Mergers: AOL and CompuServe
WSJ: WorldCom to Buy Compuserve Corp.
NYT: Worldcom Set to Acquire Compuserve
WP: AOL Wins CompuServe Subscribers
Internet Service Providers
WP: UUNet Outdistances Its Peers
Internet Services/Content
NYT: Technology: On the Net
NYT: Calls Via the Internet, But in Low Fidelity
NYT: Infoseek Set to Announce Web-Searching Innovation
WP: Wiring Social Security
WP: Junk Mail Online Pushes The Envelope
Infrastructure
NYT: Panel Reviews U.S. "Life-Support Systems"
Universal Service
TelecomAM: FCC Seeks to Waive PICC for Lifeline Customers
WSJ: Telecommunications Companies Unite To
Track Nonpaying Phone Customers FCC
TelecomAM: Hollings Blinks on Kennard's Nomination; Senate
Schedules Hearings
Minorities & Media
NYT: Newscasts in Tagalog and Songs in Gaelic
Journalism/Magazines
WP: Magazine's High Hype
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* Mergers: AOL and CompuServe *
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Title: WorldCom to Buy Compuserve Corp.
Source: Wall Street Journal (A3)
http://www.wsj.com/
Author: Jared Sandberg
Issue: Mergers/Online Services
Description: WorldCom outbid leveraged-buyout firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson &
Stowe in the purchase of Compuserve from H&R Block. WorldCom will retain
Compuserve's 1,200 corporate customers and sell the online company's 3
million consumer customers to America Online. AOL will turn over its
high-speed Internet access division, ANS Communications, to WorldCom. The
deal makes WorldCom a giant in business networking -- serving the two
largest commercial online services and thousands of corporate customers. AOL
will increase its customer base to 12 million -- roughly six times the size
of its nearest competitor, Microsoft Network. The AOL deal may raise some
antitrust concerns, however, and the meshing of AOL and Compuserve corporate
philosophies may cause problems for both employees and customers.
Title: Worldcom Set to Acquire Compuserve
Source: New York Times (D1)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/090897compuserve.html
Author: Steve Lohr
Issue: Mergers/Online Services
Description: The nation's fourth-largest long-distance company, Worldcom,
has agreed to buy Compuserve for $1.2 billion in stock. The company will
then sell the online subscription service to America Online. Worldcom will
retain Compuserve's high-speed telecommunications lines and Internet
gateways and add them to its Internet services unit, UUNet Technologies.
Compuserve is mainly owned by H&R Block.
Title: AOL Wins CompuServe Subscribers
Source: Washington Post (A1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/digest/tech2.htm
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Mergers/Online Services
Description: America Online will buy its biggest competitor in a deal to be
announced today. Compuserve would continue to exist, but would be operated
by AOL. "AOL is going to use its scale and its resources to make it more
focused and efficient in servicing the business and professional market," a
source said. AOL will also receive $175 million from WorldCom for AOL's ANS
network service in the three way deal.
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* Internet Service Providers *
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Title: UUNet Outdistances Its Peers
Source: Washington Post (WashTech p.17)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-09/08/009l-090897-idx.html
Author: Beth Berselli
Issue: Online Services
Description: The "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" approach --
called "peering" -- of the Internet has allowed various Internet Service
Providers to exchange e-mail without costs to either side. Recently, UUNet,
the world's largest ISP, has dumped peering and, if other large ISPs do the
same, it may mean higher rates for some Internet consumers.
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* Internet Services/Content *
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Title: Technology: On the Net
Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/090897poll.html
Author: Steve Lohr
Issue: Online Services
Description: Odyssey, a market research firm in San Francisco, will release
survey results today that uncover a severe image problem for commercial
online services. From January to July, only 18% of PC-households rate the
major online services -- AOL, MSN, Compuserve and Prodigy -- "excellent" or
"very good." Many believe these services are afflicted with traffic jams,
are slow and hard to use. "If toothpaste had the same lowly ratings as the
on-line services, no one would be brushing their teeth," says the president
of Odyssey. But in the last two years, the number of American households
online has doubled and in the last year, the average amount of time online
has risen from 6.5 hrs/week to 12.8 hrs/week.
Title: Calls Via the Internet, But in Low Fidelity
Source: New York Times (D6)
http://www.nytimes.com/
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: Online Services
Description: Starting today, IDT Corporation will begin selling prepaid
calling cards that transmit calls over the Internet instead of the telephone
system. Rates will be $0.13/minute -- 2 cents/minute cheaper than AT&T's
domestic flat-rate plan. But sound quality is bad -- comparable to cell
phones in 1989 when the cans came with really long strings. [The transcript
from NTIA's Internet Telephony Forum
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/forums/telephony/itelhome.htm, held September 4,
1997 in Washington, DC. The forum, first in a series, focused on Internet
Telephony, one of a number of new applications on the Information
Superhighway, and examined the corresponding policy implications]
Title: Infoseek Set to Announce Web-Searching Innovation
Source: New York Times (D6)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/090897search.html
Author: John Markoff
Issue: Online Services
Description: Infoseek, a popular search engine on the World Wide Web, will
announce today that it has received a patent on new technology that will
make Web searches even better. The new technique uses multiple indexes and
searches across numerous databases and Web sites throughout the Internet.
Steve Kirsch, Infoseek's founder and chairman, likens the process to a
library. First, an individual searches a centralized card catalog and is
directed to a certain book which itself contains individual indexes.
[Infoseek is at http://www.infoseek.com/]
Title: Wiring Social Security
Source: Washington Post (A16)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-09/08/022l-090897-idx.html
Author: WP Editorial Staff
Issue: Privacy
Description: The Social Security Administration has run head-on into the
great paradox of the computer era: How do you make government information
more accessible to citizens without making it available indiscriminately to
anyone who might want it? All government agencies will eventually have to
deal with these issues as people rightly expect safety and confidentiality
of their information collected by the government.
Title: Junk Mail Online Pushes The Envelope
Source: Washington Post (WashTech p.17)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-09/08/011l-090897-idx.html
Author: John Burgess
Issue: Internet
Description: Junk e-mail is increasing -- offering "tons of the nastiest
pics available," pyramid schemes, and other "investment opportunities." Even
though the Government takes the view that what's illegal in the real world
is illegal online, there is a lot of gray area out there. Who has
jurisdiction in cases involving the Internet?
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* Infrastructure *
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Title: Panel Reviews U.S. "Life-Support Systems"
Source: New York Times (A15)
http://www.nytimes.com/
Author: Associated Press
Issue: Infrastructure
Description: The President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure
Protection has recommended that the Government should spend more on research
and development of protections for the nation's power, water, finance, and
emergency systems. Currently the US spends $100 million/year on this
research. The Commission recommends this investment grow to $1 billion/year.
"These are the life-support systems of the nation," says retired-Gen. Robert
T. Marsh, chairman of the Commission. "They're vital, not only to day-to-day
discourse. They're vital national security. They're vital to our economic
competitiveness world wide. They're vital to our very way of life."
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* Universal Service *
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Title: FCC Seeks to Waive PICC for Lifeline Customers
Source: Telecom AM http://capitol.cappubs.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: The Federal Communications Commission is accepting comments on
a proposal to waive the $0.53 presubscribed interexchange carrier charge
(PICC) for Lifeline consumers who elect to receive toll-blocking. The
Commission will accept comments on this proposal until September 25.
Title: Telecommunications Companies Unite To Track Nonpaying Phone Customers
Source: Wall Street Journal (B11A)
http://www.wsj.com/
Author: Stephanie Mehta
Issue: Telephone
Description: AT&T, BellSouth, and Citizens Utility won approval from the
Justice Department last week to begin sharing information on residential
customers who fail to pay their bills. During the 1970s and 1980s, phone
companies enjoyed a very low rate of uncollectible bills. But last year that
percentage reached 6% -- $6 billion. "We are starting to see a growing
number of customers who sign up for service, fail to pay, and end up signing
with a [competitor] and doing it again," says an Ameritech executive.
Telecos fears these problems will increase with increased competition. Some
companies are already experimenting with credit checks and deposits.
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* FCC *
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Title: Hollings Blinks on Kennard's Nomination; Senate Schedules Hearings
Source: Telecom AM http://capitol.cappubs.com/am/
Issue: Federal Communications Commission
Description: Sen Ernest Hollings (D-SC) will not block the nomination of
Bill Kennard for FCC Chairman. Sen Hollings had originally backed former
aide Ralph Everett for the spot. The Senate will hold confirmation hearings
September 20 for FCC nominees Michael Powell and Harold Furchtgott-Roth and
on October 1 for Mr. Kennard. The President has yet to officially nominate
Gloria Tristani of the New Mexico State Corporation Commission for the final
vacant seat.
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* Minorities & Media *
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Title: Newscasts in Tagalog and Songs in Gaelic
Source: New York Times (D11)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/ethnic-tv-press.html
Author: Sreenath Sreenivasan
Issue: Minorities
Description: Despite small budgets and limited technology, ethnic television
programming is healthy and expanding in US markets with high immigrant
populations. Big name advertisers -- like long distance telephone companies
and credit card companies -- are starting to warm up to these niche markets.
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* Journalism/Magazines *
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Title: Magazine's High Hype
Source: Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Howard Kurtz
Issue: Journalism/Magazines
Description: Steve Brill, the creator of American lawyer magazine and
CourtTV is starting a new magazine, "a kind of Columbia Journalism Review on
steroids." The new rag, called "Content" will debut early next year covering
news outlets to advertising, publishing and the World Wide Web. "This isn't
a magazine about journalists written by journalists for journalists. It's a
magazine about one of the most powerful forces shaping everything in our
society and culture, meant for the consumers of media," says Brill.
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