UNIVERSAL ACCESS
Internet Adding a Varied Group of Users (MNStarTribune)
Notes From a Wired Community (ChicagoTrib)
INTERNET
Internet Retailers Hide True Costs of Purchases (CyberTimes)
War Waged on the Web: Killers Without Context (NYT)
Net International: Telekom-AOL Online Clash Flares (SJ Merc)
Free Web Music Spreads From Campus to Office (NY Times)
TELEVISION
For TV's Hottest Team, It's Let's Make A Deal (WSJ)
RADIO
NPR's New Online Venture Puts Local Stations on the Defensive (NYT)
COMPETITION
E.Spire Aspires to Take a Bite Out of Bell (WP)
MERGERS
British Firms Consider Deal In Cable Area (WSJ)
SBC-Ameritech Merger (FCC)
UNIVERSAL ACCESS
INTERNET ADDING A VARIED GROUP OF USERS
Issue:
According to a new study by Forrester Research Inc., minorities are getting
onto the Internet at an enormously increasing rate due to the dropping costs
of computers and increased access to the Internet at schools. 64% of
Asian-American households are online -- by year's end, Forrester estimates
that 43% of Hispanic-Americans households and 42% of African-American
households will be online. (44% of all homes are expected to be online by
the end of the year) A access gap between those who can afford online access
and those who cannot still exists, but by 2003, Forrester predicts that gap
will close. A factor contributing to the increasing number of minorities
online is the U.S. government's authorization of almost $2 billion to give
low-cost Internet access to schools and libraries, with priority going to
lower-income and rural areas, Gallega reports. Forrester Research is quick
to point out that the survey has less to do with race than it does to
factors often linked to minority status -- income, education and optimism
about technology. As barriers of affordability and education drop, the
becomes the willingness of a group to get online.
[SOURCE: Minnesota Star Tribune, AUTHOR: Omar Gallaga (Cox News Service)]
(http://www.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisSlug=DIVR05&date=05
-Apr-99&word=hispanics&word=hispanic)
NOTES FROM A WIRED COMMUNITY
Issue: Communities
Headlines' home-away-from-home, Evanston (IL), plans to make high-speed
Internet access available to every business and resident. Around May 1, the
city will pick of telecommunications companies to provide the connections.
With over 73,000 residents, the 8.5 square mile city that is home to
Northwestern University hopes to retain more businesses, encourage more
start-ups, and increase civic involvement. The project, called Technopolis,
is led by Evanston Inventure, the economic development corporation made up
by Northwestern and the city's largest employers. Zajac writes that
Blacksburg (VA) is an example of a truly wired community. In that city of
36,000, 83% of residents have Internet access and 272 of 350 businesses have
a Web page.
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune (Sec 3, p.1), AUTHOR: Andrew Zajac]
(http://chicagotribune.com/textversion/article/0,1492,ART-26423,00.html)
(http://chicagotribune.com/textversion/article/0,1492,SAV-9904050003,00.html)
INTERNET
INTERNET RETAILERS HIDE TRUE COSTS OF PURCHASES
Issue: E-commerce
Some people have found that the great deals on the Internet can be ruined by
last minute "clicker shock." Many customers discover the low advertised
prices which lure them to online stores are often offset by high shipping
and handling charges. The final prices, which can be up to 40% more that the
advertised price, are often not discovered until the last stage of the
transaction. "I don't think it's necessarily anything subversive on the part
of e-commerce sites," said Melissa Bane, a Yankee Group analyst. Cliff
Sharples, founding chairman of Shop.org, a trade group of Internet
retailers, explains that e-commerce sites have simply adopted the practices
of mail-order companies. "Almost all of the mail order companies look at
shipping as a way to break even, or as a profit center." Some Internet
retailers, however, are attempting to battle the negative image by posting
shipping and handling information up front.
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Bob Tedeschi]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/04/cyber/commerce/05commerce.html)
WAR WAGED ON THE WEB: KILLERS WITHOUT CONTEXT
Issue: Internet Content
Just as it has impacted on many areas of daily life, the Internet has
changed the way some people are learning about a war waged in a foreign
land. With most foreign journalists banned from Kosovo, people may be
logging online to find alternative accounts of the situation there. E-mails
and chat rooms have become increasingly popular places to find news on the
fighting in Yugoslavia. The "news", however, can be very different from what
comes out of traditional journalistic outlets. "You have great difficulty in
trying to figure out what is credible," said the publisher of an
international news Web site called Global Beat."These people are not
technically journalists," said Mary Bruno, executive producer of
ABCNEWS.com, which has been publishing e-mail journals. "These are people
wishing they had a cigarette. But that's what is really unique to the Internet."
[SOURCE: New York Times (A14), AUTHOR: Amy Harmon]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/040599kosovo-internet.html)
NET INTERNATIONAL: TELEKOM-AOL ONLINE CLASH FLARES
Issue: Internet/International
America Online is looking at legal options to stop what it believes is
predatory pricing for European Internet access by Deutsche Telekom. Telekom
is the former German monopoly and still has a monopoly in local phone
services in Germany. Telekom said users of its T-Online service would now
pay a total of six pfennigs ($0.331) a minute for the service. At the
request of a Hamburg court which had blocked the plan temporarily, Telekom
broke the charge down into three pfennigs for access and three for the local
phone call. AOL, which has complained about Telekom to the European Union,
maintains the breakdown shows Telekom is using discriminatory prices,
spokesman Frank Sarfield explained. "We believe they were losing money at
(five pfennigs) and that means three pfennigs per minute is below their
costs," Sarfeld said. The local call charge of three pfennigs a minute also
amounts to price dumping since Telekom charges eight pfennigs per minute for
other daytime local calls, he said. Part of the problem in Europe for AOL
and other ISPs is that the former monopoly phone companies like Telekom do
not allow unlimited local calls for a flat monthly rate.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Neal Boudette (Reuters)]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/internet/docs/303297l.htm)
FREE WEB MUSIC SPREADS FROM CAMPUS TO OFFICE
Issue: Intellectual Property
Music downloads using the popular MP3 format has moved in six months from
the insomniac college hacker to the Dilbert-like office worker. Key Internet
sites say the music downloads now occur primarily early weekday afternoons
which indicates office workers are looking for music during their lunch
periods. From the site MP3.com, the most popular file downloaded recently
was a Cincinnati pianist's version of Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata. While
many sites offering music in the nearly CD quality of MP3 are legitimate,
many more are not and are being targeted by the Recording Industry
Association of America. The trade group representing the major record labels
says that every week it shuts down hundreds of sites. Meanwhile the
association as part of the Secure Digital Music Initiative hopes to have an
industry-wide standard in place for downloading music in time for the holiday
shopping season, with compatible products available so that music could be
distributed online with profits intact. The new standard would likely be a
higher fidelity, copyright-right protected compression method, which the
industry hopes will lead people away from using the unrestricted MP3 format.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A1), AUTHOR: Neil Strauss]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/04/biztech/articles/05download.html)
TELEVISION
FOR TV'S HOTTEST TEAM, IT'S LET'S MAKE A DEAL
Issue: Broadcasting
Imagine Television "has leaped into the spotlight as the new darling of
broadcast television," Pope reports. The company is barely two years old and
has recruited writers and producers to create ABC's "SportsNight," Time
Warner's "Felicity," and Fox's Eddie Murphy claymation comedy "The PJs." All
three of the shows have been renewed for the fall -- a rate of success that
challenges recent doomsday comments about network TV. Imagine is hoping to
extend its contract with Disney that ends in one year, and is looking to gain
more money from Disney on its record of hot programming. It is unlikely that
Mr. Eisner, chairman of Disney, will let "SportsNight" go even if it gets more
expensive. There is speculation that if Disney renegotiates its contract with
Imagine, it may have a way into Imagine's film business. There are risks for
networks in paying high prices for Imagine's programming, as NBC and ABC have
lost money in rating drops of "ER" and "Monday Night Football." Imagine has
tapped into film creatives like Aaron Sorkin, creator of "SportsNight" and
writer of "A Few Good Men" and "The American President." Stuart Bloomberg, ABC
chairman and Imagine fan, says it is the offbeat nature of Imagine that has
made it so successful. Imagine partners are considering moving beyond
programming -- a record label tied to their shows and a sports division that
would feature street basketball games are among the projects in the works.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: Kyle Pope]
(http://wsj.com/)
RADIO
NPR'S NEW ONLINE VENTURE PUTS LOCAL STATIONS ON THE DEFENSIVE
Issue: Public Radio/Internet
Dwindling government support for public broadcasting has forced National
Public Radio and its affiliates to think and behave more like commercial
radio stations. In a recent move that represents a pragmatic new attitude,
NPR has announced that it will begin charging stations for programming based
on audience size, and not on operating budget. Many stations are worried
about their ability to survive under the new ratings-based, market-driven
fee structure, which will take effect on Oct. 1. In another move that has
alienated some local affiliates, two weeks ago NPR struck a deal with
Minnesota Public Radio to create a collaborative online network. According
to the network, the strategy is intended to convert online visitors into
local listeners. Many local stations, however, fear that the NPR-Minnesota
deal will steal listeners away from over the air broadcasts. "I'm really
concerned about what happens to our members when they disappear into a
national site," Marita Rivero, general manager of WGBH-FM in Boston.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C9), AUTHOR: Andrea Adelson]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/04/biztech/articles/05npr.html)
COMPETITION
E.SPIRE ASPIRES TO TAKE A BITE OUT OF BELL
Issue: Local Telephony
E.Spire Communications, a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC), is
taking aim at Bell Atlantic' business for telephone, data and
Internet-access in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York.
E.Spire's target is small and medium-sized businesses, home-office workers
and telecommuters. E.Spire is building a 194-mile fiber-optic network
between New York and Northern Virginia and expected to joust with Bell
Atlantic, the well-entrenched incumbent in the Northeast, this summer.
E.Spire already offers voice and/or data services in the 35 Southern
markets, including Richmond, Atlanta and Miami. Wall Street considers
E.Spire a likely takeover candidate. E.Spire management is under pressure to
begin producing positive operating cash flow, and estimates are that it
cannot produce until the summer of 2000, about a year later than originally
projected. Bell Atlantic president of telecom industry services Jack
Goldberg said, "There are hundreds of these companies. E.Spire doesn't stand
out in any particular way."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (WB10), AUTHOR: Alan Breznick]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/daily/april99/espire5.htm)
MERGERS
BRITISH FIRMS CONSIDER DEAL IN CABLE AREA
Issue: International/Mergers
British company Cable & Wireless is considering a merger with Telewest, which
would leave only two cable TV companies in Britain. The structure of the plan
would include Bell Atlantic, a shareholder in Cable & Wireless, becoming a
shareholder in Telewest, while AT&T and MediaOne, current Telewest
shareholders, would hold less in the new company. The plan could have
ramifications for telecommunications, as British cable companies are also
telephone service providers. A stronger Telewest could be a threat to British
Telecommunications. Cable & Wireless is eager to become a global
telecommunications player and hasn't been so successful with residential
consumers.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A3), AUTHOR: Gautam Naik and Steven Lipin]
(http://wsj.com/)
SBC-AMERITECH MERGER
Issue: Mergers
Letter
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/News_Releases/1999/nrcc9024.html)
Regarding SBC Ameritech Merger Sent Today and Proposed Schedule
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/News_Releases/1999/nrcc9024.html#
sch) for Discussions to Explore Conditions Needed to Ameliorate Public
Interest Concerns Released (April 1). Contact Joy Howell (202) 418-0500 for
additional information.
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov)
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