RADIO
Battle of the Airwaves (WSJ)
MERGER
Comcast, MediaOne to Merge (WP)
ED TECH
ZapMe! School Role Debated (SJ Merc)
INTERNET
How The Net Can Cut Utility Bills (SJ Merc)
Sending a Global Fax on the Cheap (WP)
E-COMMERCE
Affiliate Referrals Generate Big Profits (CyberTimes)
How Eservice Could Put You Out of Business (ZDNet AnchorDesk)
Survey Suggests Consumers Are Taking to E-Commerce (NYT)
Novell to Offer Data-Privacy Technology for Internet (NYT)
RADIO
BATTLE OF THE AIRWAVES
Issue: Microradio
What do a Hispanic pastor, an alternative musician, a New Jersey policeman,
and some blind cooks have in common? They all are eager to explore the
possibilities of microradio. The FCC is considering a proposal to license a
new class of small, low-power radio stations. While the cost of operating a
full scale radio station is prohibitively expensive for most individuals,
less than $1,000 is needed to get a mircoradio station up and running.
Diverse communities nationwide have exhibited interest in obtaining
low-power licenses, but existing broadcasters have pledged to put a fight to
prevent new stations from infringing on their turf. With help from powerful
allies in Congress, the National Association of Broadcasters has managed to
temporally block further FCC action to opening up the radio spectrum to
community and neighborhood voices.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: Kathy Chen]
http://wsj.com/
MERGER
COMCAST, MEDIAONE TO MERGE
Issue: Cable
Two of the four largest cable companies in the US, Comcast Corp. and
MediaOne Group, announced today agreement by their boards on a buyout
agreement which would combine the two companies through a $48 billion stock
swap. The combined company would serve 11 million cable customers in a
potential market of 18 million homes. In addition to its cable holdings,
Comcast also has business in telephone services, cellular telephones,
personal communications services, direct to home satellite television and
cable channels including QVC and E! Entertainment Television. MediaOne Group
is one of the world's largest broadband communications companies. The
agreement must be approved by the shareholders of both companies and by
federal and local regulatory agencies.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (Online), AUTHOR: Reshma Kapadia (Reuters)]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/daily/march99/comcast22.htm
ED TECH
ZAPME! SCHOOL ROLE DEBATED
Issue: Ed Tech
A California firm offers your technology-starved school free Pentium II
computers and Internet service but wants to reserve a box in the lower left
portion of the screen for advertising. What do you do? A lot of schools are
saying "yes" to ZapMe! Corporation's sales pitch. To date nearly a hundred
schools have signed three-year contracts. Andrew Hagelshaw of Oakland's
Center for Commercial-Free Public Education said, "It's just another scheme
to get advertisers into the classroom." ZapMe! President Frank J. Vigil
said, "We are a for-profit company, but it's important to recognize our
vision, and that's that all students have access to modern learning tools in
the digital age." Schools say they can live with the advertising, since it
is already pervasive in youth culture, especially on the Internet. ZapMe!
offers schools the option of full Internet access or 10,000 education sites
chosen by the company. Each school receives 15 computers for three years,
plus a laser printer, roof-mounted satellite dish for the Internet
connection, and installation, training, and support.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Michael Bazeley]
http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/zapme032299.htm
INTERNET
HOW THE NET CAN CUT UTILITY BILLS
Issue: Internet
Home automation has long been possible, but has yet to take off. An upstart
company named utility.com hopes today will be that day. Launching service in
California today, the company claims it can save consumers up to 15% by
cutting the cost of supplying power in two ways: by using the Internet
instead of mail to communicate with customers, and by shifting demand for
power to less expensive off-peak hours. Utility.com would use a third party
to monitor customers' electricity usage automatically and, in some cases,
control their thermostats. At least two other national wireless data service
providers say they, too, plan to team with utilities on automated
energy-monitoring. Power companies do this kind of energy management with
large companies and heavy industries, but have not ventured much past the
trial stage in homes because automation equipment has been expensive.
Customers who sign up for utility.com's Power Ace program would have a
wireless CellNet transmitter attached to their electric meter, sending power
consumption date to utility.com every five minutes. The same transmitter
could be used to send information on alarm systems and other home
electronics eventually.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Jon Healey]
http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/util032299.htm
SENDING A GLOBAL FAX ON THE CHEAP
Issue: Internet
International faxing is expensive. The steep charges for country-to-country
fax transmission add up because of international tolls charged by monopoly
telephone companies in other countries. Companies like Fax2Net, .Comfax, and
IntelliFax.com bypass the monopolies by using the Internet as the long-haul
carrier. Fax2Net's customers dial international numbers as usual. But
special gadgets attached to their fax machines or fax modems switch these
calls into nearby computers instead of telephone switches. The computer then
transmits the fax as computerized "packets" via the Internet to another
server at the receiver's end. The receiving system then sends the packets
through that local phone system and into the receiver's fax machine. Thomas
Chen of Fax2Net expects fax delivery to continue to be important
internationally because e-mail is less used in other parts of the world and
paper documents are easier to fax than to scan and send as e-mail attachments.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (F5), AUTHOR: Paul Farhi]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/feed/biztop922105071988.htm
E-COMMERCE
AFFILIATE REFERRALS GENERATE BIG PROFITS
Issue: E-Commerce
The next Big Thing in e-commerce may be affiliates -- agreements between Web
sites that pay one site for referring new customers to another site.
Amazon.com is credited with pioneering the affiliate model -- a program it
started in 1996. The Internet bookseller now has 230,000 affiliates. Why the
excitement? E-retailers usually don't pay anything to affiliates unless a
purchase is actually made. "With affiliates, you pay for performance," said
an e-retail executive. "You don't pay upfront and then work to get
performance." Many online retailers spend from $20-$40 for each new customer
due to the high price of advertising at popular portals like Yahoo! or Lycos
-- an exorbitant amount compared with off-line retailers. James McQuivey, an
electronic commerce analyst with Forrester Research, said that merchants are
paying "from 8, to 10, to 12, now as high as 20 percent" to affiliates.
According to the research firm Jupiter Communications, 15% of affiliates
account for 85% of sales.
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Bob Tedeschi (tedeschi( at )nytimes.com)]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/cyber/commerce/22commerce.html
HOW ESERVICE COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS
Issue: E-Commerce
E-commerce has changed retailing and companies without the foresight to see
it coming -- Merrill, Lynch, Sears and Borders -- risked losing it all.
E-commerce focuses on the actual sale. E-Service is being there for the
customer before and after a sale. Berst writes, Think about that for a
moment. Would you rather be in touch with customers only when they are ready
to buy? Or before they've decided, when you have the chance to influence
what and when they make a purchase? And after they've purchased, when you
can influence add-on sales and upgrades? Today, many companies are not
taking full advantage of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), discussion rooms
and chats (so customers can work together to solve problems), or email (so
customers can get help without calling). Brightware, a e-service vendor,
tried to email a simple question to the 100 largest companies -- What's the
address of your headquarters. Only 15% answered within 3 hours, 10% never
answered, and 36% could not be emailed from their Web site. As we move to
digital commerce, barriers of geography and time are being broken down --
e-service, Berst warns, will make all the difference for competing e-retailers.
[SOURCE: ZDNet AnchorDesk, AUTHOR: Jesse Berst]
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_3206.html
SURVEY SUGGESTS CONSUMERS ARE TAKING TO E-COMMERCE
Issue: E-Commerce
Half of American households connected to the Internet are making purchases
online, according to a recent study. Odyssey, a San Francisco based market
research firm, found that e-commerce is growing at a rate even faster than
the increase in home with PC and Internet access. The study also reports that
more people are returning to the Net to make purchases. Of households who
buy online, 3.7 is the average number of purchases in the last six months,
compared with only 1.7 a year before.
[SOURCE: New York Times (Online), AUTHOR: Steve Lohr]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/biztech/articles/22data.html
NOVELL TO OFFER DATA-PRIVACY TECHNOLOGY FOR INTERNET
Issue: Privacy
The Novell Corporation will announce today a new technology that can give
individuals greater anonymity as they surf through cyberspace. The Digital
Me software will allow people to control how much personal data they reveal
online. As companies have become increasingly sophisticated in identifying
and tracking visitors' actions on the Web, there is great consumer demand
for technology that protects the privacy of Internet users. The Novell
software might also make it possible for consumers to sell or barter
personal data to online merchants.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: John Markoff]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/biztech/articles/22place.html
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