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Communications-related Headlines for 2/3/97

Telemarketing Finds a Ready Labor Market in Hard-Pressed North Dakota

Global Phone Pact Appears Near But U.S. Conditions May Block It

New Policy by America Online Pressures Content Providers

Paving the Information Highway

Cyberspace Resumes Fit the Modern Job Hunt

Does National Public Radio feel Pressure when foundation donors
specify topics?

DARS delays at FCC

Senate to hold liquor ad hearings

Senate, FCC to hear gripes on TV Ratings

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Title: Telemarketing Finds a Ready Labor Market in Hard-Pressed North Dakota
Author: James Brooke
Issue: Economics
Description: The spread of fiber-optic cable and advances in
telecommunications are bringing jobs to depressed, rural areas. Companies
say that the people in the Dakotas or Montana are appealing job candidates
because they have fairly high levels of education and strong work ethics.
New companies scour the region for untapped groups of farm wives or
Indians. The towns appreciate the business. For many families, a second
salary or medical benefits can help make ends meet. Omaha is the "toll
free" capitol of the nation; Rosenbluth Travel has a reservations center in
Linton, North Dakota; and Minot, North Dakota, has a reservation center for
Quality Inns.

Title: Global Phone Pact Appears Near But U.S. Conditions May Block It
Author: Edmund L. Andrews
Issue: International/phone reg
Description: Negotiators from more than 100 countries are working to
finalize an agreement to open government-protected telecommunication
monopolies to competition. Some negotiators say a deal will be reached by
the Feb. 15 deadline. The European Union's barriers between cable and phone
companies are coming down and the FCC has been pressuring countries to
lower accounting rates. "Accounting rates cover the price of completing
international calls into and out of country, and are often many times more
than their true cost. . . " The US is not certain the agreement will come
together b/c Canada may not scale back restrictions on foreign ownership.
If an agreement is forged, it would give big communications companies like
Sprint and AT&T more access to Latin America and Asia.

Title: New Policy by America Online Pressures Content Providers
Author: Steve Lohr
Issue: Internet Regulation/Content
Description: With the old AOL rate system, the longer a user stayed on a
content provider's site, the more money a content provider got. Now with
the flat rate, content providers, and AOL itself, must rely more heavily on
advertising for revenues. Content providers include businesses that post
information or speciality forums on AOL. AOL executives compare the
network's transitions to the transition undergone by cable systems in the
1970s when cable providers realized that they needed subscription fees and
advertising to stay afloat.

Title: Paving the Information Highway
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: Internet growth
Description: According to US News and World Report, one of the best jobs
to have these days is commercial wiring specialist (public interest
advocate for telecommunications policy ran a close second). More and more
businesses rely on Local Area Networks and the Internet to communicate.
According to a research firm in California, spending on cables and
connectors (for private as opposed to national telephone businesses) grew
from $765 million in 1993 to $1.2 billion last year.

Title: Cyberspace Resumes Fit the Modern Job Hunt
Author: David Rampe
Issue: WWW
Description: If one is planning to do an electronic resume, one should
abandon efforts to make Camp Counselor sound like Advanced Child Care
Specialist and should start using terms computers will discover on searches.
Many big tech companies are inputting the resumes they receive into the
computer and then asking the computer to search for candidates with the
desired skills. Forget verbs, work with key words (for example, UCLA,
Unix, fluid dynamics, knitter). There are several sites on the web that
can help job seekers build electronic resumes or post electronic resumes.
Some sites include: Job Smart Resume Guide
http://jobsmart.org/tools/resume/index.htm, Yahoo's Resume Area
http://www.yahoo.com/business_and_economy/Employment/Resumes/Resume_Writ...
Tips/, Career Mosaic's Resume Writing Guide
http://www.careermosaic.com/cm/crc/crc15.html

Title: Does National Public Radio feel Pressure when foundation donors
specify topics?
Author: Iver Peterson
Issue: Journalism/Radio/Media Ownership
Description: National Public Radio receives 25 million from foundation and
corporate giving. Many grants are general; some support coverage of certain
topics like jazz or campaign finance reform. NPR states the organization
has established a firewall between donors and program content. Donors can
only speak to senior editors or the development office, not with the
reporters. Many news organizations receive money from benefactors and
must establish lines
between donors and content.

From Broadcasting & Cable, February 3, 1997 pg. 10
Title: DARS delays at FCC
Author: Chris McConnell
Issue: Satellite
Description: FCC Commissioners are divided about whether to instate public
interest obligations on businesses that provide digital audio radio
satellite service (DARS).

From Broadcasting & Cable, February 3, 1997 pg. 11
Title: Senate to hold liquor ad hearings
Author: Heather Fleming and Harry A. Jessell
Issue: Advertising
Description: Conrad Burns (R-Montana) states that his Senate Communications
Subcommittee or John McCain's (R-Arizona) parent committee (Commerce) will
hold hearings on TV liquor ads. Burns has also made clear, however, that
he would like the liquor industry and the cable companies to try to work
out the issue on their own first.

From Broadcasting & Cable, February 3, 1997 pg. 11
Title: Senate, FCC to hear gripes on TV Ratings
Author: Harry A. Jessell
Issue: V Chip
Description: The Commerce Committee will hear responses to the TV ratings
system from yet-to-be-named witnesses on Feb. 27. The FCC will schedule a
hearing in April or May.

Recommended reading for the web connoisseur: Dilbert, Washington Post
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/)

At the FCC (http://www.fcc.gov)

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Communications-related Headlines for 1/31/97

Commm(subliminal message: Leave work and go see Star Wars)unications Related
Headlines 1/31/97

On-Line Ire Still Directed at Company

Does More Time on Line Mean Reduced TV Time?

Heaviest Users Are Left in the Cold In Settlement Pact

Retired General's Mission: Making Cyberspace Secure

Reformer in the Lobby

Battling Cyber Saboteurs

FCC Plans to Fine WTTG-TV $10,000

Report Says Act has Brought No Local Competition

Broadcast Ownership Proceeding

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION DONATES SURPLUS COMPUTERS TO WASHINGTON
METROPOLITAN AREA SCHOOLS
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From New York Times (D1) (http://www.nytimes.com/)
Title: On-Line Ire Still Directed at Company
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: AOL
Description: AOL's attempts to assuage users' anger with refunds and free
kittens have not entirely succeeded. Many customers are angry that the
people online the least amount of time are getting the biggest ($40)
refunds. Also, users complained that AOL had not staffed enough operators
to handle the refund calls so callers had an experience as satisfying as
trying to get online the past few weeks. AOL, though, reported that they
have had many positive responses about their refund plan.

From the New York Times (D5)(http://www.nytimes.com/)
Title: Does More Time on Line Mean Reduced TV Time?
Author: Bill Carter
Issue: Television
Description: A Nielsen study found that homes with AOL accounts watch TV
15% less than the average household. A representative from the Fox TV
network questioned the validity of the finding because the sample size of
the survey was very small (262 homes). The study was done in September
before the recent AOL feedingfrenzylogjam began. The households with AOL
also had a higher income and more education than the average household.
AOL was planning to use the survey not to say that the Internet leads to
less TV watching, but to prove to advertisers that the Internet was a
viable place for advertising.

Title: Heaviest Users Are Left in the Cold In Settlement Pact
Author: Jared Sandberg and Rebecca Quick
Issue: AOL
Description: The average AOL customer spends 16 hours a month online.
AOL's refund plan allows cash back for anyone online less than 15 hours a
month. Those who were online too much to qualify for a cash refund
represent 40% of the company's eight million users. State officials, who
pressured AOL to provide some sort of compensation to customers unable to
get online, and the company defend the refund policy. Overall, AOL's
cancellation rate has not gone up in the past two months, and many
customers report that they are waiting to see how AOL clears up the mess.

From the Washington Post (A19)(http://www.washingtonpost.com/)
Title: Retired General's Mission: Making Cyberspace Secure
Author: John Schwartz
Issue: Privacy/Security
Description: Retired Air Force General Robert T. Marsh is the chairman of
the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection. The
Commission will be holding hearings around the country on protecting the
computerized systems that run the nation's telecommunications, power and
finance infrastructures. The Commission will publish a report this July.

From the Washington Post (A19)(http://www.washingtonpost.com/)
Title: Reformer in the Lobby
Author: Al Kamen
Issue: Lobbying
Description: Retired Texas representative Jack Fields, former Chair of the
House Telecommunications subcommittee and member of the House Commerce
Committee, has formed the Twenty First Century Group. The company will
focus on issues before the Commerce Committee, particularly in areas of
telecommunications, securities, energy, health and the environment.
Although by law Mr. Fields cannot lobby his former colleagues, Cyndy
Wilkinson, his former staff counsel on the Commerce Committee, has also
joined the firm and has no such post-employment restrictions.

From the Washington Post (G1)(http://www.washingtonpost.com/)
Title: Battling Cyber Saboteurs
Author: Elizabeth Corcoran & Victoria Shannon
Issue: Privacy/Security
Description: Someone breaks into your company's computer system. Who ya
gonna call? Not the Ghostbusters -- the Computer Emergency Response Team
(CERT) at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. They're available free
at 412-268-7090.

From the Washington Post (G1)(http://www.washingtonpost.com/)
Title: FCC Plans to Fine WTTG-TV $10,000
Author: Paul Farhi
Issue: Children's Television
Description: DC-area Fox affiliate Channel 5 will be fined $10,000 for
breaking FCC rules concerning the type and amount of ads run during
programs aimed at children 12 and under. The station was one of four fined
for breaking rules resulting from the Children's Television Act.

from TR Daily
Title: Report Says Act has Brought No Local Competition
Issue: Competition
Description: Americans for Competitive Telecommunications, a coalition of
consumer groups and small business owners, have released a report that says
little progress has been made in local telephone competition. "As we
approach the one-year anniversary of the original bill designed to provide
for a procompetitive national policy framework, the reality is that all
industry players and regulators are entangled with federal and state rules
to implement the Act, and there is yet no competition," said Mark Phigler,
ACT's President.

At the FCC (http://www.fcc.gov)
NATIONAL OWNERSHIP PROCEEDINGS. Granted request by Media Access Project
and extended to March 21, 1997, the time to file reply comments in the
matter of three related rulemaking items regarding national and local
ownership of television stations and attribution of broadcast and
cable/MDS ownership interests. Dkt No.: MM- 94-150, MM- 92-51, MM-
87-154. Action by Bureau Chief. by Order. (DA No. 97-210). MMB

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION DONATES SURPLUS COMPUTERS TO WASHINGTON
METROPOLITAN AREA SCHOOLS. The FCC announced that it is donating more
than 45 surplus computers and associated electronic equipment to seven
schools in the Maryland and Metropolitan District of Columbia areas.. CIB
Contact: Roy Kolly at (202) 418-1154.
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