Universal Service
GAO to Tell Senate Panel that E-Rate
Process Should Change (TelecomAM)
Wireless Industry Begins Push for Universal
Service Support (TelecomAM)
Mergers
SBC, Ameritech tout merger to ICC (ChiTrib)
SBC and Ameritech Square Off Against Merger
Opponents in Illinois (TelecomAM)
C&W to Buy MCI Internet Assets, Easing Way for
WorldCom Deal (WSJ)
Jobs
Thinking Ahead (FCC)
Internet
Teaching Grown-ups How to Surf (CyberTimes)
Report Details Problems With Commercial E-Mail (CyberTimes)
Spectrum
FCC to Sell Licenses Allowing Companies to Track Vehicles
(WSJ)
Technology
Taking a Step Toward Converting The Home Into a Supercomputer
(NYT)
Advertising/Religion/Minorities
Religious Right Targets Homosexuality (WP)
** Universal Service **
Title: GAO to Tell Senate Panel that E-Rate Process Should Change
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing scheduled for July 16,
the General Accounting Office (GAO) is expected to suggest that the Schools
and Library Corporation (SLC) needs to review its evaluation procedures for
e-rate applicants -- especially determining when certain SLC audits and
examinations should occur. Critics of the SLC say the GAO recommendations
reveal sloppy procedures on part of SLC while the program's supporters say
the recommendations don't constitute a "smoking gun." TelecomAM reports,
"Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) has charged that the
SLC is a large bureaucracy, a perception expected to be challenged at the
hearing by e-rate supporters. The SLC has 15 permanent staff members, 66
contractors who evaluate applications and answer technical questions, and a
fluctuating number of data-entry workers." In other e-rate news, a number of
House members are expected to make speeches supporting the e-rate starting
July 15; a more formal save the erate campaign will start next week.
Title: Wireless Industry Begins Push for Universal Service Support
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: At a 7/14 briefing by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry
Association (CTIA) and Western Wireless, the industry announced plans of a
FCC filing this month that will argue that the Commission could cut the size
of the high-cost universal service fund nearly in half if it subsidized
wireless carriers, instead of traditional wireline companies, for providing
phone service in rural areas. The FCC's universal service rules, adopted
last year, allow wireless carriers to receive support for serving high-cost
areas, but leaves the details to the states. On their side, states have been
slow to move of on the issue -- some accusing local telephone companies of
exerting political pressure.
** Mergers **
Title: SBC, Ameritech tout merger to ICC
Source: Chicago Tribune (Sec 3, p.4)
http://chicagotribune.com/textversion/article/0,1492,ART-11868,00.html
Author: Cornelia Grumman & Jon Van
Issue: Mergers
Description: SBC and Ameritech gave a sneak preview of their merger filing
which is expected at state and federal regulatory commissions within the
next two weeks. The merger will mean 1) competition in Illinois that
customers will enjoy as more choice, not lower rates, 2) low-volume
residential customers will be "the lowest creatures on the
telecommunications food chain" (Trib's words), 3) a combined SBC-Ameritech
will be a global competitor that will offer local service in the 50 biggest
markets in the US, and 4) when the new company starts competing in other US
markets, other regional phone companies will reciprocate and enter the
Chicago market. [A longer summary of the meeting will be posted on Benton's
email lists later today]
Title: SBC and Ameritech Square Off Against Merger Opponents in Illinois
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Mergers, oh we get mergers, we get mergers everyday...
Description: The Illinois Commerce Commission held an open meeting to
discuss the issues surrounding the proposed SBC-Ameritech merger. The
company created by the merger, officials from SBC and Ameritech said, will
be a new global telecom carrier that will be a more effective competitor in
national and global markets. Critics said the merger will delay competition
in the new company's region. [A longer summary of the meeting will be posted
on Benton's email lists later today]
Title: C&W to Buy MCI Internet Assets, Easing Way for WorldCom Deal
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Jared Sandberg & Stephanie N. Mehta
Issue: Merger
Description: MCI Communications Corp. has reached an agreement to sell its
Internet assets to Cable & Wireless PLC of London for around $1.6 billion in
cash.
** Jobs **
Title: Thinking Ahead
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Kennard/spwek821.html
Author: Chairman Kennard
Issue: Jobs/Minorities
Description: Chairman Kennard's Speech "Thinking Ahead" before the NAACP
1998 Annual Convention, Telecommunications Forum, in Atlanta, GA. "The civil
rights challenge for the next century is to make sure that African-Americans
-- and all Americans -- share in the benefits of the Information Age....We
must have access to technology, employment opportunities and opportunities
for ownership."
** Internet **
Title: Teaching Grown-ups How to Surf
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/cyber/education/15education.html
Author: Pamela Mendels
Issue: Student Participation in Technology
Description: Libraries, schools and community groups around the country are
turning to Internet savvy young people to help bridge the generation gap and
teach neophytes "to pick up" technology basics. "I think it's a great idea,"
said Karen W. Smith, executive director of the Tech Corps, a national
non-profit volunteer group based in Bedford, MA that seeks to help schools
integrate new technology into the classroom. "Anytime kids are in a
situation that says 'We value what you know,' that's a very good message.
These programs also give kids the knowledge that what they are learning is
transferable to a marketable talent." It is difficult to say how many
programs that involve teenagers teaching grown-ups are in place and what
their longterm effects will be. But organizers of a Families Online program
at Martin County Library System in Stuart FL are hoping that one effect of
their project will be to forge closer ties between adults and young people.
And Edison Freire, who runs bilingual teen/adult program at Edison Fareira
High School in Philadelphia, says: "I am trying to get my students to think
of themselves as leaders, and one way to do that is to let them work with
adults."
Title: Report Details Problems With Commercial E-Mail
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/cyber/articles/15email.html
Author: Jerry Clausing
Issue: Internet/Spam
Description: The Federal Trade Commission released a report yesterday on the
issue of bulk commercial email. The report, prepared by an ad-hoc group that
included major Internet companies, Internet service providers, organizations
opposed to commercial email and representatives of the companies that send
it, recommends that companies that send this type of unsolicited email
should be prohibited from trying to disguise the content or origin of their
messages, which would allow people to better filter through their incoming
email. The report, citing free speech issues, stops short of calling for a
complete ban of unsolicited commercial email, also known as spam. However,
the report lacks any "strong" recommendations for how to cut back on the
increasing flow of spam, a result of the inability of such a diverse group
to reach an agreement on which, if any, proposals currently pending in
Congress should be endorsed.
** Spectrum **
Title: FCC to Sell Licenses Allowing Companies to Track Vehicles
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: WSJ Staff Reporter
Issue: Spectrum
Description: The Federal Communications Commission plans to auction 528
licenses by the end of the year for a service known as the "location and
monitoring service," or LMS. The service would allow trucking companies to
use the airwaves to keep track of vehicles in their fleet.
** Technology **
Title: Taking a Step Toward Converting The Home Into a Supercomputer
Source: New York Times (A1,D4)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/biztech/articles/15sun.html
Author: John Markoff
Issue: New Technology
Description: Sun Microsystems plans today to unveil the first consumer
version of distributed computing technology, a product called Jini.
Distributed computing is "the ability to divide a large set of computer
instructions into multiple small parts, each of which is processed by a
different machine within a network of computers." The computer industry is
betting that instead of consumers wanting to turn their laptops into a
supercomputer, more will be interested in the technology's ability to endow
consumer appliances. Jini uses Sun's Java programming language to "allow
computers and other devices to cooperate, sometimes by sharing instructions
or information, sometimes by actually dividing a program into parts and
spreading the computation work across several computers." Advocates of
distributed computing predict that over the next few years today's desktop
computer will evolve from a self-sufficient machine, that must hold
everything it needs for any given job, into a social machine, that will
interact automatically with not only other computers but with myriad
consumer devices.
Advertising/Religion/Minorities
Title: Religious Right Targets Homosexuality
Source: Washington Post (A1, A13)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-07/15/146l-071598-idx.h...
Author: Hanna Rosin and Thomas B.Edstall
Issue: Advertising/Religion/Minorities
Description: The Christian Coalition and Family Research Council are two of
the more well-known members in a coalition of 15 conservative religious
groups responsible for running full-page ads in national newspapers
proclaiming that homosexuality is a disease which can be cured. These
advertisements, which have run in the New York Times, The Washington Post
and USA Today, are part the religious right's new high-profile campaign
against homosexuality. In addition to the ads, the campaign also includes
lobbying efforts that pressure politicians to take public stands against
homosexuality. Responding to the campaign, gay rights groups have placed
their own ads in today's papers."We want to make it clear that homosexuality
is ok," says Einnie Stachelberg, political director for the Human Rights
Campaign, "that gay and lesbian people have parents who love them and can
even be people of faith."
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