MERGERS
AT&T to Purchase IBM Data Network (WP)
FCC Officials Concerns With Baby Bell Mergers (WSJ)
McLean Firm to Acquire Esprit Telecom (WP)
CABLE/COMPETITION
Time Warner and CBS in Digital TV Deal (NYT)
Ameritech Launches Cable Service in Chicago (ChiTrib)
Cablevision Can't Intervene in Case Involving a BEC
Energy Telecom Venture (WSJ)
INTERNATIONAL
16% World Illiteracy to Grow, Study Says (NYT)
LIFESTYLES!
A Concert Communion With Cell Phones (NYT)
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MERGERS
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AT&T TO PURCHASE IBM DATA NETWORK
Issue: Merger
AT&T will purchase IBM's global communications network for $5 billion in
cash. The IBM data network serves several hundred large, multinational
corporations, thousands more mid-size businesses and more than 1 million
individual Internet subscribers in 59 countries. AT&T has sought to expand
its data service business, especially on networks that use Internet protocol
(IP) standards since it lags MCI WorldCom and others in IP capability. IBM
had been trying to sell its network in recent months to allow it to place
more efforts behind its computer business. While the price was higher than
expected, observers said the sale made sense for both parties. The deal also
includes side agreements to make AT&T the main phone-service provider for
IBM and will give IBM management of some of AT&T's computer services,
including payroll and other functions. Approximately 7000 workers will
switch companies under the agreement. The companies expect the deal to be
completed by the middle of 1999.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (C11), AUTHOR: Mark Leibovich & Mike Mills]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-12/09/081l-120998-idx.html
AT&T TO PAY $5 BILLION FOR IBM NETWORK
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B7), AUTHOR: Rebecca Blumenstein & Raju Narisetti]
http://www.wsj.com/
AT&T BUYING IBM'S NETWORK IN $5 BILLION DEAL
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Seth Schiesel]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/12/biztech/articles/09phone.html
FCC OFFICIALS CONCERNS WITH BABY BELL MERGERS
Issue: Mergers
After several large telecommunications mergers in the last two years, the
FCC is beginning to question whether the rampant consolidation of regional
bells actually serves the public interest. After the break-up of AT&T in the
mid-eighties, there were seven Baby Bells and GTE. If two currently pending
mergers are approved, there will only be four different regional carriers
left. The FCC - which is reviewing SBC's acquisition of Ameritech and Bell
Atlantic's merger with GTE - appears to be concerned about the effects these
deals will have on potential competition. "Certainly there comes a time at
which recreating AT&T East and AT&T West crosses the line," says Thomas
Krattenmaker, who is leading the FCC merger review.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A2), AUTHOR: Bryan Gruley and Stephanie Mehta]
http://www.wsj.com/
MCLEAN FIRM TO ACQUIRE ESPRIT TELECOM
Issue: Merger
Global Telesystems Group Inc., a US firm with fiber optic capacity in
Europe, is purchasing Esprit Telecom Group PLC, a British telecommunications
firm, for nearly $1 billion. Observers say the merger will be complementary
since Esprit presently has a network of European business customers for
voice and data services but depends on other companies for its long-distance
lines. Now those customers will be folded into Global as it builds a
fiber-optic network between major European cities along railroad lines.
Global, which started as a Russian phone company, presently wholesales its
services to other companies. Wide-open competition in telecommunications
began in Europe in January.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (C15), AUTHOR: Jerry Knight]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/digest/wtech002.htm
GTS TO PURCHASE ESPRIT TELECOM FOR $645 MILLION
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B7), AUTHOR: Kimberley A. Strassel]
http://www.wsj.com/
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CABLE/COMPETITION
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TIME WARNER AND CBS IN DIGITAL TV DEAL
Issue: DTV/Cable
Time Warner, the nation's second largest cable operator, has signed an
agreement with CBS to carry the digital signals of the network's 14 owned
and operated television stations. As of now, only four CBS owned stations
are transmitting digitally. CBS hopes that this agreement will ensure
carriage during transition, and also serve as a model for agreements between
Time Warner and other CBS affiliated stations. Many cable operators claim
that they do not have enough bandwidth to carry both the analog and digital
signals of local broadcasters without crowding out cable networks. Time
Warner, however, has upgraded the capacity of most of its systems and will
have no trouble finding space for the new digital channels. The Federal
Communications Commission is hoping that broadcasters and cable operators
will independently reach digital carriage agreements, avoiding the need for
federal regulation.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C2), AUTHOR: Lawrie Mifflin]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/12/biztech/articles/09digi.html
See also:
TIME WARNER INC. AGREES TO CARRY CBS'S DIGITAL TV
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B6), AUTHOR: Leslie Cauley]
http://www.wsj.com/
AMERITECH LAUNCHES CABLE SERVICE IN CHICAGO
Issue: Cable/Competition
Local telephone incumbent Ameritech has started to provide cable service on
Chicago's southwest side. The service, Americast, will compete with TCI
which has offered cable TV service for 15 years. Another company, 21st
Century Cable, is competing with TCI in northeast Chicago by providing cable
TV, high-speed Internet access and local phone service in high-rise
apartments. TCI is being purchased by AT&T with plans to use the cable
system to provide local phone and high-speed Internet access.
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune (Sec3, p.5), AUTHOR: Jon Van]
http://chicagotribune.com/textversion/article/0,1492,SAV-9812090256,00.html
CABLEVISION CAN'T INTERVENE IN CASE INVOLVING A BEC ENERGY TELECOM VENTURE
Issue: Broadband
Massachusetts's highest court ruled that Cablevision Systems Corp. cannot
intervene in a regulatory case involving the transfer of 126 miles of fiber
optic lines by Boston Edison Co. to an unregulated telecommunications joint
venture. Cablevision says that Boston Edison transferred the assets at an
artificially low $7 million to avoid taxes. The joint venture is using the
lines to provide cable television, telephone and Internet service in the
Boston area -- the same area in which Cablevision provides cable TV service. The
Massachusetts government is investigating the deal. The dispute is being
widely followed, because many utilities are planning to sell cable TV, phone
or Internet services via their existing rights-of-way and fiber optic networks.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B6), AUTHOR: Mark Maremont]
http://www.wsj.com/
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INTERNATIONAL
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16% WORLD ILLITERACY TO GROW, STUDY SAYS
Issue: Literacy
Unicef, the United Nations' children's fund, has released its annual report
"The State of the World's Children" for 1999
http://www.unicef.org/sowc99/. The report finds that one-sixth of the 5.9
billion people in the world cannot read -- and predicts this number will
grow since only 1 in 4 children in the poorest nations is in school.
Education is most often denied to girls. Illiteracy has a direct
relationship to important health indicators and fertility rates. "A
10-percentage-point increase in girls' primary enrollment can be expected to
decrease infant mortality by 4.1 deaths per 1,000, and a similar rise in
girls' secondary enrollment by another 5.6 deaths per 1,000," the report
says. "This would mean concretely, in Pakistan for example, that an extra
year of schooling for 1,000 girls would ultimately prevent roughly 60 infant
deaths." Unicef and other organizations that work with children say
education should be guaranteed under the 1989 Convention on the Rights of
the Child. But the intentions of that treaty are being overwhelmed by a host
of problems, including economic crises in countries like Russia and Indonesia.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A10), AUTHOR: Barbara Crossette]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/120998unicef-literacy.html
CHINA SOLICITS COMMENT VIA INTERNET
Issue: Internet/International
The State Development Planning Commission of China received approximately
1,000 comments about China's future on a website in the past week. In
China's first time to use the Internet to solicit comments, the Government
reports that 3,000 people visited the site to offer comments about the next
five-year development plan. A Chinese official said that about 80% of
the comments were positive and that most of the dissenting views came from
outside China. China's Communist Party wants to use the Internet for modern
commerce but is wary of its power to spread dissent. Last week the Chinese
government put a computer entrepreneur on trial for subversion for providing
Chinese e-mail addresses to a pro-democracy online magazine. With about 1.2
million registered users, the Internet is booming in China.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (Online), AUTHOR: Renee Schoof (Associated Press)]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19981208/V000335-120898-idx.html
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LIFESTYLES!
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A CONCERT COMMUNION WITH CELL PHONES
Issue: Life Styles
Some people have noticed a new trend at rock concerts these days. Cell
phones have begun to replace lighters as a favorite concert prop. These
items do not just provide light, but they also allow people to share the
experience with other who are not there. Michael Marion, general manager of
Alltel Arena in Little Rock, Ark., observed this phenomena during
"Stairway to Heaven" at a recent Led Zeppelin Show. "Everybody was holding
up their hands, and here and there I could see guys holding up their cell
phones, playing music for someone else," he remembered. (Kevin, did you
bring you cell phone when you went to see the Spice Girls in concert? -- RA)
[SOURCE: New York Times (B1), AUTHOR: Neil Strauss]
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/arts/concerts-cellphones.html
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