Telephony
Chronicle of Higher Education: Colleges Are Facing Steep Increases
in payments for Long-Distance Calls
Telecom AM: Bill to Repeal Section 271 To Be Introduced In Senate
Telecom AM: Anti-Slamming Bill With Harsher Penalties Introduced In
Senate
WP: The Wiretap Argument
Television
WP: The TV Column/Sounds Very Familiar
NYT: Question Lingers as F.C.C. Prepares V-Chip Standards
NYT: HDTV: Not Heart Stopping, but a Bit Too Close
WP: Rocky Start Highlights Digital TV's Problems
Internet
WSJ: Online Shopping Shows Signs of Life, But Still No Mass Appeal,
Survey Says
WSJ: A Web of Intrigue: The Internet's Bad Boy Has His Day in Court
Telecom AM: New Law in New Mexico Restricts Sexual Material on the
Internet
Computer Security
NYT: In Northwest: Computer Security Is a Private-Public Effort
Microsoft
WSJ: U.S. Won't Block Windows 98 Software
WP: In Java War, a New Microsoft Assault
WSJ: Microsoft, in a Swipe at Sun, Introduces New Tools to Use Java Only
on Windows
Merger
NYT: Shareholders Vote to Approve Merger MCI and Worldcom
WSJ: Holders Clear Deal of MCI, WorldCom
WSJ: Cisco Sets Pact For Purchase Of NetSpeed
** Telephony **
Title: Colleges Are Facing Steep Increases in payments for Long-Distance Calls
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/ (3.6.98)
Author: Joye Mercer
Issue: Universal Service/Long Distance
Description: Colleges and universities saw large increases in their long
distance phone bills starting in January. Although the Federal
Communications Commission exempted them from having to contribute to the
national universal service fund (USF), long distance providers are passing
"end-user" charges to campuses. The long distance companies are also
colleges and universities new access fees -- called the Presubscribed
Inter-Exchange Carrier Charge -- which could potentially be greater than
what the schools would have paid into the USF. For example, Mississippi
State University saw $29,000 in new charges in January on top of the long
distance bill of $25,000. Some of the schools hope to forge better deals
with long distance companies when their contracts expire soon; others are
investigating whether or not the companies have violated their contracts by
raising prices.
Title: Bill to Repeal Section 271 To Be Introduced In Senate
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Long-Distance
Description: Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain is expected to
introduce a bill that in the coming days would repeal Section 271 of the
Telecom Act, which requires Bell companies to get FCC approval before
entering the long distance market in their regions. McCain's bill would
substitute a one-year time period after which the Bells would be able to
enter the market. Sources said McCain still wants the FCC and Bell companies
to settle on smoother procedures for the long distance entry. The new bill
reminds them that there's an alternative if the current process fails,
sources added.
Title: Anti-Slamming Bill With Harsher Penalties Introduced In Senate
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Regulation
Description: Senate Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Susan Collins and
Subcommittee member Sen. Richard Durbin introduced an anti-slamming bill
that would carry harsher penalties than the one to be considered by the
Commerce Committee at tomorrow's markup. The Telephone Slamming Prevention
Act would include minimum civil penalties of $50, 000 and criminal penalties
including up to 5 years' imprisonment. It also would allow consumers to pay
their original carrier rather than the one that slammed them, and would
require increased FCC monitoring of the problem.
Title: The Wiretap Argument
Source: Washington Post (A14)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: WP Editorial Writers
Issue: Privacy
Description: In 1994, when Congress passed the Communications Assistance for
Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) it thought it had answered the question: "To
what extent should the telephone companies be obliged to help law
enforcement preserve wiretapping as a tool?" But after three years,
negotiations are still going on over how to implement that law with no
resolution. If the phone industry continues to resist the FBI's proposal,
Attorney General, Janet Reno, has threatened to ask the Federal
Communications Commission to intervene. The problem is that the FBI's vision
seems to go a bit further than what Congress initially intended. The bill
that passed required "telecommunications companies to maintain law
enforcement's ability to wiretap -- with an appropriate warrant -- as
digital networks developed, and it required law enforcement to pay for the
modifications to these networks." Since that time, the industry and the
bureau have been bickering over what types of information the companies will
be 'required to be technically capable of delivering." And yet another
dimension to the debate, one that is indirectly related to the debate over
legislation, is that while law enforcement officials argue that recent
technological advances have put them at a disadvantage, the same advances
also give the agency an edge. With the increased use of cellular phones and
telephone companies technical advances, law enforcement can now use the
devices to locate people -- even when the phone is not is use. Given this,
"the legal standard under which they do so, badly needs to be revisited."
(Who is helping who to watch who these days?!?)
** Television **
Title: The TV Column/Sounds Very Familiar
Source: Washington Post (C5)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-03/12/187l-031298-idx.html
Author: John Carmody
Issue: Television
Description: In a comprehensive study of health issues on television,
conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Washington-based Center
for Media and Public Affairs, they found that the five most common story
topics are crime (20 percent), weather (11 percent), accidents and disasters
(9 percent), human interest and health stories (both 7 percent). Over a
three-month period, the report analyzed more than 17,000 local news stories
broadcasts. "During that time, the number of violent crime stories (2,035)
was almost double that of all health stories, three times the number of
foreign news reports and four times the number of education stories."
Title: Question Lingers as F.C.C. Prepares V-Chip Standards
Source: New York Times (D2)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/vchip-inventor.html
Author: Lawrie Mifflin
Issue: V-chip
Description: The Federal Communications Commission will formally approve the
television rating codes today and will issue standards for the manufacturing
of the microchip, known as the V-chip, which will be placed inside new TV
sets so parents will have the ability to block programs containing sex,
violence or explicit language from their television screen.
Title: HDTV: Not Heart Stopping, but a Bit Too Close
Source: New York Times (E9)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/03/circuits/articles/12hdtv.html
Author: Peter H. Lewis
Issue: HDTV
Description: Engineers at WFAA-TV in Dallas have been encountering
difficulty in the testing of its high-definition, or HDTV, broadcasts. It
seems that whenever they begin testing, a nearby hospital reports
functioning difficulties in some of their heart monitors. Luckily, no one
has been harmed and hospital technicians have been able switch the heart
monitor's frequency to another spectrum. But there is still concern that
other stations and hospitals across the nation may encounter similar
problems. FCC officials were aware of this possible problem and alerted
hospitals across the nation last October that they should "avoid operating
on occupied broadcast channels" as HDTV broadcasts could interfere with some
types of blood pressure, wireless heart and respiratory monitors. "But
medical, broadcast and regulatory officials conceded this week that the
warning had gone largely unheeded or unheard." The National Association of
Broadcasters sent a fax yesterday in reaction to the interference problems
in Dallas. The fax said in part that, "difficulties may arise in other
markets as stations begin to make the transition to digital television...The
inception of digital television will increase the use of the TV spectrum
during the digital transmission, making it harder to find vacant channels
that can be used by low-power, unlicensed devices (such as heart monitors)
without interference." A spokesman for the FCC said, "Now that the problem
has been identified, we hope it won't occur again and blindside anybody."
Title: Rocky Start Highlights Digital TV's Problems
Source: Washington Post (D1,D4)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-03/12/129l-031298-idx.html
Author: Paul Farhi
Issue: HDTV
Description: The incident in Dallas highlights problems that promoters of
digital television will have to resolve before "the revolution" can be
televised. In addition to the disruption in hospital signals, industry field
tests show that many homes will need to install small rooftop antennas in
order to receive HDTV signals. But even then signals may be blocked by
foliage or the walls of a home since digital signals do not come in with
"ghosts or snow." Some cities may be able to resolve this problem by
erecting tall towers that can "rain down pictures on a direct line of
sight." In addition to heart monitors, Bruce France, an FCC engineer, says
that digital TV signals could also interfere with the use of other airwaves
such as maritime radios, wireless microphones, local cable TV systems and
apartment satellite antennas. Broadcasters say that people who use these
devices will simply have to change the airwaves they use. But it may not be
that easy. Steve Juett, the senior clinical engineer at Baylor Univ. Medical
Center, said that "It takes many months of planning to make these changes,
as well as a major financial commitment." And Victor Tawil, senior vice
president of the Maximum Service Television Association, a broadcasters
trade group, said: "We haven't found anything we didn't expect." But he
adds: "If we don't make it on the air [by FCC deadlines] it will be because
of factors beyond our control." In reaction to the FCC deadline that all
digital stations must be on the air by 2006, Ronald Gibbs, chief executive
of Lodestar Towers Inc. in Florida, says: "No one in the industry believes
it's realistic to get all this done by 2006. The only people who believe it
are in Washington."
** Internet **
Title: Online Shopping Shows Signs of Life, But Still No Mass Appeal,
Survey Says
Source: Wall Street Journal (B8)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Jared Sandberg
Issue: Online Commerce
Description: A new survey of home Internet use says that on-line shopping,
after years of talk, is finally showing signs of life. Roughly seven million
households made a purchase on-line during the second half of 1997, more than
double the 3.2 million in 1996, according to Odyssey Ventures Inc. While
on-line buyers aren't shopping frenetically, they haven't become repeat
buyers, purchasing goods an average of 1.7 times during the six-month
period. Though the news may warm the hearts of techno-hypesters who have
spent hundreds of millions of dollars hanging electronic shingles, there is
little evidence that on-line shopping has reached the masses. Computers,
after all, have penetrated less than half of U.S. homes, and on-line access
has reached less than a quarter of all American households.
Title: A Web of Intrigue: The Internet's Bad Boy Has His Day in Court
Source: Wall Street Journal (3/11, A1)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Edward Felsenthal
Issue: Legal Issues
Description: A $30 million defamation suit, filed in August by presidential
adviser Sidney Blumenthal, provides the latest evidence of the twisted
loyalties and personal animus that dominate Washington's scandal-obsessed
culture. Mr. Matt Drudge, a controversial cyber-reporter, has been all but
abandoned by media types who typically support reporters fighting political
figures, even though his case could help define what constitutes libel on
the Internet. Instead, Mr. Drudge's main backing has come from conservatives
with disdain for the Clinton administration and a fondness for the bad news
about it that regularly appears in his gossipy on-line column, the Drudge
Report.
Title: New Law in New Mexico Restricts Sexual Material on the Internet
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Regulation
Description: New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson has signed into law a bill that
makes it a criminal misdemeanor to use a computer or computer communications
system such as the Internet to distribute indecent material that is harmful
to minors. The law defines harmful indecent matter as depicting nudity,
sexual conduct or sexual abuse in a manner that offends prevailing community
standards or that plays to prurient interests. The governor's signature came
despite warnings by Internet liberty groups like the Electronic Frontiers
Foundation that the measure contains the same fatal flaws as the federal
Communication Decency Act of 1996 that was struck down in June 1977 by the
U.S. Supreme Court as an unconstitutional infringement on speech.
** Computer Security **
Title: In Northwest: Computer Security Is a Private-Public Effort
Source: New York Times (E8)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/03/circuits/articles/12agora.html
Author: Tina Kelley
Issue: Computer Security
Description: Agora, is a group of more than 300 people who work for about
100 companies and 45 government agencies who have been working with computer
experts to find and share ways to "stump" cybercrooks in the Northwest. The
association's main organizer, Kirk Bailey, said,"It's the private sector
shaking hands with the public sector, with private sector experts working
closely with public service people and government officials." Agora is
different from other association in that its members "team up across
public-private lines and share information formally and informally, even
with competitors, to solve problems. It may be the best-organized such group
in the nation -- or the group most willing to speak publicly about what it
does."
** Microsoft **
Title: U.S. Won't Block Windows 98 Software
Source: Wall Street Journal (A3)
http://wsj.com/
Author: John R. Wilke
Issue: Antitrust
Description: The Justice Dept. probably won't block Microsoft's Windows 98
software from coming out in a version that includes Internet browsing
software, a stance that could have broad market impact. While antitrust
enforcers continue to gather evidence for a new, wider case against
Microsoft, their next legal step is likely to be narrow. One option is to
ask U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Jackson to order Microsoft to also
offer a separate Windows 98 version without Internet software. A dept.
spokesman said no decision has been made on the governments next step.
Allowing Windows 98 to come out as scheduled in late May would permit
Microsoft to continue to gain ground in Internet software against Netscape.
Title: In Java War, a New Microsoft Assault
Source: Washington Post (D2))
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-03/12/136l-031298-idx.html
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Computer Technology
Description: In the continued battle between the Microsoft Corp. and Sun
Microsystems Inc., Microsoft yesterday released a version of Java that
'encourages the creation of programs that run only on Microsoft Window's
operating system or Apple Macintosh computers." On the otherhand, Sun is
pushing for a "100 percent pure" version of Java, hoping that the increased
use of "run-anywhere" Java programs will reduce the need to by Windows
computers.
Title: Microsoft, in a Swipe at Sun, Introduces New Tools to Use Java Only
on Windows
Source: Wall Street Journal (3/11, B8)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Nick Wingfield
Issue: Computer Technology
Description: Microsoft is stepping up efforts to defuse a challenge by rival
Sun Microsystems by introducing new tools to encourage programmers to use
Sun's Java language to write software that runs only on Microsoft's Windows
systems. The software giant's new tools include a technology, dubbed Windows
Foundation Classes, that makes it easier to create Java programs that look
like other Windows programs and work on Windows-based computers. The product
undercut the primary selling point of Java and are likely to raise the ire
of its proponents further.
** Merger **
Title: Shareholders Vote to Approve Merger MCI and Worldcom
Source: New York Times (D2)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/mci-worldcom.html
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: Merger
Description: Shareholders of MCI Communications Corp. and Worldcom Inc.
voted overwhelmingly in favor of their companies pending merger yesterday.
Less than 1 percent of the votes cast were opposed to the deal. The proposed
merger still faces several months of review by the Justice Department, the
Federal Communications Commission, European regulators and some states.
Title: Holders Clear Deal of MCI, WorldCom
Source: Wall Street Journal (A3)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Stephanie N. Mehta
Issue: Merger
Description: Shareholders heartily endorsed WorldCom's proposed $37 billion
acquisition of MCI, even as regulators increased their scrutiny of the
merger. At special meetings in South Sioux City, both companies'
stockholders displayed nearly unanimous support for the deal, which would
create an international telecommunications behemoth with $32 billion in
annual revenue, 22 million customers and extensive data networks. Officials
of MCI expressed confidence that the deal would close in mid-1998, as expected.
Title: Cisco Sets Pact For Purchase Of NetSpeed
Source: Wall Street Journal (3/11, B8)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Lee Gomes
Issue: Merger
Description: Cisco Systems has signed a definitive agreement to buy closely
held NetSpeed, a maker of high-speed Internet technology, for stock valued
at about $236 million. NetSpeed specializes in a technology called digital
subscriber line, or DSL, which uses existing telephone lines to provide
high-speed links to the Internet. DSL, one of several technologies vying to
provide faster connections to homes and small offices, links individual
personal computers with the central computer of an Internet service
provider. NetSpeed makes equipment that's used on both ends of the line.
Cisco said the amount of Stock it will issue for NetSpeed will be between
3.7 million and four million shares, based on certain conditions it didn't
specify.
*********