Telephony
FCC: Commission Affirms Key Provisions of LMDS Second Report & Order,
Paving Way for Auction
WSJ: Mexican Regulatory Fight Spurs MCI Pullback
WSJ: BellSouth Corp. Set Back In Long Distance Strategy
Internet
NYT: Judge To Decide Legality of Net Registration Fees
WSJ: Internet Address-Rerouting Incident Raises Concern
Over Control of System
NYT: Clinton Aide Stands Behind Net Founder Who Altered Network
Corporate
WSJ: Netscape Mulls Sale of Whole Or Part of Firm
WSJ: Microsoft Partners in 'Active Desktop' Are Subpoenaed
in U.S. Antitrust Probe
WP: Primus to Acquire Florida Phone Firm
Lifestyle
NYT: Making Computers Cute Enough To Wear
NYT: In Brussels, Gates Takes a Pie in the Face
** Telephony **
Title: Commission Affirms Key Provisions of LMDS Second Report & Order,
Paving Way for Auction
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Wireless/News_Releases/1998/nrw18002.html
Author: Elizabeth Kyle
Issue: Wireless
Description: Today the Commission generally affirmed key provisions of the
Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS) service rules that it adopted
in March 1997. The action paves the way for the auctioning and licensing of
LMDS, a fixed, broadband point-to-multipoint wireless service that has
significant potential in offering a broad range of one-way and two-way
voice, video, and data service capabilities, and a substantial amount of
capacity that is larger than currently available wireless services.
Title: Mexican Regulatory Fight Spurs MCI Pullback
Source: Wall Street Journal (A17)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Craig Torres
Issue: Long Distance
Description: MCI has shelved plans for some $900 million in additional
investment in its Mexican long-distance joint venture, Avantel SA, saying
weak regulation of former monopoly Telefonos de Mexico SA has severely
dimmed the outlook for Avantel to compete profitably. MCI's decision comes
after only a year of competition against Telmex. The U.S. carrier's pullback
is a dangerous sign for Mexico, which is trying to encourage large
direct-foreign-investment projects to create skilled jobs and help the
country finance a deficit in its trade accounts.
Title: BellSouth Corp. Set Back In Long Distance Strategy
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Issue: Long Distance
Description: The FCC rejected BellSouth's application to sell long-distance
service in Louisiana. The FCC called the application "indistinguishable"
from its earlier, rejected application to provide long distance in S.
Carolina. The FCC said it turned down the application because the Bells
haven't opened their local networks to competition as required by law. FCC
Chairman Kennard said that "while BellSouth continues to make progress
toward opening its local market to competition, the commission was compelled
by law to deny" the application because the company hasn't yet gone far enough.
** Internet **
Title: Judge To Decide Legality of Net Registration Fees
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/020598domain-side.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: Judge Thomas Hogan of federal district court in Washington has
frozen the governments $50 million Internet infrastructure development fund
while he decides if the domain registration fee that finances it is legal.
Judge Hogan said that plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit "have made a
significant showing that the [fund] is an illegal tax." William Bode, a
lawyer for the plaintiffs, said yesterday that he plans to also ask the
court to require Network Solutions Inc. (NSF) to refund the profits it has
made as the sole registrar of top-level domains. "Federal law prohibits
independent executive agencies like the NSF from collecting fees that exceed
the cost of administering the service they are providing," Bode said. "The
same argument applies to fees that NSI charges over and above its cost of
doing business."
Title: Internet Address-Rerouting Incident Raises Concern Over Control of
System
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Rebecca Quick
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: A recent incident in which one Internet official took control
of most of the global network's address system has renewed concern about the
casual manner in which the Internet is run. The rerouting coincided with the
release of a Clinton administration plan that would dilute the power of Jon
Postel, who operates the address system under a government contract that he
stands to lose. Mr. Postel called the incident a test of the system and
denied he meant any harm. No Internet traffic was disrupted, but that did
little to mollify companies that use the network or oversee its high-speed
arteries. Some say it appeared that Mr. Postel was, in effect, trying to
hijack the Internet.
Title: Clinton Aide Stands Behind Net Founder Who Altered Network
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/020598domain.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: Last week, Jon Postal, a founding father of the World Wide Web
who runs the computer that assigns the addresses behind Internet domains,
alarmed the Internet world by redirecting at least half of the 13 root
servers that run the Internet away from the main root, known as "the dot" or
A server, to the B server that he administers at the Univ. of S. Calif.
under a Defense Dept. contract. The test drew speculation that the network
was being hijacked because it came at the same time Ira C. Magaziner,
President Clinton's top Internet advisor, was releasing his controversial
proposal for moving oversight of the Internet away from government and to a
private system. In response to Postal's rerouting of the Internet, Magaziner
said that the test was poorly timed and would not be repeated. "I admire and
trust this man, I don't have any reason to question his motives or
observations. He has been a tremendous asset to the Internet. If he did
something whose timing was a mistake, I sure would be one to cut him a lot
of slack."
** Corporate **
Title: Netscape Mulls Sale of Whole Or Part of Firm
Source: Wall Street Journal (A3)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Kara Swisher & Don Clark
Issue: Corporate Retrenchment
Description: Netscape is holding "serious discussions" with AOL, Sun,
Oracle, and IBM about strategic investments in Netscape or purchasing the
entire company. AOL, for example, has discussed the possibility of either
taking over or buying Netscape's popular World Wide Web site, they said.
Although no deal is imminent, the discussions illustrate the severity of
Netscape's problems, and a recognition that it may need outside help in
overcoming them.
Title: Microsoft Partners in 'Active Desktop' Are Subpoenaed in U.S.
Antitrust Probe
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: John R. Wilke & David Bank
Issue: Antitrust
Description: The Justice Dept. issued new subpoenas in its antitrust probe
of Microsoft that focus on exclusive deals the software giant may have cut
with entertainment and information publishers on the Internet. The
department is seeking documents from Microsoft media partners that are
carried on the "Active Desktop," a feature of Microsoft's IE 4.0 software.
The Active Desktop will play an even bigger role in Windows 98. As a part of
their licensing of Windows to computer makers, Microsoft requires licensees
to display the desktop screen with the dozen media partners Microsoft has
selected. The Active Channel strategy may be seen by the Justice Dept. as a
form of tying -- using Microsoft's Windows monopoly as leverage in new markets.
Title: Primus to Acquire Florida Phone Firm
Source: Washington Post (E5)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/05/184l-020598-idx.html
Author: Mike Mills
Issue: Merger
Description: Primus Telecommunications Group Inc., the Vienna-based
international long-distance company, announced yesterday that it will buy
TresCom International Inc., of Fort Lauderdale, FL, for $125 million. "The
merger provides Primus entry into Caribbean and South American markets,
rounding out our presence in every major region of the world and making
Primus the carrier with the broadest coverage among our peer group," said K.
Pul Singh, Primus's chairman and chief executive. TresCom owns switching
facilities in New York, Fort Lauderdale, and Puerto Rico, as well as
capacity on undersea fiber-optic cables reaching the Caribbean and South
America. Those assets will combine with Primus Telecommunications Group's 11
switches in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Britain and soon two more in
Germany and Japan.
** Lifestyle **
Title: Making Computers Cute Enough To Wear
Source: New York Times (C1,C4)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/020598ive.html
Author: John Markoff
Issue: Lifestyle/Technology
Description: Computer designer, Jonathon Ive, is interested in creating
computers based on what he calls "emotional human forms." Ive's has little
good to say about today's computers. To him, the majority of personal
computers are sad, chunky, gray boxes. "The curse of computing is that it's
generic," he said with a sigh. But Jonathon Ive, director of the industrial
design studio at Apple Computer, has an upbeat vision for a new generation
of machines. The designs he and his designers are working on have more in
common with Swatch or Nike than Dell or IBM. Ive's is obsessed with
designing machines that evoke more human reactions than "the
pocket-protector litany of bits and bytes and MIPS and megahertz." The new
machines, though still in the experimentation phase, are Ive's way of
struggling with what the television has done to the modern home. "For many
homes the television has replaced the hearth," he said, and the television,
when it's turned off, is a dead black hole. Ive does not want to see the
same thing happen with the computer. With the computer replacing the
television in many homes, Ive and his team are working to design machines
that work and blend into its surroundings in a living space and that allow
its user choice in deciding where they want to log on. People who have had a
look at some of the newly designed machines say they appear "organic and
integrated." One woman's initial reaction to a portable computer that looks
like a sleek appointment book was that she wanted to lick the translucent
green case.
Title: In Brussels, Gates Takes a Pie in the Face
Source: New York Times (D11) / Washington Post (B3)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/gates-pie.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/05/158l-020598-idx.html
Author: Reuters / Ann Gerhart and Annie Groer
Issue: Lifestyle
Description: William H. Gates, chairman of the Microsoft Corp., was hit in
the face with a cream pie last night as he arrived in Brussels for a meeting
with Belgian business and government leaders. Organizers of the visit said
that five people, equipped with a large stock of pies, appeared to be
involved in the incident. The organized "pieing" was the work of Noel Godin,
a Belgian who has made a lucrative business and name for himself by hurling
custard pies into the faces of the rich and famous. "That was a victory for
us," said Godin who had the pleasure of landing a pie directly onto Gate's
face. "We will continue to send our burlesque statements." Erin Brewer, a
company spokeswoman said Mr. Gates was "surprised and disappointed" but
unhurt by the attack. Ms. Brewer said she did not believe that Microsoft or
Mr. Gates would press charges.
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