TELEPHONY
FCC's Auction of Wireless Spectrum Draws Less Heat Than Expected
(WSJ)
FCC Is Expected to Begin Phasing Out Fees Between Local Telephone
Carriers (WSJ)
INTERNET
Vulcan to Put $100 Million Into Oxygen Cable-Web (NYT)
The Votes Are In: Net Not Crucial To Election (USA)
JOURNALISM
A 'Tank' Rolls Through CNN Before Merger (NYT)
TELEPHONY
FCC IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN PHASING OUT FEES BETWEEN LOCAL TELEPHONE CARRIERS
Issue: Telephony
The Federal Communications Commission is planning to approve a plan to
gradually eliminate the billions of dollars of fees local telephone
companies pay each other to complete calls. This would be a major boost to
the Baby Bells. FCC Chairman William Kennard is circulating among the other
four commissioners a plan to phase out the fees over three years. The
phaseout plan would temporarily cap the number of calls one phone company
must pay when another completes calls from the first company's customers.
After the phaseout period, the fees would be eliminated. Baby Bells would
prefer an immediate elimination of the fees. "We want to transition to a
better regime environment for handling this traffic that takes into account
... huge growth in ISP-bound traffic," Mr. Kennard said. He said he didn't
want to eliminate the fees right away, because it could throw the
competitive local phone industry into turmoil.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (Interactive), AUTHOR: JILL CARROLL]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB975834866183298960.htm)
FCC'S AUCTION OF WIRELESS SPECTRUM DRAWS LESS HEAT THAN EXPECTED
Issue: Wireless
An upcoming federal auction of wireless spectrum isn't likely to turn into
the intense bidding war that investors feared, because most of the big U.S.
wireless carriers have been swapping licenses instead to fill in the gaps in
their networks. With an explosion of wireless communications under way in
the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission has been scrambling to find
additional spectrum. According to documents disclosed Friday by the FCC for
the auction to be held Dec. 12, 87 bidders have made a total of only $1.8
billion in so-called upfront payments. It appears that while the auction
could bring in the largest amount of money ever for a FCC auction, it isn't
expected to reach the astronomical levels of recent European auctions, which
have ranged from $30- 40 billion in the UK and Germany. Shortly after those
auctions, the stocks of the participants dropped drastically on concerns
they wouldn't be able to make a return on their hefty investments. The
European experience spooked U.S. wireless investors. [SOURCE: Wall Street
Journal (B14), AUTHOR: Nicole Harris And Jill Carroll]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB975882138701262278.htm)
INTERNET
VULCAN TO PUT $100 MILLION INTO OXYGEN CABLE-WEB
Issue: Internet
Oxygen Media, the heavily publicized cable television and Internet business
has received a commitment of $100 million from Vulcan Ventures. Oxygen was
fighting for its life, but may now turn a profit with this financial boost.
At the same time Oxygen will announce it is scaling back its Internet
business, according to its chairman, Geraldine Laybourne. Taken together,
the new round of financial support and the budget cutting on the Internet
side will "get us to a point of security," Ms. Laybourne said. Oxygen has
struggled to emerge from clouds of doubts about its prospects since it began
operations with enormous fanfare last February. Oxygen began with perhaps
the highest visibility of any recent media startup, both because of the
prominence of Ms. Laybourne, and because of its roster of other investors,
included the talk show host Oprah Winfrey; the leaders of
Carsey-Werner-Mandabach, one of television's most successful production
companies; America Online; the luxury goods conglomerate LVMH M