Universal Service
TelecomAM: States Ask FCC To Cooperate More On Universal Service Reform
Long Distance & Competition
TelecomAM: McCain Introduces Bill To Allow Bell Companies Into Long Distance
TelecomAM: Burns Urges FCC to 'Act Expeditiously' to Ease Regulation
TelecomAM: Dewine Says His Subcommittee Will Be Telecom 'Player'
TelecomAM: Powell Highlights Regulatory Philosophy To Investors
TelecomAM: MCI Uses 'Ivan' Campaign To Highlight Lack of Competition
Security
WSJ: Scam Aimed at Corporate Phone Systems Receives a Big Warning on the
Internet
Television
NTIA: The Unconstitutionality of Federally Mandated "Free Air Time"
Campaign Finance Reform
WP: Cincinnati Case to Address Constitutionality of
Campaign Fund Caps
WP: Get Ready for the 'Issue Ads'
Minorities/Jobs
FCC: Creating Conditions for Positive Change
Computer Industry
WP: Study Calls Chip Key Economic Driver
NYT: Internet Is Expanding Arms Race With Junk E-Mail
NYT: Overcoming Skepticism, French Plan All-Out Internet Celebration
Microsoft
WP: Special Advisor Was Leaning Against Microsoft
WSJ: Microsoft Probe Expanded to Cover Sun's Java
Mergers
WP: Alltel Plans $4 Billion Acquisition
NYT: Alltel to Buy Big Carrier of Cellular Calls
WP: Computer Associates' Bid for CSC Expires
WP: Ciena Stock Gains on News of Sprint Contract
** Universal Service **
Title: States Ask FCC To Cooperate More On Universal Service Reform
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: The FCC should allow state regulators on the Federal-State
Joint Board to review decisions that change the universal service program,
state members of the panel told the FCC Mar. 11 in a petition. State
regulators called for more input on: 1) whether the FCC should fund only 25%
of the subsidy and leave the remaining "shortfall" to the states; 2) whether
the federal part of the subsidy should be applied only to reducing
interstate access charges; 3) what should be used for collecting and
distributing funds to the states; and 4) what role the FCC should have in making
the subsidy explicit. The state regulators said none of those items were
considered by the Joint Board before the FCC adopted them, yet all four
"will have a significant and direct impact on state policy."
** Long Distance & Competition **
Title: McCain Introduces Bill To Allow Bell Companies Into Long Distance
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Long Distance
Description: Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ)
introduced his
promised bill to free Bell companies from the Telecom Act's restrictions --
including the ban on long distance service -- within one year.
In its findings, the Telecommunications Competition Act of 1998 says that
"existing regulatory devices no longer work" and that antitrust issues
should be handled by the Justice Dept., with the FCC confined to "the
regulatory perspective."
Title: Burns Urges FCC to 'Act Expeditiously' to Ease Regulation
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Regulation
Description: Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Conrad Burns (R-MT)
has urged the FCC to "act expeditiously" on Bell company petitions for eased
regulation of advanced network infrastructure. In a letter to FCC Chairman
Kennard, Sen. Burns said he shares US West's concern that "it may never make
economic sense" for the company to provide Internet back bone service under
the restrictions currently placed on Bell companies. He said there is "no
question" that Section 706 of the Telecom Act authorizes the FCC to grant
regulatory relief.
Title: Dewine Says His Subcommittee Will Be Telecom 'Player'
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Mike Dewine (R-OH)
intends his panel to be an important "player" in the telecom industry.
Dewine said his subcommittee won't introduce new legislation, but will use
its oversight powers on "issues that aren't being looked at or aren't being
looked at in as thorough a manner as we might want." As examples of how it
will proceed, Dewine pointed to his draft of a bill to break up Bell
companies, which he said has sparked new dialogue with the companies,
forcing them to talk about the Section 271 process.
Title: Powell Highlights Regulatory Philosophy To Investors
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Regulation/Competition
Description: FCC Commissioner Powell outlined his ideas for telecom
regulation that his aides said highlights some major themes of his term.
Powell said the FCC should renew faith in the free market, shift focus to
encouraging innovation, prepare for the end of the current regulatory
regime, and begin to regulate "efficiently." Powell said that technological
changes require the FCC to change its "balkanized regulatory framework"
because technology has eroded and will soon eliminate the "legal, economic
and conceptual boundaries" of communications media.
Title: MCI Uses 'Ivan' Campaign To Highlight Lack of Competition
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Competition/Advertising
Description: MCI announced a new advertising campaign, using a character
named "Ivan" to show that Bell Atlantic has no more competition than existed
in the Soviet bloc. In TV spots to be aired in Washington, DC, and Albany --
homes of the regulatory bodies that will decide on Bell Atlantic's long
distance application -- Ivan, dressed in parka and fur hat, says there is no
competition "where I live." Ivan then is seen standing in front of the NYC
skyline. MCI officials said the ad would inject "healthy common sense" into
what Bell companies have tried to make "a confusing legal debate."
** Security **
Title: Scam Aimed at Corporate Phone Systems Receives a Big Warning on the
Internet
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Stephanie N. Mehta
Issue: Security
Description: The scam goes like this: a caller identifying himself as a
phone-company technician -- usually from AT&T -- says he's checking the line
and needs the customer to dial "9-0" and the pound symbol. On certain phone
systems, that combination gets the caller and outside phone line, which can
then be used to make long-distance calls. An e-mail message warning
consumers of this scenario currently is making the rounds, chain-letter
style, via the Internet. Concerned recipients are forwarding copies of the
message to their friends. Big phone companies and equipment vendors say that
the scam isn't new, and that customers are immune to this particular flavor
of fraud. And most big companies have either programmed their systems to
block access to outside phone lines, or they have trained receptionists to
be wary of so-called technicians testing outside lines.
** Television **
Title: The Unconstitutionality of Federally Mandated "Free Air Time"
Source: NTIA
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/pubintadvcom/marchmtg/DeVore.htm
Author: P. Cameron DeVore, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Issue: Free Time For Candidates
Description: A Summary Prepared for The National Association of Broadcasters
for Presentation at a Meeting of the Presidential Advisory Committee on
Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters. [For a full
summary of the meeting see http://www.benton.org/Policy/TV/meeting4.html]
** Campaign Finance Reform **
Title: Cincinnati Case to Address Constitutionality of Campaign Fund Caps
Source: Washington Post (A19)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-03/17/055l-031798-idx.html
Author: Ruth Marcus
Issue: Campaign Finance Reform
Description: In an effort to curb the ballooning cost of campaigning in
Cincinnati the city council adopted strict ceilings on what a candidate can
spend on the campaign trail -- limiting campaign expenditures to no more
than three times the annual salary for the council jobs, or about $140,000
total. Today, a federal appeals court will hear a challenge to the city's
ordinance. "What's at stake here is the question of whether the city of
Cincinnati has the right to enact reasonable spending limits to protect the
integrity of its election process," said John Bonifaz of the National Voting
Rights Institute, who will defend the law today. Bonifaz's challenge will be
the Supreme Court ruling on Buckley v. Valeo, 22 years ago. In the ruling,
the Supreme Court "rejected Congress's attempt to impose mandatory spending
limits on congressional candidates. The court in Buckley upheld the
constitutionality of contribution limits on the grounds that they were
needed to prevent the appearance and reality of corruption. But equating
political spending with speech, the court said limits on expenditures
violated the First Amendment and were not justified by the exploding cost of
elections, the corrupting influence of large contributions or the need to
equalize the financial resources of candidates."
Title: Get Ready for the 'Issue Ads'
Source: Washington Post (A21)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-03/17/013l-031798-idx.html
Author: Elizabeth Drew
Issue: Campaign Finance Reform
Description: There are two thinly disguised campaigning phenomena that we
can all expect to see across the country this fall as parties work to get
around the contribution limits of the campaign finance law. "Issue ads" and
unlimited individual contributions, or direct contributions by labor and
corporations (including nonprofit ones), are the two destroyers -- connected
by the fact that issue ads are paid for with soft money that isn't supposed
to be used in federal campaigns. The 1996 election produced elaborate
stories that "such ads were produced by groups 'independent' of the
campaign, or political party, they were intended to help." The Federal
Election Commission and several reformers are now working to draw up a
definition of "coordination" to prevent the groups running the issue ads
from colluding with the campaigns they are trying to help. This new
phenomena leads back to the out-dated Supreme Court ruling in Buckley v.
Valeo in 1976. The court said, among other things, that it found "no threat
to the new Federal Election Campaign Act, passed in 1974, from "independent"
groups, which wasn't surprising because at that time there were no such
groups. Since then, the decision has been used by opponents of reform, who
maintain that the court made a flat equation between money and speech. It
did not. The court was actually weighing competing values -- free speech and
clean elections."
** Minorities/Jobs **
Title: Creating Conditions for Positive Change
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Kennard/spwek809.html
Author: Chairman Kennard
Issue: Minorities/Jobs
Description: Remarks by William E. Kennard to The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
"Telecommunications is now 14% of the economy -- and growing. The United
States will need 1.3 million new workers in information technology over the
next eight years. We're going to need 95,000 new computer scientists,
analysts and programmers each year....We've got work to do. Because that's
not happening today. Not when 78% of schools in affluent communities have
Internet access -- but only half the schools in low-income areas. Not when
the percentage of white children with home computers is triple the
percentage of black and Latino kids. Not when only 2.8% of the owners of the
broadcast stations in this country are minority. And the number is declining."
** Computer Industry **
Title: Study Calls Chip Key Economic Driver
Source: Washington Post (C4)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-03/17/108l-031798-idx.html
Author: Elizabeth Corcoran
Issue: Computer Industry/Jobs
Description: According to a study to be released tomorrow by the
Semiconductor Industry Association, U.S. companies that build computer chips
and related electronic devices created goods worth $41.6 billion in 1996.
The study was issued as part of a lobbying trip to Washington by 15
executives in the chip-making industry. The executives plan to voice their
support for "raising the ceiling on immigration and boosting funding for
research at U.S. universities" as they meet with members of the Clinton
Administration and Congress. Their argument is simple: "What helps the chip
industry will help the U.S. economy."
Title: Internet Is Expanding Arms Race With Junk E-Mail
Source: New York Times (D1,D6)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/biztech/articles/17spam.html
Author: John Markoff
Issue: E-Mail
Description: Sendmail, the electronic post office that is used on about 75
percent of the computers that route e-mail messages, is being fitted with a
powerful set of tools to combat spam messages. Eric Allman, Sendmail's
author, is expected to announce today the addition of anti-spam tools to
version 8.9 of the software. This move is part of Allman's plan "to create a
company that will continue to develop new features for the free version of
the program and sell software and support services to business users."
Title: Overcoming Skepticism, French Plan All-Out Internet Celebration
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/03/cyber/eurobytes/17euro.html
Author: Bruno Giussani
Issue: International
Description: Next Friday and Saturday, March 20 and 21, will be "la Fete de
l'Internet" -- a national French celebration of the Internet. As part of the
celebrations, schools will offer parents and alumni Web tutorials, artists
will create interactive works, "net-vans" will roam the streets, politicians
will chat online with their constituencies, and companies will hand out
connection software packages for practically nothing. All of this and more
coming from the European country most "skeptical and doubtful" of this "new
form of American colonialism," as one of its ministers said last year. But
with Internet usage figures up 100 percent from last year, it appears that
France's "diatribes against the global network and the threat it poses to
the French language and culture are quickly dissolving." According to Bruno
Oudet, the president of the French branch of the Internet Society (ISOC) and
one of the people behind the festival, the turning point in people's
attitudes came last year when Lionel Jospin, the socialist Prime Minister,
endorsed the Internet in a speech saying it was crucial to business and a
cultural tool for a "responsible information society." Jospin pledged more
than a billion French francs (about $165 million) to wire schools, train
teachers, support innovative companies, ease the contact between citizens
and the administration, and help make newspapers, books and artworks
accessible on the Internet.
** Microsoft **
Title: Special Advisor Was Leaning Against Microsoft
Source: Washington Post (C4)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-03/17/117l-031798-idx.html
Author: David Lawsky/Reuters
Issue: Antitrust
Description: According to documents made public yesterday, Lawrence Lessig,
Harvard Law Prof. and appointed "special master" in the government's
antitrust case against the Microsoft Corp., was preparing to recommend a
ruling against Microsoft when he was temporarily removed from his post.
"Microsoft must, for a given product, leave [computer makers] free" to offer
rivals' software even if they use its Windows 95 operating system, said
Lessig in an 11-page letter to Microsoft and the Justice Department. Last
month, a federal appeals court put Lessig's job on hold, at least until late
April.
Title: Microsoft Probe Expanded to Cover Sun's Java
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: David Bank & John R. Wilke
Issue: Antitrust
Description: The Justice Dept.'s antitrust investigation of Microsoft has
expanded to include issues related to Sun's Java software. A spokeswoman for
Sun said the company received a civil subpoena from the Justice Dept. and,
separately, from several states investigating the software giant. The move
broadens the government's investigation beyond Microsoft's practices in the
market for Internet-browser software. Sun's Java software is considered a
potential competitor to Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system. Sun's
CEO, Scott McNealy, is a vocal critic of Microsoft. His company has filed a
civil suit against Microsoft alleging that it violated terms of its license
to use Java. The Sun spokeswoman said the subpoenas, "are related to the
Microsoft issue" but wouldn't detail when they were received or what
documents or information they sought.
** Merger **
Title: Alltel Plans $4 Billion Acquisition
Source: Washington Post (C1,C5)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-03/17/104l-031798-idx.html
Author: Mike Mills
Issue: Merger
Description: The Alltel Corp., and independent telephone company, announced
that it will buy 360 Communications Co., a big cellular telephone carrier,
for $4 billion in stock, plus debt. The acquisition will make Alltel one of
the largest cellular companies in the United States. Alltel is about to
complete a 6,800 mile fiber-optic network that will connect all of its
service areas and estimates it will take an additional 1,800 miles of
fiber-optic to tie all of 360 Communications coverage areas into its
network. Joe T. Ford, Alltel's chairman and chief executive, said: "When the
network is complete, transport costs will be reduced dramatically, and the
traffic volume can increase substantially."
Title: Alltel to Buy Big Carrier of Cellular Calls
Source: New York Times (D3)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/alltel.html
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: Merger
Description: Alltel's agreement to acquire 360 Communication Co. will make
Alltel a major player in the Southeastern and mid-Atlantic wireless phone
market. The combined company will serve roughly 6.5 million customers in 22
states. Approximately two-thirds of those customers would use the company's
wireless phones. Dennis E. Foster, 360 Communications' chief executive,
would become vice chairman of Alltel. "They have been a more established,
stronger company," said Foster, in regards to Alltel. "And their credit
rating's better. The interesting thing for us is there are no market
conflicts and there is great adjacency of markets."
Title: Computer Associates' Bid for CSC Expires
Source: Washington Post (C2)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-03/17/112l-031798-idx.html
Author: Mark Leibovich
Issue: Merger
Description: Yesterday, Computer Associates International Inc.'s 9.8 billion
"hostile offer" for Computer Sciences Corp. quietly expired.
Title: Ciena Stock Gains on News of Sprint Contract
Source: Washington Post (C2)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-03/17/109l-031798-idx.html
Author: Alex Dominguez
Issue: Merger
Description: The Ciena Corp. announced yesterday that it had signed a
three-year contract to provide the Sprint Corp. with fiber-optic equipment.
The fiber-optic equipment will allow Sprint to more than double the capacity
of its current network.
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Sorry we're late -- big day!