MERGERS
WAVE OF TELECOM MERGERS PUTS REGULATORS TO THE TEST (WSJ)
MCI Wins Brazil Long Distance Carrier with $2.3-Billion Bid
(TelecomAM)
Brazil Sells Phone Giant (WP)
Brazil Sells Most of State Phone Utility (NYT)
Brazil's Telebras Sell off is a Rigging Success (WSJ)
EDU-TECH/E-RATE
Education Secretary Defends Technology in Schools (CyberTimes)
MINORITIES
Broadcasters Vow to Keep Affirmative Action (NYT)
African-American Encyclopedia Has Rich Roots (NYT)
INTERNET
Flaw in Email Programs Points to an Industrywide Problem (NYT)
Politicians Woo Voters on the Web (NYT)
New 'Combo' Meal: Dine and Surf (NYT)
REGULATION
Tristani Says Section 706 Doesn't Allow Blanket Waiver for Bells
(TelecomAM)
PRIVACY
Daley Says EU Moving Toward US Internet Privacy Standards
(TelecomAM)
ADVERTISING
City's Billboard Law Ruled Invalid (ChiTrib)
Canada Seeks to Protect its Magazines from Losing Ad Revenue to
Foreigners (WSJ)
=======
MERGERS
=======
WAVE OF TELECOM MERGERS PUTS REGULATORS TO THE TEST
Issue: Mergers/ Telephony
After the announcement of two more mega-mergers this week, lawmakers have
finally begun to notice that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 has done
more to encourage consolidation than competition. Concerned by raising
cable rates and continued lack of local phone competition, Congress plans to
hold hearings in September to explore the recent telecom merger trend.
Because of the unlikeliness of any telecommunication legislation resulting
from the remaining weeks of this legislative session, many people are
looking to the Federal Communications Commission, and Chairman William
Kennard, to use it's regulatory power in blocking proposed mergers. In an
interview, Chairman Kennard was reported as saying: "Folks that are proposing
consolidation have a heavy burden to bear. The one overriding principle: How
are consumers going to be benefited from this combination?"
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B4), AUTHOR: John Simons]
http://wsj.com/
MCI WINS BRAZIL LONG DISTANCE CARRIER WITH $2.3-BILLION BID
Issue: MergerS
MCI outbid Sprint and will pay $2.3 billion for Brazilian long distance
carrier Embratel. Brazil has sold three wireline carriers and eight
cellular companies in its breakup of Telebras, raising more than $20
billion. Communications Minister Luiz Carlos Mendonca
de Barros told Reuters TV that the sale was a "huge success." But during the
auction police used tear gas and fired guns to quell angry anti-sale protesters.
[SOURCE: Telecom AM]
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
BRAZIL SELLS PHONE GIANT (WP)
BRAZIL SELLS MOST OF STATE PHONE UTILITY (NYT)
BRAZIL'S TELALBARS SELL-OFF IS A RINGING SUCCESS (WSJ)
Issue: International/Telephony
In the largest privatization deal in Latin American history, Brazil sold its
remaining stake in the national phone giant Telebras for $18.85 billion. The
auction, which drew doubled expected value, was dominated by Telecfonica of
Spain, Potugal Telecom, and MCI Corp. While most Brazilians -- desperate for
better service -- eagerly await privatization, many opponents protested the
sale of the national patrimony to foreign interest. They worry that the new
private companies will focus on lucrative business customers and ignore the
dire need for basic infrastructure rollout in poorer areas. Police armed
with tear gas, batons and a water cannon quelled thousands of angry
demonstrators.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A1,A27), AUTHOR: Anthony Faiola]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-07/30/147l-073098-idx.html
[SOURCE: New York Times (D1,D4), AUTHOR: Seth Schiesel]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/biztech/articles/30telephone-braz
il.html
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A13,A15), AUTHOR: Peter Fritsch, Gautam Naik,
Carlta Vitzthum]
http://wsj.com/
===============
EDU-TECH/E-RATE
===============
EDUCATION SECRETARY DEFENDS TECHNOLOGY IN SCHOOLS
Issue: Edu-Tech/E-rate
U.S. Secretary of Education Richard R. Riley said yesterday that technology
in schools is essential to enhancing student learning, preparing young
people for the 21st century workforce and bridging the divide between those
students whose families can afford to have computers at home and those who
cannot. Secretary Riley's comments were meant chiefly as a counterattack to
an assault by members of Congress and other critics on the Administration's
"E-rate" project, designed to subsidize the Internet and other
telecommunications services in schools and libraries. Sec Riley pointed at a
recent Commerce Dept. study that found a huge disparity in home computer
ownership between the rich and the poor as well as whites and minorities.
Among the reports findings: about 76 percent of American households with an
annual income of $75,000 or more own computers, compared to 32 percent of
households with an income of $35,000 or less. Meanwhile, 41 percent of white
households own computers compared to 19 percent of black and Hispanic
households. In his speech, Riley called on the nation "to break the cycle of
technological inequity," and said the E-rate program was "critically
important" to this effort.
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Pamela Mendels]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/cyber/articles/30schools.html
===========
MINORITIES
===========
BROADCASTERS VOW TO KEEP AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
Issue: Minorities
The largest broadcasters in the nation -- including four major networks and
several of the biggest owners of radio stations -- have agreed to continue
following the Federal Communications Commission's affirmative action
guidelines, even though they are no longer required to do so under a recent
federal court decision, said FCC Chairman, William E. Kennard.
The court decision was made this past spring when the judges rules that the
FCC's affirmative action program did not serve a compelling public interest.
The FCC has petitioned for a review of the three-judge panel's decision by the
full Court of Appeals. "We know our rules work. And we know how important
they are in giving minorities a start. Employment is not just an end unto
itself. For some it can also be
a path to ownership.," Chairman Kennard wrote. Among the companies that have
agreed to continue following the F.C.C. guidelines are ABC, CBS, NBC, the
Fox network, Time Warner Inc., which includes CNN, the Tribune Company and
Clear Channel Communications Inc., the owner of 183 radio stations and 18
television stations. Kennard also received commitments from cable companies
Cox Communications, the Cablevision Systems Corporation, the TCI Group and
the Comcast Corporation. In all, the companies agreeing to follow the
guidelines earn roughly one-third of the annual advertising revenue in the
broadcast industry, said BIA, an independent company that monitors revenues
in the broadcast industry.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A12), AUTHOR: Steven A. Holmes]
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/fcc-affirm-action.html
AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENCYCLOPEDIA HAS RICH ROOTS
Issue: Minorities/Computer Use
Henry Louis Gates Jr., chairman of Harvard Univ.'s African-American studies
department, received inspiration for his latest two-year project -- a
comprehensive reference work on Africa and people of African descent -- from
W.E.B. Du Bois, who first came up with the notion of an "Encyclopedia
Africana" is 1909. Du Bois saw the project as an
act of progressive scholarship. "He believed that you could help defeat
racism if you could codify the knowledge of the black experience,
undermining all sorts of stupid myths and prejudices," said Gates. The
multimedia encyclopedia, called Encarta Africana, is a collaboration between
Gates, Kwame Anthony Appiah, a Harvard professor of African-American studies
and philosophy, and the Microsoft Corporation. Gates hopes that this
multimedia encyclopedia will help draw more African-Americans into the
computer age. Several studies have shown that African-American children are
less likely to use computers or have access to the Internet than other
American children. The main reason being that a higher percentage of
African-Americans, compared to whites, live in low-income families and
neighborhoods. Gates said he hopes that Encarta Africana will help stir
technological enthusiasm within the black community and efforts to put more
computers into schools and libraries into predominately black neighborhoods.
"I want Encarta Africana to seduce our people further into using computers
and help them become computer literate," Gates said.
[SOURCE: New York Times (E3), AUTHOR: Steve Lohr]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/circuits/articles/30ugee.html
=========
INTERNET
=========
FLAW IN EMAIL PROGRAMS POINTS TO AN INDUSTRYWIDE PROBLEM
Issue: Security
"The security flaw reported this week in email programs produced by two
highly respected software companies points to an industrywide problem -- the
danger of programming languages whose greatest strength is also their
greatest weakness." The computer languages most commonly used to build
commercial software, C and C++, derive much of their power and flexibility
from the fact that they give professional programmers the ability to write
very complex programs quickly and efficiently. But, in part, they do this by
allowing short cuts that can also lead to disaster. "As a result of these
short cuts, even the best commercial programs today are riddled with bugs
that range from merely annoying to catastrophic." More modern programs, like
Sun Microsystems's Java language, have built-in safeguards that prevent
programmers from making common errors that could result in security
loopholes. But these safeguards cause Java to run more slowly then the
closely related C and C++. For those reasons it has met with resistance from
programmers that are hungry for speed. Robert Morris, a veteran security
researcher who was once the chief scientist of the National Security Agency,
said that is part the problem was a result of "the emergence of a commercial
culture that is careless and counts on customers to find bugs once they are
in the marketplace." In closing, Markoff writes: "Microsoft and Netscape,
rushing software to the public in a fierce battle to dominate the Internet,
were well aware of the danger and the consequences."
[SOURCE: New York Times (D7), AUTHOR: John Markoff]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/biztech/articles/30email-flaw....
POLITICIANS WOO VOTERS ON THE WEB
Issue: Campaigns
Political consultants say that this election year will be the first in which
the Internet can be considered a mass medium. Phil Noble, president of
Politics Online, a Charleston SC company that provides Internet tools for
politics, compares 1998 on the Internet to 1964 on television. "It's going
to be some 32-year-old first-time candidate in a statehouse or city council
race who unseats an old white guy who's been sitting there for 20 years and
hasn't even heard of the Internet -- and he'll never see it coming," Noble
said. "Every newspaper in the county is going to do a story, and every
politician in the country is going to say, 'I want to get me some of that.'"
Many others however, say the Internet has not matured enough to be
considered an effective medium for conveying a political message. They say
the problem is twofold: 1) the Internet is not yet universally available,
like television, and 2) online information reaches only the most highly
interested voters. "The truth is," says Mark Mellman, a Washington political
consultant, "as a tool of political communications, the Internet today is of
marginal value, but increasing value."
[SOURCE: New York Times (E1,E10), AUTHOR: Rebecca Fairley Raney]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/circuits/articles/30poli.html
NEW 'COMBO' MEAL: DINE AND SURF
Issue: Lifestyles!
A Burger King in Manhattan's financial district began to offer Internet
access to its customers last week. The fast-food restaurant is providing 20
minutes of Internet time with each minimum purchase of $4.99 ($3.29 for
breakfast) on one of its 20 countertop-mounted computers. "I thought it
could be something different to allow then to 'have it your way,' in terms
of seeing the world and do whatever they want to do," said the store owner,
Peter Allen Abramson, as many of the lunchtime crowd shook his hand and
congratulated him on what many called a brilliant idea. (Now you can eat
your burger and learn about it too! Who knows, maybe this will start a new
trend in how we define a "Value Meal.")
[SOURCE: New York Times (E3), AUTHOR: Michel Marriott]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/circuits/articles/30geek.html
==========
REGULATION
==========
TRISTANI SAYS SECTION 706 DOESN'T ALLOW BLANKET WAIVER FOR BELLS
Issue: Regulation
The Federal Communications Commission is required by Section 706 of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 to assess the development of advanced
networks by issuing a notice of inquiry by August 8. Speaking on a panel at
the meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners
(NARUC), FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani said she doesn't believe Section
706 of the Telecom Act allows a blanket waiver of interLATA restrictions on
broadband data services, as some Bell companies contend, but said "not all
LATA relief is off the table." The Bells want the Commission to ease rules
that require them to let competitors lease their new broadband networks, as
is required for older network elements, and bar
them from extending their networks beyond LATA lines. "I think it may be
that the incumbent LECs will be the most likely providers for rural areas in
the near term," Commissioner Tristani said. The Commission has scheduled an
August 6 meeting and it is expected to propose new rules including allowing
some lessened regulation if the Bells offer higher speed data networks
through separate subsidiaries.
[SOURCE: Telecom AM]
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
=======
PRIVACY
=======
DALEY SAYS EU MOVING TOWARD U.S. INTERNET PRIVACY STANDARDS
Issue: Privacy
Sec of Commerce William Daley told the House Commerce Committee that the
European Union (EU) is likely to accept U.S. Internet privacy standards
being crafted by the Online Privacy Alliance, an industry group. Sec Daley
said most European countries think the government should mandate standards,
"which I think is wrong," so the Dept of Commerce "has spent a lot of time
convincing them of the need for an industry-led" process. By October 25, 15
EU member countries must implement comprehensive privacy legislation
requiring them to bar the transfer of personal information to other
countries if those nations don't provide "adequate" privacy protection.
[Yeah, so just trust the companies that want to make money off of that
information; they are sure to protect you.]
[SOURCE: Telecom AM]
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
==========
ADVERTISING
==========
CITY'S BILLBOARD LAW RULED INVALID
Issue: Advertising
In September 1997, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance banning
billboard advertising of alcohol and tobacco products. Proponents said the
ads targeted children and minorities in the inner city. The ban is similar
to one in Baltimore which has withstood legal challenge. But Senior U.S.
District Judge Milton I. Shadur found the city ordinance to be invalid under
a federal preemption statute. Judge Shadur concluded that "state and local
legislatures may not make laws in relation to the cigarette advertising
because that area has been occupied by the federal government" through
passage of the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act three decades ago.
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune (Sec 2, p.1), AUTHOR: Maria Donate]
http://chicagotribune.com/textversion/article/0,1492,SAV-9807300155,00.html
CANADA SEEKS TO PROTECT IT"S MAGAZINES FROM LOSING AD REVENUE TO FOREIGNERS
Issue: International/ Magazines
As part of an ongoing effort to protect and foster Canadian publishing,
television, radio, and movie industries, The Canadian government says it
intends to introduce legislation that would prevent foreign magazines from
selling advertisements specifically aimed at the Canadian market. The new
law would force advertisers wishing to reach Canadians to only advertise in
Canadian owned publications. A government official explained that
advertising revenue should be limited to Canadian publishers will because
they "produce Canadian stories for Canadians."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B12), AUTHOR: John Urquhart]
http://wsj.com/
*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*
OK readers. You should know its review time and if you think Betsy and
Rachel should get anything more than the minimum slave-level wages they get
now, you should tell me what you think of the new format they worked so hard
on. They said that if the came up with a format that was more "digestible"
then I'd have to pay them enough so they can afford lunch. What d'ya think?