Universal Service
FCC: Fact Sheet on Universal Service
Long Distance
TelecomAM: PacBell To File Long Distance Bid With California on March 31
Competition
TelecomAM: Analysts At Senate Hearing Say CLEC Gains Due To FCC Favoritism
TelecomAM: New S.D. Law Gives Telcos Freedom To Match Competitors' Offers
Spectrum
WSJ: Wireless Phones Poised to Roam World-Wide
NTIA: Interoperability Test Project
Internet
NYT: For Fanatics, Sports Webcasts
WSJ: Apache's Free Software Gives Microsoft, Netscape Fits
InfoTech
NYT: Few Answers on Monster of All Cyberbugs
WP: GAO: Year 2000 Computer Problems Persist
NYT: Forget Big Brother
NYT: Microchips Are Latest Addition To Gear For London's Marathon
Arts
NYT: Aiming Camera at Web, and Himself
Microsoft
WP: Microsoft Boosted Lobbyist Spending
NYT: As Big as Microsoft: Ribbing Gates
** Universal Service **
Title: Fact Sheet on Universal Service
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Factsheets/univers.html
Issue: Universal Service
Description: Common Carrier Bureau issues a new fact sheet to answer
questions consumers frequently ask about the FCC's Universal Service Support
mechanisms including telephone customers with low incomes; telephone
customers who live in areas where the costs of providing telephone service
is high; schools and libraries; and rural health care providers.
** Long Distance **
Title: PacBell To File Long Distance Bid With California on March 31
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Long Distance
Description: Pacific Bell is expected to file an application with California
regulators on March 31 to enter the state's long distance market. A
spokesman for parent company SBC didn't confirm the story, but said that
SBC is seeking to enter the long distance market in all seven states in its
territory "by the end of the year." After the application is filed, parties
will have 30 days to comment on it. Reply comments will be due 20 days later
and a 5-day hearing will be held two months after the filing.
** Competition **
Title: Analysts At Senate Hearing Say CLEC Gains Due To FCC Favoritism
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Competition
Description: Competitive local exchange carriers have raised enormous
amounts of capital and seen their stock soar because investors perceive them
as the beneficiaries of FCC favoritism and arbitrage opportunities.
Financial analysts told a Senate panel at a hearing of the Communications
Subcommittee that situations shouldn't be confused with real, sustainable
competition and that most consumers will never see improvement until rate
structures and universal service are reformed.
Title: New S.D. Law Gives Telcos Freedom To Match Competitors' Offers
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Competition
Description: South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow has signed a bill allowing large
telephone companies to match the promotional price and service offers of
their local and interexchange competitors without seeking regulatory
approval. Under HB-1160, a telephone carrier is free to introduce
promotional rates and service terms "necessary to meet competition" and keep
them in place for as long as the competition does. This law, which takes
effect July 1, also prohibits an increases in basic local exchange rates for
large telcos. Local rates can be cut, but once cut cannot return to their
former level. This provision doesn't apply to temporary promotional rates.
** Spectrum **
Title: Wireless Phones Poised to Roam World-Wide
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Elizabeth Jensen
Issue: Wireless
Description: In the next few months, several companies, taking advantage of
shrinking electronics, plan to introduce phones that will work in the U.S.
as well as in much of Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia. That
means U.S. travelers to Europe or Asia won't have to rent a handset when
stepping off the plane. All those numbers stored electronically will travel
with them as well. The new phones work on the digital GSM (Global System for
Mobile Communications) technology. The multiband phones are necessary
because not all GSM systems operate on the same radio frequency. European
and Asian GSM is available on the 900 megahertz and, in some places, the
1,800 megahertz frequencies, while in the U.S., GSM is found on the 1,900
megahertz frequency.
Title: Interoperability Test Project
Source: NTIA
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/press/wisconsi.htm
Issue: Spectrum
Description: National Telecommunications and Information Administration
(NTIA), working with the Department of Defense (DoD), signed an agreement to
authorize the state of Wisconsin to use federal radio frequencies to test a
shared land mobile trunking communications system that will greatly
facilitate communication during emergencies as well as during day-to-day
communications. For more information contact Paige Darden 202-482-7002 or
pdarden( at )ntia.doc.gov.
** Internet **
Title: For Fanatics, Sports Webcasts
Source: New York Times (E9)
http://www.nytimes.com/
Author: Matt Richtel
Issue: Internet Content/Lifestyles
Description: For sports fans separated from their favorite team by distance,
the Internet is offering a new version of live coverage. ESPN Sportszone,
CBS Sportsline and other websites offer a new way to watch a game unfold.
Although the medium does not offer the excitement of being there or even
watching a game on TV, fans are delighted nonetheless. "We've built the
Edsel," says CBS Sportsline Executive Producer Ross Levinsohn. "This is the
forebear to the Rolls-Royce, which is still three to six years away." Check
out these sites: ESPN Sportszone http://espn.sportzone.com/; CBS
Sportsline http://www.cbssportsline.com/; Total Sports
http://www.totalsports.com/; or NCAA Final Four
http://www.finalfour.net/. [Maybe I don't have to move back to Chicago to
follow the Cubs after all.]
Title: Apache's Free Software Gives Microsoft, Netscape Fits
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Jared Sandberg
Issue: Online Services
Description: The epic struggle between Netscape and Microsoft over software
for the World Wide Web is a well-chronicled David vs. Goliath tale. But both
companies are losing business to a rival product few people have ever heard
of: Apache. Among the vast features of this little-known program is one that
is particularly hard to resist: It is entirely free. Apache, it turns out,
doesn't come from a company at all. It's the loving labor of a loose
confederation of programmers who wanted to build a better way to serve up
Web pages to the millions of people who want to see them. "Direct
remuneration itself wasn't an interest," says Brian Behelendorf, one of the
chief organizers of the Apache Project. "We needed a better server for our
own purposes, and we wanted to take our future into our own hands."
** InfoTech **
Title: Few Answers on Monster of All Cyberbugs
Source: New York Times (A19)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/031998millennium.html
Author: Matthew L. Wald
Issue: Computers/Year 2000 Bug
Description: On Wednesday, high-ranking government auditors warned a joint
House hearing of two technology subcommittees, that some government
functions are likely to be disrupted at the end of century due to the Year
2000 bugs in their critical computer systems. A count by the Office of
Management and Budget in mid-February found that only 35 percent of
computers that are critical for agencies to function have been checked and
adjusted. According to witnesses, it took two years to complete this task
and there are 3,500 computers to fix in the next 21 months.
Title: GAO: Year 2000 Computer Problems Persist
Source: Washington Post (A19)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-03/19/143l-031998-idx.html
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Stephen Barr
Issue: Computers/Year 2000 Bug
Description: Gene L. Dodaro, the General Accounting Office's assistant
comptroller general, issued a warning yesterday that several federal
agencies are still not moving fast enough to fix their computers systems so
they will work when the year 2000 roles around. He predicted that despite a
likely last minute push, some agencies will not be able to complete the
adjustments in time, increasing the possibility of problems ranging from the
grounding of airplanes to the issuing of Medicare checks every month. "At
the current pace, it is clear that not all mission critical systems will be
fixed in time," Dodaro told the two House technology subcommittees. His message
was bleak and raised the possibility of government computer failures
spilling over into the private sector. "America's infrastructures are a
complex array of public and private enterprises with many interdependencies
at all levels," he said.
Title: Forget Big Brother
Source: New York Times (E1,E6)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/03/circuits/articles/19data.html
Author: Peter H. Lewis
Issue: Privacy
Description: Nearly everywhere we go these days, computers record small bits
of data that could be accessed by just about anyone if they are interested
enough. Each day we make these bargains of convenience, trading in our
privacy for a little extra time, be it at the ATM, local service station or
logging onto the Internet. Many people accept this as part of growth in the
information age. Yet do we act differently knowing that we are under almost
constant surveillance of one type or another? Maybe in the process of
worrying about George Orwell's totalitarian Big Brother, we forgot to pay
attention to the multitude of "tattletale busybodies." In 1958, Supreme
Court Justice William O. Douglas wrote, "Freedom of movement is basic in our
scheme of values." And yes, we do have an exceptional ability to move freely
about. But don't count on moving about anonymously unless you plan on paying
by cash and traveling by car -- or better yet walking. Marshall McLuhan, the
media critic, wrote about the electronic Global Village in the 1960's. He
was referring to television, which he thought would link people around the
world into something "resembling a tribal community." While many of
McLuhan's ideas have been challenged, "modern McLuhanites would say computer
networks have had more to do with any return to tribalism than, say,
'Baywatch.' But in our current information revolution, the electronic Global
Village may still be a useful metaphor -- for all those nosy neighbors."
Title: Microchips Are Latest Addition To Gear For London's Marathon
Source: New York Times (E4)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/03/circuits/articles/19feet.html
Author: Andrew Ross Sorkin
Issue: Lifestyle
Description: Runners in this year's 26.2 mile London Marathon will have to
attach a small microchip to one of their shoelaces. The chip dubbed the
Championchip, which is the size of your thumbnail and weighs only three
grams, is a tiny tracking device designed by Champions Worldwide, a Dutch
timing company. Each chip carries the racer's personal data, including
number and running club. As each runner crosses over strategically placed
mats throughout the course, information is sent to a computer system that
calculates how fast the runner is going. "The system that we are using means
stewards won't have to read the runners' bar codes to give exact finishing
times, even when numerous runners arrive within milliseconds of each other,"
said Martin Trees, marketing director of the London-based unit of Electronic
Data Systems, which will run the tracking system. The chips, which run about
$33 each, will be owned by the marathon.
** Arts **
Title: Aiming Camera at Web, and Himself
Source: New York Times (E3)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/03/circuits/voices/19doug.html
Author: pamela LiCalzi O'Connell
Issue: Art
Description: Documentary film maker, Doug Block, is working on a new film
called "Home Page." What makes this film different from his past works is
that it is an account of how the World Wide Web and personal home pages
inspired Block to re-examine the "important" connections in his life. In an
interview, Block said that societies interest in personal home pages
"reflects our navel-gazing, media-saturated, everyone-can-be-a-celebrity
cultures, but it also vividly illustrates people's need to connect to others
at a time when the institutions, rituals and communities that previously
connected us are disappearing." "Home Page" will make its debut in a film
festival this fall.
** Microsoft **
Title: Microsoft Boosted Lobbyist Spending
Source: Washington Post (C5)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-03/19/176l-031998-idx.html
Author: Reuters
Issue: Lobbying
Description: Newly disclosed reports to the government show that the
Microsoft Corp. significantly increased its efforts to influence federal
policy makers as it became entangled in a legal battle with the Justice
Department. In the second half of 1997, Microsoft spent $1.2 million,
attempting to influence Congress and the Clinton administration. That figure
is almost double the $660,000 the corporation spent in the first half of the
year. These figures were compiled for Reuters by the Campaign Study Group,
using the latest reports to the Federal Election Commission and the House of
Representatives.
Title: As Big as Microsoft: Ribbing Gates
Source: New York Times (E5)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/03/circuits/articles/19micr.html
Author: Michel Marriott
Issue: Lifestyles
Description: Okay, who out there is starting to get tired of reading (and
writing) about Bill Gates and Microsoft practically every day? Well, now you
have the opportunity to sit back, relax and have some fun with "Gates gags."
What are "Gates gags" you ask? They are "digitalized barbs flung playfully
across cyberspace at the expense of the billionaire computer icon Bill Gates
and the ubiquitous goods of his software company, Microsoft." You can tag
these barbs with another name, but regardless of what you call them, mockery
of the two is flourishing in email exchanged, on the Web and on commercially
available CD-ROM's. You have to know someone with the email attachment "Pie
Bill Gates" to enjoy partaking in a computerized version of the Brussels
cream pie incident. But you can download your very own "babygates" screen
saver as well as have fun dressing a digitalized Gates up in "fanciful
outfits." Just click on the above link and find your fancy at the end of the
article. (To borrow a disclaimer quote from one of these games created by
someone called "The Imposter:" "No offense is meant by this [news summary];
it was simply created just for fun, no other reason.)
*********