Could it Be? Another Merger in the Telecom Industry?
WSJ: AT&T to Buy Teleport for $11.3 Billion
WSJ: AT&T Deal Offers Three Cable Giants Some Wiggle Room
NYT: AT&T to Pay $1.3 Billion for Teleport
WP: AT&T Plans Deal to Buy Teleport
TelecomAM: AT&T Acquires Teleport for $11.3 Billion
Telephony
TelecomAM: NTIA Chief Charges Bells 'Want To Go Back on Their Deal'
TelecomAM: SBC Tariffs To Enter Long Distance Market in Oklahoma
TelecomAM: Kendall Rejects Ameritech's Bid to Intervene in Telecom Act Case
TelecomAM: Texas PUC Arbitrator Breaks Precedent; Says Calls To ISPs Are Not
Local
Television
WP: Flunking the Ratings Test
CommDaily: HDTV Makes "Commercial Debut" at CES, But Expectations Are Lowered
CommDaily: FCC Accused of Changing PTV Underwriting Rules Without Notice
CommDaily: Public TV Should Remain Noncommercial, Duggan Tells Critics
WSJ: Microsoft Battles Sun Over TCI Set-Top Boxes
WSJ: EchoStar to Offer Local TV Programs To Satellite Clients
Low-Income Communities
NYT: Homeless Left Out of Digital Revolution
FCC: Chairman Kennard Visits Los Angeles Job Training Centers
Internet
NYT: Clinton Aide Defends Delay on Internet Governance
FCC: New Factsheet on Internet Service Providers, and Access Charges
WSJ: Internet Vandals Pose Threat by Using New Mode of Attack Called
'Smurfing'
Privacy
WP: Someone's Listening
Spectrum
FCC: Commission Reallocates Television Channels 60-69 (746-806 MHz)
to Other Services
Microsoft/Antitrust
NYT: Microsoft Seeks to Tone Down the Legal Battle
** Could it Be? Another Merger in the Telecom Industry? **
[see also WP (G1) Mike Mills "AT&T Plans Deal to Buy Teleport;" TelecomAM
"AT&T Acquires Teleport for $11.3 Billion"]
Title: AT&T to Buy Teleport for $11.3 Billion
Source: Wall Street Journal (A3)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Steven Lipin
Issue: Merger
Description: AT&T announced that it will acquire Teleport for $11.3 billion
in stock -- an expensive but crucial move to penetrate the local-phone
business. The deal is the second-biggest ever for AT&T. Teleport provides
local phone service predominantly to business customers in 66 major U.S.
cities. As the largest and oldest CLEC, Teleport in one fell swoop would
give AT&T direct connections to the biggest corporate customers in the
territories of the Baby Bells. C. Michael Armstrong, the recently appointed
chairman and CEO of AT&T, said, "This is a good deal for us, for
business phone customers across America, and a good deal for the
shareholders of both companies. Teaming with Teleport will speed our entry
into the local market."
Title: AT&T Deal Offers Three Cable Giants Some Wiggle Room
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Leslie Cauley
Issue: Merger/Cable
Description: AT&T's acquisition of Teleport could offer something else
entirely to the three cable titans selling their controlling stake in the
firm. By bailing out, the big cable operators may have hit on a way to exit
gracefully from the messy local phone business while preserving the option
to jump back in later. Teleport has been viewed as crucial to the telephone
dreams of its three cable owners: TCI, Cox Ent., and Comcast, but these
companies have found their efforts to enter the phone business to be costly
and difficult.
Title: AT&T to Pay $11.3 Billion for Teleport
Source: New York Times (D1, D4)
http://www.nytimes.com/
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: Merger
Description: AT&T, the No. 1 long-distance carrier, announced yesterday that
they will acquire Teleport Communications Group Inc., one of the nation's
largest alternative local telephone companies, for $11.3 billion in stock.
If the deal goes through, it will give AT&T a significant presence in the
local telephone markets for the first time since it was forced to move away
from its local operations as part of an antitrust settlement in 1984.
Michael Armstrong, AT&T's new chairman, said, "This adds certainty to our
strategy. What this says about AT&T is that we will invest in the local
market and that we will invest to grow." Jeffrey Kagan, an independent
telecommunications analyst and consultant in Atlanta, GA said, "This is the
best news they've had in a long time. AT&T has really been on the sidelines
for the last several years. And we've all been waiting to see if they were
going to be a serious player in local, because companies like MCI and
Worldcom have been moving ahead. This will be a very good step in the right
direction for them."
** Telephony **
Title: NTIA Chief Charges Bells 'Want To Go Back on Their Deal'
Source: Telecom AM---jan. 9, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Long Distance/TelecomAct/Competition
Description: The decision by Judge Kendall that declared portions of the
Telecom Act unconstitutional "misunderstands the nature of Section 271,"
NTIA Administrator Larry Irving said. He said Bell companies "asked for the
Telecom Act repeatedly" and now "want to go back on their deal with the
American people." He said Bell companies have resorted to litigating the Act
because they "don't think they can take on the blue jeans crowd," or
competitive carriers that have triggered the "boost to the economy."
Title: SBC Tariffs To Enter Long Distance Market in Oklahoma
Source: Telecom AM---jan. 9, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Long Distance
Description: SBC filed tariffs with Oklahoma regulators to enter the long
distance market. The telco said it will offer customers a flat rate of 14
cents per minute for all calls and asked the Oklahoma Corporation Commission
for approval within 20 days. If granted, SBC will enter the market within a
month, it said.
Title: Kendall Rejects Ameritech's Bid to Intervene in Telecom Act Case
Source: Telecom AM---jan. 9, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Long Distance
Description: Federal Judge Joe Kendall rejected Ameritech's motion to join
SBC and U S West in a Telecom Act ruling that has allowed those two Bell
companies to enter the long distance market. At the same time, the court
allowed Bell Atlantic to intervene because the telco asked for permission
prior to the decision.
Title: Texas PUC Arbitrator Breaks Precedent; Says Calls To ISPs Are Not
Local
Source: Telecom AM---jan. 9, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Internet/Telephony
Description: An arbitrator for the Texas PUC has broken with regulatory
precedent established by 13 other states by finding that incumbent local
phone companies don't owe reciprocal compensation on calls placed by their
customers to local numbers of Internet service providers who take their
service from competitive local exchange carriers. PUC Administrative Law
Judge Howard Siegel, arbitrating consolidated cases initiated by competitive
providers Waller Creek Comm. and Time Warner Comm. against Southwestern Bell
Telephone concluded that calls to ISPs are interstate traffic and the local
companies are jointly providing interstate access. Therefore, the arbitrator
said, there is no local revenue to share.
** Television **
Title: Flunking the Ratings Test
Source: Washington Post (A1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-01/09/163l-010998-idx.html
Author: Paul Farhi
Issue: Children's Television
Description: CBS announced this week that it has canceled its entire slate
of children's educational programming and will try replacement shows next
fall. New regulations require broadcasters to air three hours of educational
programming for children each week, but there have been few breakthrough
shows like PBS's "Sesame Street" or "Barney and Friends." Instead, kids are
watching "Ultimate Goosebumps" and "Beast Wars" -- shows more likely to
scare them than to educate them. CBS is complaining about the money it has
spent on TV shows kids do not watch, but a Fox executive said, "I'm not
worried about low ratings. There's enough talent out there to make shows
that are both educational and enticing to kids. We haven't been doing this
long enough for the jury to be in yet."
Title: HDTV Makes "Commercial Debut" at CES, But Expectations Are Lowered
Source: Communications Daily
Issue: Digital TV
Description: Vice President Gore predicts that HDTV will be "extremely
profitable and extremely welcome to the American people," but consumer
electronics executives are trying to lower expectations for the first year
of rollout. Not many details are available yet, but digital TV sets may cost
as much as $10,000. Digital TV will not be an overnight success, executives
say, because of various reasons including: 1) the amount of cross-industry
cooperation needed, 2) the costs of providing programming, and 3) consumer
problems including re-installing TV antennas to receive DTV broadcasts.
According to a Harris poll released yesterday, nearly all US TV stations
will convert to digital by the end of 2002. 23% of stations say they will
broadcast primarily HDTV, 33% will multiplex, 44% remain unsure.
Title: FCC Accused of Changing PTV Underwriting Rules Without Notice
Source: Communications Daily
Issue: Public Television
Description: WTTW (Ch. 11) in Chicago is charging the FCC Mass Media Bureau
with changing its rules on station underwriting without proper notice. The
FCC has fined WTTW $5,000 for airing four improper underwriting spots. The
station has a reputation within industry of "skating near the edge" of
fundraising boundaries and was chastised by FCC in 1995 for an improper
on-air fundraising campaign. WTTW claims that FCC's interpretation of rules
"will require significant changes in national and local station underwriting
practices which will likely reduce funding of critical importance."
Title: Public TV Should Remain Noncommercial, Duggan Tells Critics
Source: Communications Daily
Issue: Public Television
Description: PBS President Ervin Duggan said, "I believe that we are not a
part of the television industry, but a cultural and educational service."
Mr. Duggan has been aggressive in pushing profit-making ventures to support
noncommercial television. Corporate underwriting is up -- new PBS
Sponsorship Group has brought in $11.5 million in corporate funding in last
six months. Mr. Duggan also announced a new partnership between Warner
Records and PBS. PBS Records will be a new companion to PBS programming and
Warner Brothers will fund 2 PBS music specials and companion CDs per year
over next five years.
Title: Microsoft Battles Sun Over TCI Set-Top Boxes
Source: Wall Street Journal (A3)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Leslie Cauley & David Bank
Issue: Cable/Set-Top Boxes
Description: Microsoft is waging an 11th-hour battle in a bid to stop TCI
from including Sun's Java software in a new generation of digital set-top
boxes. Microsoft is close to an agreement with TCI to supply the operating
system for the devices, but the cable giant is taking steps to contain
Microsoft's influence by bringing in rival software companies as well. Sun
is also said to be close to a deal with TCI to include its Java software to
control some software applications in the television set-top devices. A deal
to install a version of Microsoft's operating system in set-tops could help
extend the company's ambitions beyond 40% of the nation's households that
have PCs.
Title: EchoStar to Offer Local TV Programs To Satellite Clients
Source: Wall Street Journal (A13B)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Bryan Gruley & John Lippman
Issue: Satellites
Description: EchoStar said it plans to start offering local TV programs to a
big chunk of its satellite-service subscribers. The company aims to break
down the competitive advantage currently enjoyed by cable competitors that
pick up and convey local news, sports and the like along with the rest of
the fare. Satellite-TV carriers haven't offered local signals previously
because federal copyright laws appear to prohibit this except in limited
circumstances. EchoStar said that it will abide by the law, initially
offering the signals only to customers who can't otherwise get them via
cable or antenna. They plan to begin offering local network-affiliated
channels later this month in 20 big U.S. markets.
** Low-Income Communities **
Title: Homeless Left Out of Digital Revolution
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/nation/010998nation.html
Author: Jason Chervokas and Tom Watson
Issue: Low-Income Communities
Description: As information technology continues to expand and Americans
build communities in Cyberspace, one of the things that sets this
environment apart from real space is the invisibility of homelessness.
Michael Rennick, a graduate student in cultural studies at Columbia
University, was researching a project on graffiti when he got the idea to
give people who are homeless disposable cameras and ask them to document
moments, spaces or people in their lives. Mr. Rennick then posted these
images on the Web coupled with a transcription of an extensive interview he
conducted with the homeless documenter. Although the site is a little rough
around the edges, it offers the viewer a sensibility of people that are
historically disconnected from main-stream society and the media. "In a way
you have a population of people who are not involved in this discourse of
information technology at any level," Rennick said. "At the same time that
it incorporates them into this conversation, it transforms them from a
object into a subject." Michael Rennick's site, Vagrant Gaze, can be
accessed at: http://www.perfekt.net/~vagrant/homeless.htm.
Title: FCC Chairman Kennard Visits Los Angeles Job Training Centers
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Miscellaneous/News_Releases/1998/nrmc8002.html
Issue: EdTech
Description: FCC Chairman William Kennard challenged the telecommunications
industry to help provide increased technical training and job placement to
inner city and underserved communities "so that everyone can participate in
the new information economy." Kennard made his remarks at the Maxine Waters
Employment Preparation Center, which he praised as "a prime example" of
private sector initiatives he would like to see emulated around the country.
He said, "By teaching telecommunications jobs skills and providing placement
assistance within industry, this Center is helping people help themselves
and putting them in the position to fully participate in a high tech economy."
** Internet **
Title: Clinton Aide Defends Delay on Internet Governance
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/010998domain.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: Assistant Commerce Secretary Larry Irving announced yesterday
that the Clinton administration proposal for handing the Internet address
system is overdue because policy advisors are looking into the deeper issues
of Internet governance. Irving said that his staff and Ira Magaziner,
Clinton's Internet Policy advisor, have met with hundreds of people and read
thousands of pages of documents over the past two months. But this drawn out
study of the issues is drawing criticism from members of the Internet
community, who helped draft an already complete self-governance plan and
say these moves contradict the administration's vow to get out of the
Internet business. "The US gov't said it wants the private sector to solve
it, yet it insists on maintaining control of the process and is intent on
mandating the outcome. The biggest danger is the US gov't trying to solve
too many things at once and therefore not being able to resolve anything,
ever." said Dave Crocker, a consultant of the international team who wrote
the self-governance plan, Generic Top-Level Domain Memorandum of
Understanding (gTLD-MoU). Mr. Irving defended the administration's intense
focus saying, "The hardest thing for us to do is try to figure out how the
gov't can assure that the gov't doesn't have a role going forward. We've got
to find a way to kick this thing over to the private sector."
Title: New Factsheet on Internet Service Providers, and Access Charges
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Factsheets/ispfact.html
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: "In December 1996, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
requested public comment on issues relating to the charges that Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) and similar companies pay to local telephone
companies. On May 7, 1997, the FCC decided to leave the existing rate
structure in place. In other words, the FCC decided not to allow local
telephone companies to impose per-minute access charged on ISPs.
Please Note: There is no open comment period in this proceeding. If you have
recently seen a message on the Internet stating that in response to a
request from local telephone companies, the FCC is requesting comments to
isp( at )fcc.gov by February 1998, be aware that this information is inaccurate."
Title: Internet Vandals Pose Threat by Using New Mode of Attack Called
'Smurfing'
Source: Wall Street Journal (B18)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Jared Sandberg
Issue: Internet/Security
Description: Internet companies and security experts are struggling with a
new technique hackers are using called 'smurfing'. It allows almost any
Internet user to harness the resources of hundreds of computers on the
network to flood an unwitting victim with data, crippling the victim's
network connection and degrading the speed of neighboring Internet
connections. Such vandalism, often known as a denial-of-service attack,
prompted the Computer Emergency Response team to issue a warning about it
and offer potential solutions. Dale Drew, senior manager of security
engineering at MCI, said, "This is the worst [type of] denial-of-service
attack we've seen. Anyone with a modem is now able to launch an effective
denial-of-service attack against pretty much anyone on the Internet."
** Privacy **
Title: Someone's Listening
Source: Washington Post (A23)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-01/09/159l-010998-idx.html
Author: William Drozdiak
Issue: International/Privacy
Description: The German government announced yesterday that it will lift its
post-World War II ban on bugging private homes. The ban was put in place
because of the widespread abuses by secret police during the Nazi era.
German police officials have long demanded the tool to be able to fight drug
smuggling and other organized-crime activities.
** Spectrum **
Title: FCC Reallocates Television Channels 60-69 (746-806 MHz) to Other
Services
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/News_Releases/1998/nret80
01.html
Issue: Spectrum
Description: "The Commission reallocated television Channels 60-69 (the
746-806 MHz band) to other services. This action fulfilled one of the
Commission's obligations under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. The
Commission stated that the reallocation of these channels will help to
alleviate a critical shortage of public safety spectrum, make new
technologies and services available to the American public, facilitate the
ongoing transition to digital television (DTV), and allow more efficient use
of spectrum in the 746-806 MHz band."
** Microsoft **
Title: Microsoft Seeks to Tone Down the Legal Battle
Source: New York Times/CyberTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/010998microsoft.html
Author: Associated Press
Issue: Antitrust
Description: In an effort to rework the company's image after a series of
legal setbacks last month, Microsoft executives expressed regret at the
harsh rhetoric that was used with the Justice Department, saying that the
corporation should have been more respectful of the court and prosecutors.
"Over the past two months, some people have perceived Microsoft as being
disrespectful to the court and the Department of Justice, and we are very
sorry to have created that impression," said Mark Murray a Microsoft
spokesman. A Justice Department spokesman had no immediate comment about the
executives' remarks.
*********
...and we are out of here. See you Monday.