Universal Service
Collection Amounts for Schools and Libraries and
Rural Health Care Providers (NTIA)
FCC Researchers Find Flaw in Universal Service
Hatfield Cost Model (TelecomAM)
Telephony
Demystifying telephone bills (ChiTrib)
Ameritech Willing to Accept AT&T as Marketing Partner (TelecomAM)
Satellites
Motorola Drops Plan for Its Own Data Satellites (NYT)
Broadcast Regulation
Broadcast Views (FCC)
Mergers
$10.6 Billion Seagram Deal for Polygram (NYT)
Zapata Finds Its Internet Bid Is Not Taken Seriously (NYT)
Privacy vs. 1st Amendment
Seeking new privacy law, stars cite media excesses (ChiTrib)
** Universal Service **
Title: Collection Amounts for Schools and Libraries and
Rural Health Care Providers
Source: NTIA
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fccfilings/51598cc96_45ltr.htm
Author: Larry Irving
Issue: Universal Service
Description: NTIA filed a letter in CC Docket No. 96-45 on behalf of the
Clinton Administration in response to questions raised in the Report to
Congress, dated May 8, 1998, regarding universal service support mechanisms.
"...we must proceed with the rollout of the schools and libraries program, a
crucial aspect of universal service. We believe that the American people,
through their elected representatives in Congress, understood that by
ensuring that our schools and libraries have affordable access to important
telecommunication technologies, we would be ensuring our nation's future.
All of our children, in every school in our nation, must have access to the
tools of our time. No school or child must be excluded from the benefits of
the information age because of income or geographical area." [Full text of
this letter will be posted to this listserv today]
Title: FCC Researchers Find Flaw in Universal Service Hatfield Cost Model
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: Sprint has warned the Federal Communications Commission that
the Hatfield Cost Model (HCM) may underestimate the costs of providing
universal service in rural areas. After doing some research of its own, the
FCC may agree and is asking the model's sponsors -- AT&T and MCI -- to give
their views on the seriousness of the problem and to offer suggestions for
correcting it. The problem seems to be that the HCM underestimates the
distance between customers and feeder cables in rural areas.
** Telephony **
Title: Demystifying telephone bills
Source: Chicago Tribune (Sec 3, p.1)
http://chicago.tribune.com/business/businessnews/article/0,1051,ART-8947,00
.html
Author: Jon Van
Issue: Telephone Regulation
Description: "There's a lot of confusion out there, and we've got to do
something to quell it," said Federal Communications Commission Chairman Bill
Kennard. The FCC may propose new rules to simplify customer phone bills.
Some phone companies are already getting the message from consumers and are
doing something about it. Ameritech, for example, is reformatting bills to
make it easier for customers to detect "slamming" and "cramming" abuses.
Title: Ameritech Willing to Accept AT&T as Marketing Partner
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Long Distance/Competition
Description: Ameritech has indicated that the company will accept AT&T as a
marketing partner if AT&T "is willing to match the exact terms and
conditions" that Qwest agreed to in a similar arrangement. "If AT&T is
sincerely willing to help us offer equal convenience, simplicity and value
to customers, then we call on them to match the exact terms and conditions
that Qwest already has agreed to." BellSouth says that it will study AT&T's
offer.
** Satellites **
Title: Motorola Drops Plan for Its Own Data Satellites
Source: New York Times (C1)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/05/biztech/articles/22satellite.html
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: Satellite/Infrastructure
Description: Motorola has announced it will scrap its own $12.9 billion
satellite network plan to join a rival project to build an "Internet in the
Sky." Motorola will invest $750 million in Teledesic, the company founded by
Microsoft's Bill Gates and cellular phone pioneer Craig McCaw. Matra Marconi
Space, a joint venture of General Electric Company of Britain and Groupe
Lagardere of France, also announced it will partner with Teledesic. An
industry analyst said: There was a decision from both of them that there was
probably no room for two guys in the market and maybe not for one. It's the
blind leading the visibly impaired."
** Broadcast Regulation **
Title: Broadcast Views
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Tristani/spgt808.html
Author: Commissioner Tristani
Issue: Broadcast Regulation
Description: "I wanted to start with a question a lot of people around
Washington have been asking: why should broadcasters be treated any
differently under the First Amendment than other media voices like
newspapers? The short answer is because the Supreme Court said so. In Red
Lion, the Supreme Court said: 'Where there are substantially more
individuals who want to broadcast than there are frequencies to allocate, it
is idle to posit an unbridgeable First Amendment right to broadcast
comparable to the right of every individual to speak, write or publish.' The
Court added: 'There is no sanctuary in the First Amendment for unlimited
private censorship in a medium not open to all.' I know what a lot of you
are probably thinking. Yeah, sure, Red Lion. Hasn't that case, and the whole
scarcity rationale it relied on, been thoroughly discredited? Isn't Red Lion
just one of those Warren Court relics that would never be upheld today? If
you only looked at law reviews and the stuff coming out of Washington think
tanks, you might think so. But apparently word of Red Lion's demise hasn't
reached the only audience that matters -- the Supreme Court. In both the
1994 Turner decision and the 1997 Reno decision, the Court expressly
reaffirmed Red Lion and the scarcity rationale as justifying more intrusive
regulation of broadcasters than newspapers and other media. I don't think
the Commission should be in the business of questioning the Court's judgment."
** Mergers **
Title: $10.6 Billion Seagram Deal for Polygram
Source: New York Times (C1)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/polygram-seagram.html
Author: Geraldine Fabrikant
Issue: Mergers
Description: After weeks of negotiations, the Seagram Company has agreed to
buy one of the largest music companies, Polygram, for $10.6 billion in cash
and stock. Seagram is transitioning from a beverage and spirits powerhouse
into a media giant; the company also said it would sell Tropicana Products
yesterday. After yesterday's announce transactions are completed, Seagram
will derive two-thirds of its revenues from the entertainment business. [And
to think, it all started with Bruce Willis singing about wine coolers...]
Title: Zapata Finds Its Internet Bid Is Not Taken Seriously
Source: New York Times (C1)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/biztech/articles/22zapata-marketp
lace.html
Author: Reed Abelson
Issue: Anti-mergers
Description: Oil-and-gas company turned fishmeal producer [we don't have to
make *all* of this up] Zapata wants into the Internet business. The company
changed its name to Zap and announced yesterday that it wanted to purchase
the Internet search engine Excite. Excite has quickly said, Thanks, but no
thanks -- even though Zap was offering $72 per share, a 20% premium over
Excite's closing price on Wednesday. "Excite is too big a fish for a
fish-oil company to swallow as a way to get into the Internet," said a rep
from an venture capital firm. "It is amusingly backward."
** Privacy vs. 1st Amendment **
Title: Seeking new privacy law, stars cite media excesses
Source: Chicago Tribune (Sec 1, p.3)
http://chicago.tribune.com
Author: Associated Press
Issue: Privacy/Journalism/First Amendment
Description: Michael J. Fox and Paul Reiser testified before the House
Judiciary Committee Thursday as the Committee wrestles with how to preserve
1st Amendment rights while protecting privacy right as well. Committee
Chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL) observed that freedom of the press "does not
confer a license to engage in criminal conduct in the interest of gathering
news." Pending legislation would bar photographers to threaten or cause
bodily injury in the pursuit of photographs or recordings. Penn State
University professor Robert Richards says the bills are overly broad and
vague and "could produce a deleterious effect on the news-gathering process."
*********
...and we are outta here. See you *Tuesday* Enjoy the holiday weekend!