online Summit: Focus on Children being held
this week in DC, the online industry has unveiled a plan for
self-regulation. This plan consists of promises to mount public relations
campaigns to encourage parents to use the content screening and software
that is available, to develop several new blocking tools, and to stop trying
to thwart attempts by authorities to track child molesters who use the
Internet as a stalking ground.
Title: A Game of Hide vs. Seek
Source: Washington Post (B11, B16)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/03/097l-120397-idx.html
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: In an effort to prevent new regulation of Internet content, the
online industry has announced plans to mount a broad public-education
campaign to encourage parents to use software products that restrict access
to adult-oriented material. Major Internet service providers have agreed to
begin offering these products, such as Net Nanny, SurfWatch and Cyber
Patrol, to subscribers for free or at a nominal cost. While everyone agrees
on these regulations, when an Internet site rating system is discussed the
consensus vanishes. Some conservative groups are aiming for the development
of a single rating system as a way to keep indecent material from minors.
While free speech advocates contend that a rating system would impose a
burden on Internet publishers and would be difficult to implement. In
between these two views are a host of businesses and trade groups that are
seeking to reach a compromise by pushing for the development of several
separate rating systems.
Title: AT&T Start-up Is Planning Service For Internet Calls
Source: Wall Street Journal (B17)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Jared Sandberg
Issue: Internet Telephony
Description: A wholesale service from IXTC, an AT&T-backed start-up, will
allow companies to offer Internet phone calls anywhere in the world via
ordinary phones. This move accelerates the threat that low-cost Internet
calling poses to long-distance pricing. IXTC said its clients will be able
to offer prices that are half that of traditional long-distance calls.
Founder Tom Evslin, a former Microsoft and AT&T exec, said, "We're the
broker of the bridges between the Internet and the traditional telephone
network." He said the company will handle billing issues known as
settlements as well as route traffic to and from disparate operators of
Internet-based telephony companies.
** Electronic Commerce **
Title: Uneasy Banks Must Make a Deposit on On-Line Future
Source: Wall Street Journal (B10)
http://wsj.com/
Author: David Bank
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Description: Bill Gates is expected to demonstrate WebTV and automated
teller machines to nearly 8,000 bankers with the promise to help banks find
savings by serving more customers online, where transactions can be handled
at a fraction of the cost of live tellers, phone calls, or even ATMs. This
can make banking one of the hottest areas in the emerging electronic
marketplace. The promise conceals a threat, though: If the banks don't take
the advantage, then companies like Intuit Inc., who is the leading seller in
personal finance software, will take it themselves. Bill Randle, executive
VP of Huntington Bancshares, conceded and said, "The software companies have
an edge right now. This is an information business. It's not about money.
Money is digital information in today's society."
Title: Web-Based Services Will Generate 50% Of Telecom Industry
Revenue By 2010, report states
Source: Telecom AM---Dec. 3, 1997
http://capitol.cappubs.com/am/
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Description: According to the 1997 Annual Review of Communications,
telephone service providers will generate more than 50% of their annual
revenues from the Internet and other data networks, compared to less than
20% today. The report said, "By the year 2010, existing market structures
will be increasingly replaced by electronic markets. Existing distribution
systems for products and commodities will have to be redesigned to serve the
electronic interaction of buyers and sellers." According to the report, the
Bell companies, GTE and the major inter exchange carriers all are expected
to play instrumental roles in the development of electronic commerce
networks, as well as in cable, entertainment, and content.
** Telephone **
Title: That New Number: 1-800-BLOCKED
Source: Washington Post (B11, B13)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/03/043l-120397-idx.html
Author: Mike Mills
Issue: Telephone Regulation
Description: The next time you page someone from a payphone your call may
not go through. One of the United States largest paging companies, Mtel of
Jackson MS, has blocked many of its toll-free 800 pager numbers from being
accessed from payphones. The reason for this is because Mtel, as well as
other paging operators, doesn't want to pay a new 28.4-cent-per-call
surcharge that is being imposed by pay phone providers to compensate for the
handling of toll-free calls. In addition, based on a broad ruling by the
Federal Communication Commission that went into effect in early October, the
pay phone industry is now free to charge whatever they please for use of
public telephones. This change has resulted in the increase of local
coin-operated phone calls from a quarter to 35 cents. In addition to many
outraged customers, AT&T, MCI, Sprint, and a coalition that includes
consumer groups, truck and taxi companies are asking the FCC to reverse
their ruling.
Title: FCC Mandates Access Charge Refunds, Wireless 911
Source: Telecom AM---Dec. 3, 1997
http://capitol.cappubs.com/am/
Issue: Telephone Regulation
Description: The FCC has issued two orders: one requiring certain local
exchange carriers to reduce long distance carriers' access charge rates by
about $200 million and issue refunds. The other requires wireless carriers
to transmit all wireless 911 calls to emergency assistance providers
operating public safety answering points. Concluding an investigation of the
1997 annual access tariffs filed by incumbent local carriers, the FCC found
that rates charged Bell Atlantic, GTE, Southwestern Bell, Sprint, US West,
and others were "unreasonable and therefore violate" the Communications Act.
In the wireless 911 decision, FCC Chairman Kennard said it takes a "common
sense approach to public safety."
** Mergers & Competition **
Title: British Telecom Rumored To Seek Three-way Merger With GTE and
Unnamed CLEC
Source: Telecom AM---Dec. 3, 1997
http://capitol.cappubs.com/am/
Issue: Merger
Description: A USA Today story reported that BT is pursuing a 3-way
merger with GTE and an unidentified CLEC. So far, BT has refused to comment
on the rumor. Industry watchers say that such a merger would give BT a solid
foothold in U.S. local-services market.
Title: Worldcom Raises Projections of Synergies From MCI Merger
Source: Telecom AM---Dec. 3, 1997
http://capitol.cappubs.com/am/
Issue: Merger
Description: Worldcom now expects synergies of $2.5 billion in 1999 from
the merger with MCI, according to CEO Bernard Ebbers. He said the company
now projects $20 billion over 5 years. "We have just found an amazing amount
of cooperation at all department levels between the companies," Ebbers said.
Title: AT&T's New Chief Plans Bold Agenda
Source: Wall Street Journal (A3)
http://wsj.com/
Author: John J. Keller
Issue: Competition
Description: C. Michael Armstrong, AT&T's new chairman, is formulating a
"crash program" of cost cutting and targeted investments in local phone,
Internet, and global services. It would be aimed at improving AT&T's
competitive position, particularly against their rivals the Baby Bells,
which plan to expand into the company's long-distance turf. Armstrong will
centralize marketing, sell tangential assets, discontinue other operations,
and invest in myriad networks to expand AT&T's services globally. He is even
discussing reigniting merger talks with SBC Communications, or another large
phone company.
Title: Bell Atlantic Predicts Double-digit Earnings Growth Next Year
Source: Telecom AM---Dec. 3, 1997
http://capitol.cappubs.com/am/
Issue: Competition
Description: Chairman-CEO Raymond Smith said Bell Atlantic will sustain
double-digit earnings growth next year despite local competition. He said BA
will gain business by acting as a wholesale provider for new competitors,
that are "expanding the pie for everyone."
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