Universal Service
California Cuts Surcharge for State E-Rate Program
(TelecomAM)
California PUC Orders $305 Million Pacific Bell Rate Cut
(Telecom AM)
Bandwidth/Infrastructure
Telecom Industry Overlooking Major Policy Change, Analyst Says
(Telecom AM)
Encryption
U.S. Rules Boost Europe's Encryption (WSJ)
Court Upholds Export Rules On Encryption (WSJ)
Online Services
PSINet to Shift Some Internet Operations Out of
Germany in Wake of Smut Ruling (WSJ)
Computer Technology
Character-Recognition System Targets Chinese Market (CyberTimes)
Magazines
Another New Business Technology Magazine (CyberTimes)
** Universal Service **
Title: California Cuts Surcharge for State E-Rate Program
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: The California Public Utilities Commission has reduced the
end-user surcharge that supports the California Teleconnect Fund (CTF),
TelecomAM reports. The CTF supplements federal discounts provided to
schools, libraries and health centers and provides discounts to
community-based organizations not covered by the federal program. Total
demand for CTF discounts was just $13 million in 1997, producing a $33.4
million surplus. Demand was
projected at $16.2 million for 1998 and $20.4 million in 1999. This picture
could change depending on the future of the federal e-rate program. The
surcharge was reduced from 0.41% to
0.05% effective Aug. 1.
Title: California PUC Orders $305 Million Pacific Bell Rate Cut
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: The California Public Utilities Commission ordered Pacific Bell
to cut telephone rates by $305.2 million as a permanent offset for the
universal service subsidies the company is receiving from the California
High Cost Fund. Pacific Bell must cut basic non-discounted residential
intraLATA toll rates by $118.9 million, business toll by $35.1 million,
local extended usage rates by $80.5 million, intrastate access charges by
$63.6 million and custom calling service rates by $7.1 million. The PUC said
it split the revenue reduction among
the services with the highest margin of contribution to basic exchange service,
consistent with ensuring sustainable prices and benefits to the broadest
base of
customers.
** Bandwidth/Infrastructure **
Title: Telecom Industry Overlooking Major Policy Change, Analyst Says
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Bandwidth/Infrastructure
Description: Legg Mason analyst Scott Cleland said in a July 1 report to
investors said that
"lost in the hoopla over the AT&T-TCI announcement" on the same day was FCC
Chairman Bill Kennard's offer to reduce the regulation of advanced networks
if Bell companies gave their competitors more access to them. "A major
deregulatory shift stimulating major bandwidth investment by the companies
with most of the sector's capital expenditures -- the local telcos -- could
be a significant boost to overall growth in the communications and
technology sectors." The big winners would be DSL and fiber equipment
suppliers, Bell companies and GTE, Internet computer and software industries
and online providers, Mr. Cleland said. The policy shift could be a negative
for "those benefiting from the low-bandwidth status quo" -- long distance
providers, some competitive LECs and telecom resellers.
** Encryption **
Title: U.S. Rules Boost Europe's Encryption
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (B6)
Author: Kimberley Strassel
Issue: Encryption
Description: Europe's encryption industry has one word for the US
government: Thanks! US law limits the export of encryption software forcing
buyers to seek better versions of data protection software from European
companies. The fear is that international criminals will send coded messages
that even the CIA and FBI can't break.
Title: Court Upholds Export Rules On Encryption
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (B6)
Author: Nick Wingfield
Issue: Encryption
Description: Judge James Gwin of the U.S. District Court for the Northern
District of Ohio has ruled that Professor Peter Junger of Case Western
Reserve cannot publish the code for encryption software on his website.
Professor Junger argued that he has a First Amendment right to do so. Judge
Gwin ruled that the First Amendment does not apply to software code which
typically appears as strings of text that most people do not understand. In
part the decision read: "Source code is 'purely functional'....Unlike
instructions, a manual, a recipe, source code actually performs the
functions it describes. While a recipe provides instructions to a cook,
source code is a device, like the embedded circuitry in a telephone, that
actually does the function of encryption."
** Privacy **
Title: A Cautionary Message on Voice Mail
Source: Washington Post, E1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-07/07/061l-070798-idx.html
Author: Devon Spurgeon
Description: The recent scandal involving a Cincinnati Enquirer expose of
the Chiquita corporation has raised questions about the security of a
popular voice-mail system. In early May, the Enquirer printed a story
suggesting that Chiquita has engaged in illegal activities ranging from
anti-competitive practices to drug smuggling. Many of these allegations
were supported by internal voice-mail messages, which Chiquita claims were
illegally obtained by reporter Michael Gallagher. The ability to penetrate
private voice-mail systems has raised security concerns for many businesses.
"Voice Mail can be a chink in any corporation's security armor". But it
should not be forgotten that corporate secrets were stolen long before the
development of telecommunication technologies, "There is no system in the
world that is foolproof...If there is a record of a communication it can be
obtained by others by surreptitious means".
** Online Services **
Title: PSINet to Shift Some Internet Operations Out of
Germany in Wake of Smut Ruling
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://wsj.com/ (B10)
Author: Kimberley Strassel
Issue: Online Services
Description: U.S. Internet service provider PSINet will move its web hosting
services out of Germany to other business centers in Europe. The move is in
the wake of a May ruling in Bavaria that held the former head of CompuServe
responsible for the spread of pornography via the online service. "For our
customers and our managing directors...we needed to move some services to
places where the laws are international, and not Bavarian-like," said the
managing director of PSINet in Germany. The German government reacted to the
Bavarian case by passing multimedia law aimed at clarifying Internet issues
and protecting service providers. Conservative regional courts have not
interpreted the law in the spirit it was passed however.
** Computer Technology **
Title: Character-Recognition System Targets Chinese Market
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/
Author: Bob Tedeschi
Issue: Computer Technology
Description: It sounds like a bad dream: you set up your first computer,
plug it in and sit down to type -- but wait -- all of the keys on the
keyboard are in another language! That scenario is what many Asians are now
facing when they get ready to use their first computer. With around 13,000
characters and no alphabet in their native languages, Chinese, Korean and
Japanese users are having to make do with the Western computer keyboard.
Voice and handwriting-recognition programs do provide alternatives, but they
have proven too slow to provide much of a dent in the mass market. However,
a company called Synaptics, based in Silicon Valley, has developed a Chinese
handwriting-recognition system that reduced input time by 70 percent,
putting it in range with traditional keystroke translation. The company
hopes that this $70 system will give Chinese-speaking computer users one
more reason to get wired.
** Magazines **
Title: Another New Business Technology Magazine
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/cyber/articles/07magazine.html
Author: Lisa Napoli
Issue: Magazines
Description: Business 2.0, the latest entry in the realm of high-tech
business publications, is scheduled to hit newsstands today. Jim Daly,
Business 2.0's editor-in-chief, acknowledges that the slick monthly,
published by Imagine Media, is similar to other business technology
magazines, but with essential differences. "We're not a newsmagazine, not a
newspaper -- that's a fairly crowded space," said Daly, a former editor at
Wired Magazine. "This is a new category of magazine.
We're trying to bring it up to 10,000 feet and get a look at the whole
process." In the first issue, the perspective that Daly talks about is seen
in features like a pull-out section on the "Ten Driving Principles of the
New Economy," and an "autopsy" on a failed company. The latter is based "on
the premise that the deconstruction of a defunct technology company can
teach as much as the glorification of success." The magazine also "gives a
nod to success," with profiles of "The 25 Most Intriguing Minds of the New
Economy." Daly calls his target audience "Visioneers." "You can't really
categorize these people by job title, someone could be a CEO, someone could
be a kitchen table entrepreneur. A 'visioneer' has an enormous insight, the
wherewithal and the support to actually change the company." (Visioneer?
Media message? Is that an ego stroke or just a marketing ploy?)
*********
Headlines welcomes Rachel Tamara Anderson who joins us from "the best
telecom policy program in the nation"(1) -- Northwestern University. After
Headlines today Rachel and I will be recounting the glory days of Wildcat
football. Larry Irving will join via conference call...