Communications-related Headlines for 2/08/02

INTERNET
Federal Gov Releases Report On High-Speed Telecom Capability (FCC)
British Firm Sues To Protect Hyperlink Patent (USA)

SECURITY
Remarks on Microsoft Case Mostly Oppose Settlement (NYT)

ANTITRUST
House OKs Cyber-Security Bill (WIRED)

INTERNET

FEDERAL GOV RELEASES REPORT ON HIGH-SPEED TELECOM CAPABILITY
Issue: Broadband
On February 7, the FCC released a report on the availability of advanced
telecommunications capability services. The report concludes that advanced
telecommunications capability is being deployed in a reasonable and timely
manner and that there were approximately 9.6 million high-speed subscribers
as of June 30, 2001. Approximately 7.8 million of these subscribers are
residential or small business customers. According to the study, ADSL
service increased by 36% during the first half of 2001. For the same
period, coaxial cable system lines increased 45%. The fastest rate of
growth, however, was seen in high-speed subscriptions over satellite or
fixed wireless technologies. Data was gathered from providers including
wireline telephone companies, cable providers, satellite providers, and any
other facilities-based providers of 250 or more high-speed service lines in
a given state.
[SOURCE: NTIA]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/News_Releases/2002/nrcc0201.html)

BRITISH FIRM SUES TO PROTECT HYPERLINK PATENT
Issue: Intellectual Property
It is possible that one company holds the right to collect a fee each time
an Internet user clicks on a Web site link and jumped to another Web page?
Well, that is exactly what BT, the former British telecommunication monopoly
will try to convince a U.S. federal court. In preliminary arguments next
week, BT will offer that it holds such a patent covering "hypertext links" -
the illuminated text on a Web page that enables users to surf from page to
page. The first target is Prodigy, the oldest online access service, which
dates back to 1984 and is now a unit of SBC Communications. BT, which views
this as a trial case, maintains that Prodigy is in violation of a hyperlink
patent granted years before the Internet as we now know it even existed.
Since the controversial lawsuit became public in late 2000, BT has come
under heavy fire from computer programmers, developers and Web business
executives alike, a group that has traditionally attacked technology patents
of any kind. Public critics of BT say the notion of hypertext linking was
devised decades before BT developed its own version in the 1970s, for which
it was issued the US patent in 1989.
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/02/07/patent-suit.htm)

SECURITY

HOUSE OKS CYBER-SECURITY BILL
Issue: Cyber-security
In an effort to address concerns around possible terrorist attacks on the
Internet, the House leadership approved the "Cyber Security Research and
Development Act" providing $880 million over the next five years for
cyber-security research. The law received wide bi-partisan support with the
few objections stemming from Republicans concerned with an increase in
federal spending. Under the new law, The National Science Foundation will
use the funds to establish cyber-security research centers fellowships, and
undergraduate community college grants. Grants will also be created by the
National Institute of Standards and Technology to create partnerships
between industry and academic researchers and enable researchers from other
fields to move into cyber-security research.
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Robert Zarate]
(http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,50301,00.html)

ANTITRUST

REMARKS ON MICROSOFT CASE MOSTLY OPPOSE SETTLEMENT
Issue:
In a joint filing by the government and Microsoft in Federal District Court
in Washington yesterday, the rough tabulation presented was 7,500 comments
in favor of the settlement announced last November and 15,000 opposed, while
the rest did not comment directly on the settlement. The thousands of public
comments were collected in 60 days, from Nov. 28 to Jan. 28, in accordance
with the Tunney, which intends to protect the public interest in antitrust
cases. The Tunney Act was passed in reaction to charges that lobbyists had
pressed the Nixon administration to drop an antitrust case against ITT.
According to the report, people had idiosyncratic notions of what was an
appropriate response to the government's request for comment on a proposed
ending to the historic antitrust case. "A small number of these
submissions," the report said, "are simply advertisements or, in at least
one case, pornography."
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Steve Lohr]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/08/technology/08SOFT.html)
(requires registration)

--------------------------------------------------------------