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Electronic Commerce
NYT: For Popular Categories, Online Sales Rise Sharply
NYT: Proposal Aims to Level Internet Playing Field
WSJ: Open Market Inc. Says It Will Receive Patents for
Internet-Commerce Software

Long-Distance
WSJ: Inside AT&T, A Crackdown On 'Slamming'

Antitrust
NYT: Microsoft Chairman Visits Senators on Eve of Testimony
WP: Gates Fears Curb on Innovation
WP: Microsoft In Senate's Focus
WSJ: Gates Answers To Criticism Of Microsoft
WSJ: Beware High-Tech Monopolies

Arts
NYT: Leading Art Site Suspended

Merger
NYT: Sale Weighed As Takeover Fight Goes On
NYT: Olivetti Sells Computer Services Unit to Wang

** Electronic Commerce **

Title: For Popular Categories, Online Sales Rise Sharply
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/03/cyber/articles/03survey.html
Author: Lisa Napoli
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Description: The market research group ( at )plan,based in Stamford, CT, release
a report yesterday that shows 24 percent of active Internet users shop
online. The buying trends are up considerably from July 1997, when ( at )plan
released its first report. The five Categories that show the most
significant growth were: airline ticket reservations, up 301 percent; stocks
and mutual funds, up 291 percent; computer hardware, up 111 percent; car
rentals, up 105 percent; and books, up 94 percent. "People are getting
increasingly comfortable with shopping on the Internet," said Mark Wright,
chairman and chief executive of ( at )plan. "Industries are springing up
overnight. Consumer fraud fears on the Web are diminishing. Online consumers
are increasingly willing to conduct sizable dollar transactions on the Web."

Title: Proposal Aims to Level Internet Playing Field
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes/Eurobytes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/cyber/eurobytes/03euro.html
Author: Bruno Giussani
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Description: Although the information available through the Internet may be
vast, the user's "mind space" remains limited and quite unyielding. "Surveys
suggest that users routinely tend to enter the Internet through the same
portals and list no more than three or four dozen different Web sites on
their bookmarks files." Given this information, recent rumors and deals in
both the U.S. and Europe confirm a trend towards consolidating the Internet
market and the emergence of a short list of dominant players. Among the ones
at the top of the list are those that entered the field of electronic
commerce early in the game, like Amazon.com bookstore, and thus have already
established their cyber-brand name on the user's mental cyberspace map. The
list also includes large companies with brand recognition and enough
financial backing to push aside smaller would-be competitors. A recent study
on electronic trading, published by Demos, a liberal British think tank,
said that based on current trends, we are heading for "an inefficient online
marketplace where the big players will progressively maximize their
advantage." The study advocates the creation of "guaranteed electronic
markets" (GEMs), a new design for electronic commerce systems in which
"central computers guarantee each transaction by verifying that buyers and
sellers can trust each other." Wingham Rowan, the report's author, says that
without such a system, electronic markets "promise little not already
offered on the advertising cards displayed in corner-shop windows." Rowan
writes that such guaranteed markets "encourage both dependable sellers and
cooperative buyers, while penalizing the unreliable" and compensating the
victim.

Title: Open Market Inc. Says It Will Receive Patents for Internet-Commerce
Software
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Jon G. Auerbach
Issue: Internet Commerce
Description: Software maker Open Market plans to announce today it has won
three patents covering widely used technologies for Internet commerce and
marketing and it will seek licensing fees from companies using them, company
officials say. The most significant patent covers current Internet
technologies that let people pay for goods on-line and receive instant
credit-card verification. A Patent Office spokesman said the office doesn't
comment on possible patents, but confirmed its new patent announcements are
made on Tuesdays.

** Long-Distance **

Title: Inside AT&T, A Crackdown On 'Slamming'
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1)
http://wsj.com/
Author: John J. Keller
Issue: Long-Distance
Description: Stung by complaints that long-distance customers are routinely
"slammed" -- their accounts switched to a new provider without their
permission -- AT&T is taking action. It is cracking down on outside sales
agents that sell its long-distance service and will propose sweeping changes
to regulators for policing the industry. Slamming is rising at an alarming
rate, and it is bound to get worse as new markets such as local phone
service open to competition. The FCC, which is planning its own crackdown,
recorded over 44,000 slamming complaints against companies that sell
long-distance service in 1997. Concerned about blunting charges that AT&T is
a slammer itself, C. Michael Armstrong put two of AT&T's outside sales
agents under review for possible dismissal.

** Antitrust **

Title: Microsoft Chairman Visits Senators on Eve of Testimony
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/03/cyber/articles/03microsoft.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, was in the nation's capitol
Monday denying that his company's decision to allow Internet service
providers to promote Internet browser software made by other companies was
prompted by the mood in Washington. Gates also said that the release of
Windows 98 would not be delayed by Justice Department investigators. In
comments made to reporters at the Capitol, Gates said: "There's really only
one principle at stake here, which is our ability to innovate in our
products. We've been in this business a long time, and that freedom to
innovate is very important to us. And so we are quite confident that that
principle, which has always been supported, that that principle will
prevail." Gates will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee today for
their hearing on "Market Power and Structural Change in the Software Industry."

Title: Gates Fears Curb on Innovation
Source: Washington Post (A1,A10)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-03/03/047l-030398-idx.html
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Bill Gates, chairman of the Microsoft Corp., said yesterday
that if the Justice Department prevails in its efforts to block Microsoft's
ability to add new features to its windows software, the company "will be
replaced" as a leader in the field of technology industry. In an interview
with Washington Post editors and reporters, Gates said: "It's hard to say
that you're going to compromise on your ability to innovate in Windows. If I
can't put Internet support in Windows, then Windows will fail. If I can't
put speech recognition into Windows, Windows will fail. You know, our path
is to make Windows better. If we can't innovate our products, then you know
we will be replaced."

Title: Microsoft In Senate's Focus
Source: Washington Post (C1,C6)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-03/03/109l-030398-idx.html
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Although the hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee
today is titled "Market Power and Structural Change in the Software
Industry," it is really about one company, the Microsoft Corp. The hearing,
called by committee chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT), is part of a longer-term
effort by Hatch to examine current antitrust laws, initially written in the
age of railroads and petroleum monopolies, to determine whether they are
still suited to today's fast-changing economic world. Experts say that "by
voicing public skepticism of Microsoft, Hatch can urge the department to
pursue a vigorous antitrust investigation." At the same time, by holding
public hearings, "Hatch and other senators can indicate to the department
that there is political support for what would be a highly controversial
case." William E. Kovacic, a law professor at George Mason Univ. and a
former Federal Trade Commission attorney, said that the hearing "has both
possibilities." Kovacic said,"No antitrust agency can afford to outrun a
political consensus, and to the extent that this kind of hearing signals the
willingness of Congress to accept further inquiry into the software
industry, that's an important signal for the Justice Department."

Title: Gates Answers To Criticism Of Microsoft
Source: Wall Street Journal (A3)
http://wsj.com/
Author: John R. Wilke & David Bank
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Bill Gates plans to tell Congress that "it is not, nor has it
ever been, the intention of my company to turn the information superhighway
into a toll road." In response to the government's antitrust challenge and
criticism of Microsoft's tactics, Mr. Gates says in draft testimony that "it
is preposterous to think that any one company could ever control access to
the Internet." Microsoft also offered a key concession to its critics over
the weekend, changing contract terms with Internet service providers
world-wide that favor Microsoft's Internet software over that of rival
Netscape Comm. While Microsoft said the change would have little impact,
Internet companies say the contract terms have prompted a sharp drop in
their distribution of Netscape software.

Title: Beware High-Tech Monopolies
Source: Wall Street Journal (Op-eds, A18)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Orrin G. Hatch
Issue: Antitrust
Description: The future development of the Internet and the digital economy
will be shaped by structural changes in today's marketplace. With respect to
such technological paradigm shifts, healthy competition and effective
antitrust policy are particularly important. Many economists believe that a
positive "feedback cycle" in high-tech markets often allows individual
firms, such as Microsoft, Intel or Oracle, to garner unusually large market
shares. Such dominance reduces competition, typically leading to higher
prices, less innovation and fewer consumer choices.

** Arts **

Title: Leading Art Site Suspended
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/03/cyber/articles/03adaweb.html
Author: Matthew Mirapaul
Issue: Arts
Description: The Web site which is one of the most premier destinations for
original Web-based art, ada'web, is being suspended. Co-founder, Benjamin
Weil, said the reason was that ada'web's publisher, Digital City Inc., had
canceled the Web site's financing. Skeptics had anticipate its closing since
the selling of ada'web's founding company, WP Studio, to Digital City, owned
primarily by America Online and the Tribune Company, 13 months ago. They
were unable to "reconcile the site's high-minded mission with the
mass-market orientation of other sites, and given the often- challenging
nature of the material, commercial sponsorship was not a likely option. Weil
agreed, saying: "For one year, it's been very difficult. We've been trying
to find ways for our corporate parent to understand that there was value in
this for them. It seemed like the message didn't really get through. And
then we tried to go non-profit to remain online, but we realized there was
very little funding available." Weil is now seeking a permanent home for
ada'web's archives so pre-published artwork can remain accessible.

** Merger **

Title: Sale Weighed As Takeover Fight Goes On
Source: New York Times (D1,D8)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/03/biztech/articles/03merger.html
Author: Saul Hansell
Issue: Merger
Description: In further efforts to fend off a takeover by Computer
Associates International Inc., Computer Sciences Corp. said yesterday that
it would go as far as to sell itself to another company. In a filing with
the Securities and Exchange Commission, Computer Sciences said it expected
"to engage in discussions and may engage in negotiations with other parties
regarding strategic alternatives, including a possible merger of the company."

Title: Olivetti Sells Computer Services Unit to Wang
Source: New York Times (D4)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/biztech/articles/03wang.html
Author: John Tagliabue
Issue: Merger/International
Description: At a joint news conference Monday, Olivetti SpA, the Italian
electronics company that has been selling its assets to focus on
telecommunications, announced that it will sell its computer services
subsidiary to Wang Laboratories Inc. for cash and securities totaling more
than $395 million. The subsidiary, Olsy SpA, designs and installs computer
systems for banks and public institutions across Europe.
*********

Education/Universal Service
NYT: Gore Defends Program to Wire Schools
NYT: Educators Lay Out Their Requirements for Technology

Campaign Finance Reform
NYT: Deadlock In Senate Blocks Campaign Finance Reform, All But
Killing It For Year
WP: Campaign Finance Bill Dies in Senate
WSJ: Impasse on Campaign-Finance Reform May Cause Sponsors to Change
Tactics

Internet
NYT: Clinton Continues to Stumble Over the 'E' Word (Encryption)
WSJ: Clinton, as Expected, Says He'll Support Moratorium on
Taxing Internet Sales
WSJ: AOL Taps Bloomberg For Business News
WSJ: Microsoft Plans to Cut Back Web Services

Infrastructure
WSJ: Interagency Center to Protect Networks From Hackers to
Be Unveiled by Reno

Telephony
WP: FCC Chief: Phone Giants OverCharging
Current: Clinton backs DTV transition subsidy

Philanthropy/Funding
Current: CPB Aids NPR Newsmags, Weekend and Native Programming
Current: ...and TV Docs on Broadway, Scottsboro, Bunche, Kalahari Life

Merger
WP: Computer Associated Says CSC Is 'Scaring Up Issues'

** Education/Universal Service **

Title: Gore Defends Program to Wire Schools
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/cyber/articles/27education.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Universal Service
Description: In a speech made to the Connecting All Americans conference
yesterday, Vice President Al Gore warned Congressional members who have
suggested proposals to cut financing to help rural and poor schools connect
to the Internet that they were in for a tough fight. "There are those who
would pick the money from the pockets of our poorest schools," Gore said. "I
would like to say to them loudly and clearly: Your efforts to block the
e-rate is an effort to ration information and ration education and it would
darken the future of some of our brightest students. We will not let you do it."

Title: Educators Lay Out Their Requirements for Technology
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/cyber/articles/27education-sid...
Author: Pamela Mendels
Issue: Education
Description: Wednesday evening a panel of educators gathered for a
discussion titled, "Introducing New Media Educational Content; What, How and
Whose New Projects Get into Schools?," the event was sponsored by the New
York New Media Association's Education Special Interest Group. The educators
came to the consensus that the three items at the top of their list for
technology in the classroom would be: buildings that can support computers
and cabling, better educational software, and research proving that the
gadgetry really helps students learn. Panelist, Richard A. Schultz, manager
of Internet services and technical training for the New York City Board of
Education, told the audience, "I'm very excited about the new media...and I
think teachers are extremely excited about this." Nonetheless, he and other
panelists agreed, technology still has a way to go before it is accepted and
integrated into the classroom.

** Campaign Finance Reform **

Title: Deadlock In Senate Blocks Campaign Finance Reform, All But
Killing It For Year
Source: New York Times (A1,A22)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/022798congress-campaign.html
Author: Alison Mitchell
Issue: Campaign Finance Reform
Description: Yesterday, the Senate basically buried all attempts at campaign
finance overhaul for at least another year. Despite a year-long
investigation into the campaign fundraising abuses of the 1996 election, the
advocates of revising the current law could not, in the end, generate enough
support to triumph over a Republican filibuster. "Instead, in successive
votes of 51-48 and 45-54 Thursday, the Senate first failed to end debate on
the main bipartisan overhaul bill and then on a competing proposal by
Republican majority leader Trent Lott aimed only at organized labor. It
takes 60 votes to cut off Senate debate and force a vote on legislation.
With the Senate at a stalemate, Lott, a primary foe of the overhaul effort,
removed both bills from the floor to clear the way for popular pork-barrel
legislation to allot transportation projects to the states. Having cycled
through familiar debate all week, no one objected." On the lawn of the
Capitol, after the final vote, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), one of the major
architects of the campaign finance reform bill, promised to try again and
said, "We will not quit and we will prevail." (until the fall...same time,
same place)

Title: Campaign Finance Bill Dies in Senate
Source: Washington Post (A1,A17)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/27/084l-022798-idx.html
Author: Helen Dewar
Issue: Campaign Finance Reform
Description: Legislation to overhaul the country's scandal-ridden campaign
finance system was put to death yesterday in the Senate. The final vote took
with it any hope to enact major changes before November's elections. "The
bill is dead" and cannot be revised, said Sen Mitch McConnell (R-KY), a
leading foe of the legislation. "When you have 48 people dug in on an issue,
it will not pass." Several campaign finance measures are still pending in
the House. Nearly 190 members have already signed a discharge petition to
force a vote, which House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) has promised by the
end of March. If the House does approve a bill, it would still have to go
back and clear the 60-vote hurdle in the Senate. "Unfortunately, the Senate
has once again proven that the American people's cynicism about Congress's
ability to pass meaningful reform is well-founded," said Sen. Olympia Snowe
(R-ME), who played a key role in debate over the issue. "If not for the
unwillingness of the leadership to recognize the majority support in the
Senate and the nation, we might have prevailed," she added.

Title: Impasse on Campaign-Finance Reform May Cause Sponsors to Change Tactics
Source: Wall Street Journal (A20)
http://wsj.com/
Author: David Rogers
Issue: Campaign Finance Reform
Description: The Senate deadlocked again on overhauling campaign-finance
laws, an impasse that could force reformers to change tactics and seek
incremental changes over time. A slim majority supports a large-scale
overhaul, but in a final test yesterday, the reformers were still eight
votes short of the 60 needed to bring up such a bill for a vote. Common
Cause President Ann McBride, a leading reform advocate, denounced the
outcome as a "disaster for our democracy" but said she is now prepared to
consider scaled-back changes to build the case for broader ones later.

** Internet **

Title: Clinton Continues to Stumble Over the 'E' Word (Encryption)
Source: New York Times (C1)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/biztech/articles/27industry.html
Author: John Markoff
Issue: Encryption
Description: In San Francisco yesterday, President Clinton described the
economic impact of the Internet in "glowing terms" to an audience of
technology investors. But throughout his speech, he failed to touch on the
issue of encryption and the administration's policy on data scrambling -- an
issue that increasingly seems to matter most to Silicon Valley. Sharpening
an already intense debate is the fact that legislation that would restrict
unlimited use of encryption is about to be introduced on Capitol Hill. A
series of intense negotiations over a compromise have been taking place
behind the scenes, but the Clinton Administration and a small group of
high-technology executives suggest that there is no simple resolution in
sight. One Silicon Valley executive, who met with the president before his
speech on Thursday and asked not to be further identified, said, "To us this
is really important, but it's just an irritant to him. His basic message to
us was, 'Can we get this thing done?'"

Title: Clinton, as Expected, Says He'll Support Moratorium on
Taxing Internet Sales
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Jackie Calmes
Issue: Internet Commerce
Description: President Clinton sided with cyberspace retailers rather than
the nation's governors, endorsing a moratorium on new taxes on Internet
commerce. The president, as expected, told several hundred
technology-industry entrepreneurs at a conference here that he supports a
proposed Internet Tax Freedom Act in Congress for a moratorium of as long as
six years. But, reflecting the heat he's taking from governors, who just
last week took the opposite stand, Mr. Clinton called for "a national
dialogue" to find ways in the meantime for state and local governments to
collect sales taxes without choking the Internet's development.

Title: AOL Taps Bloomberg For Business News
Source: Wall Street Journal (B2)
http://wsj.com/
Issue: Online Services
Description: AOL said it will make Bloomberg LP one of the major sources of
business and market news in a three-year agreement. Terms weren't disclosed,
but executives familiar with the plan said Bloomberg is paying AOL several
million dollars in exchange for top billing in the personal-finance area of
the service. The move fill holes left by Dow Jones, which formerly had a
contract with AOL which called for the online service provider to pay the news
organization an undisclosed sum to provide AOL subscribers with financial news.

Title: Microsoft Plans to Cut Back Web Services
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: David Bank
Issue: Online Services
Description: Microsoft ended a once bally-hooed foray into entertainment
programming, announcing that the Microsoft network will eliminate production
of its remaining on-line "shows" and close World Wide Web sites dedicated to
movie and music reviews. The cutbacks at the on-line service continue the
software company's retreat from broad ambitions in the media business. The
latest cutbacks will eliminate 50 jobs in Microsoft's Interactive Media
Group, and follow layoffs at Microsoft's Sidewalk local activity guides and
the elimination of an on-line travel magazine called Mungo Park. Instead,
Microsoft is beefing up services such as free e-mail, search and directories
to other content on the Web.

** Infrastructure **

Title: Interagency Center to Protect Networks From Hackers to
Be Unveiled by Reno
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: John Simons
Issue: Infrastructure
Description: Attorney General Janet Reno is expected to unveil today an
interagency center designed to protect the nation's phone systems, electric
utilities and digital networks from cyber attacks. The unit will combine
several existing federal computer-security efforts into a single command
center here and will include computer experts from the Defense and Justice
departments as well as the Secret Service. The unit, which will also work
closely with private-sector technicians, will investigate misdeeds ranging
from digital break-ins at private-sector banks to thefts of data from
military networks. Ms. Reno plans to ask Congress for $64 million for fiscal
1999 to finance the unit, called the Nat'l Infrastructure Protection Center.

** Telephony **

Title: FCC Chief: Phone Giants OverCharging
Source: Washington Post (G1,G3)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/27/062l-022798-idx.html
Author: Mike Mills
Issue: Long-Distance
Description: William E. Kennard, chairman of the Federal Communications
Commission, yesterday accused AT&T, MCI and Sprint of not passing onto
consumers savings from FCC reductions in the connection charges
long-distance companies pay to local phone companies and of overcharging
their customers for new fees ordered by the government last year. In a
letter to the three carriers, Kennard cited a "growing body of evidence that
the nation's largest long-distance companies are raising rates when their
costs of providing service are decreasing." The long-distance companies
responded angrily to Kennard's accusation. "Every MCI customer who has made
a long-distance call on Sundays in the last six months knows that
long-distance rates have gone down and access-charge savings have been
passed along," said MCI spokeswoman Jamie DePeau, referring to the company's
new 5-cent-per-minute rate on Sundays. Sprint spokeswoman Eileen Doherty
said, "Sprint's long-distance rates have historically fallen far more than
access charges." Kennard is under pressure from top Democratic and
Republican leaders, many whom blame the FCC for failing to ensure that
consumers phone bills would not increase as a result of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Title: Clinton backs DTV transition subsidy
Source: Current, The Public Telecommunications Newspaper (Vol.XVII, No.3,p1)
Author: Steven Behrens
Issue: Digital TV
Description: The White House this month endorsed $450 million in federal
help for public broadcasting's transition to digital transmission --- a huge
commitment but less than the $1.7 billion estimated cost for the changeover.
Part of the sum amounts to a redirection of the longstanding Public
Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP). APTS, CPB, and PBS said
nevertheless that they were "delighted" with the support and called it an
"excellent start." However, the statement from NPR President Delano Lewis
said he was "concerned" that the sum fell short of the field's request. No
one knows what difference the lower subsidy will make in the digital
switch over, said APTS President David Brugger, but it may mean that some
public TV stations will lack digital production gear and will serve only as
"pass-through" outlets for national programs.

** Philanthropy/Funding **

Title: CPB Aids NPR Newsmags, Weekend and Native Programming
Source: Current, The Public Telecommunications Newspaper (Vol.XVII, No.3,p14)
Author: Jaqueline Conciatore
Issue: Philanthropy
Description: CPB's 1998 Radio Program Fund has awarded NPR about a
half-million dollars to strengthen its news-magazines and support "Morning
Edition's" shift to a 5 a.m. start. CPB announced the 22 awards, totaling
$4.5 million, Feb. 9. The fund made heavy investments in weekend shows and
Native American programming. NPR won $275,000 to help pay for Morning
Edition's January shift in start time from 6 a.m. to 5 a.m.

Title: ...and TV Docs on Broadway, Scottsboro, Bunche, Kalahari Life
Source: Current, The Public Telecommunications Newspaper (Vol.XVII, No.3,p14)
Author: Karen Everhart Bedford
Issue: Funding
Description: CPB's most recent Television Program Fund grants round provides
more than $4 million to 18 projects, including a number focused on education
or training. CPB is offering fellowships for producers to attend the Input
98 screening conference in Germany this May, backing outreach for a major
history miniseries, and providing completion funds for a videotape series on
math instruction. But most of the projects are intended for PBS distribution.

** Merger **

Title: Computer Associated Says CSC Is 'Scaring Up Issues'
Source: Washington Post (G1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/27/058l-022798-idx.html
Author: Mark Leibovich
Issue: Merger
Description: Computer Associates International Inc. said yesterday that
officials at Computer Sciences Corp. are "scarring up issues that don't
exist" in their effort to block a hostile takeover by stating intelligence
community concerns over Computer Associates' partial foreign ownership.
"Computer Sciences is going to look under every stone, open any closet and
not leave any page unturned to discourage people from voting for this
offer," said Steve Woghin, CA's senior vice president and general counsel.
Computer Sciences' officials had no comment yesterday.
*********

Universal Service
Telecom AM: Irving Defends FCC Universal Service Implementation

Internet
WP: Governors Support Internet Sales Tax
NYT: Fewer Bricks Mean Higher Returns At New Internet Banks

Telephony
Telecom AM: Tauzin To Join McCain In Seeking Elimination Of Exercise Tax

Merger
WSJ: Sinclair Broadcast Agrees to Acquire Sullivan for More Than
$800 Million

** Universal Service **

Title: Irving Defends FCC Universal Service Implementation
Source: Telecom AM---feb. 25, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: The FCC's system of carrier contributions to the universal
service fund is not a tax, National Telecommunications & Infrastructure
Administration Administrator Larry Irving said. He said that the new
programs are built on "a concept that's existed for decades" and that he
hoped the session would help people "get out of the Washington mindset about
what all this means." For 70 years, "it has been this nation's policy to
give everyone basic telecom service," Irving said. He said that within the
next decade Internet access will be basic service, noting that beginning
this year it no longer will be possible to take the Graduate Record Exam
anywhere but online and students without computer and Internet experience
will be handicapped.

** Internet **

Title: Governors Support Internet Sales Tax
Source: Washington Post (C9,C12)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/25/063l-022598-idx.html
Author: David S. Broder and Rajov Chandrasekaran
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: As Internet shopping becomes more popular, many of the nation's
governors are concerned about losing billions of dollars in tax revenue. In
reaction to this, a resolution adopted at the final session of the National
Governor's Association urged Congress to expand the ability of states to tax
commerce on the Internet. The resolution would require Internet and
catalogue merchants to collect and pay sales taxes even if they do not have
a physical presence in the state to which the goods are being shipped.
Currently, such businesses are not required to collect state sales taxes in
any destination state in which they do not operate. In return, the governors
said they would support a prohibition on taxing Internet access, and they
pledged to try to organize the current mass-variances in local sales taxes
by enacting a single rate within each state. They contend that by creating
uniform rates it would be easier for Internet and mail-order merchants to
collect and remit the taxes.

Title: Fewer Bricks Mean Higher Returns At New Internet Banks
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/022598bank.html
Author: Sandeep Junnarkar
Issue: Internet Use
Description: A new breed of banking is emerging across the Internet. Instead
of providing Web access only as a convenience, these banks offer all of
their services on the Internet. They don't have any bank branches or
tellers, all checks are direct-deposited or mailed, and they are opened 24
hours-a-day, seven days-a-week for service at their Web sites. Because these
banks don't have the overhead expenses of running branch offices they are
able to parlay their reduced costs into better interest rates on money
market accounts, certificates of deposit, and they even offer interest on
checking accounts. Currently, only two such Internet banks are operational:
Security First Network Bank and Atlanta Internet Bank, but a third,
CompuBank, has been chartered.

** Telephony **

Title: Tauzin To Join McCain In Seeking Elimination Of Exercise Tax
Source: Telecom AM---feb. 25, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Telephony
Description: House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin is drafting
legislation to eliminate the 3 percent exercise tax on telecommunications.
His videotaped announcement was aired Feb. 24 at the Cellular
Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) convention in Washington DC,
one day after Senate Committee Chairman John McCain told the same audience
that he will propose similar legislation as soon as this week. Tauzin said
he is committed to "getting rid of the tax on the First Amendment."

** Merger **

Title: Sinclair Broadcast Agrees to Acquire Sullivan for More Than $800 Million
Source: Wall Street Journal (B8)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Kyle Pope
Issue: Merger
Description: Sinclair Broadcast Group said it agreed to pay more than $800
million to buy Sullivan Broadcast Holdings, a closely held owner of 13
midsize TV stations. Sinclair will have 24 Fox affiliates after the Sullivan
deal is complete. Sinclair said the deal all but ends a TV expansion push
that has doubled the company's stable of TV stations during the past year.
Under terms of the transaction, Sinclair will pay Sullivan shareholders
about $840 million and will assume as much as $160 million in Sullivan debt.
Once the Sullivan deal closes this spring, Sinclair will own a total of 55
TV stations, up from 28 a year ago, covering about a quarter of all American
households.
*********

Universal Service
TelecomAM: Stevens Aide Tells FCC It Made Mistake Exempting ISPs
TelecomAM: Economist Says Internet Wiring Funding Will Cost $2.63 Billion

Telephony
TelecomAM: AT&T, BellSouth Criticize FCC Order On Customer Information
NYT: Technology That Tracks Cell Phone Draws Fire

Internet/Online Services
NTIA: Technical Management of Internet Names and Addresses
NYT: Staying With the Pitch
WP: Services Using Web Search Engines Challenge Commercial Databases
WSJ: Computer Industry Races to Conquer the Automobile
WSJ: European Web Sites Are Found Lacking In a Recent Survey

Television
B&C: More channels, power for DTV
NYT: TV Cable Box Software May Blur Digital Signals
B&C: Granite bid makes strange bedfellows

Satellites
B&C: FCC eyes cable/DBS ownership ban
NTIA: Satellite Policy and Industry Web Page

InfoTech
WP: Protecting the Ownership Right to Copyright
WP: The Nemesis of a Slow Computer
NYT: In the Data Storage Race, Disks Are Outpacing Chips

Jobs
NYT: New Quota For Technology Workers
NYT: In The Shadow of Silicon Valley, 'Digital Coast' Appears
FCC: Telecommunications '98

** Universal Service **

Title: Stevens Aide Tells FCC It Made Mistake Exempting ISPs
Source: Telecom AM---feb. 23, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: A former aide to Sen. Ted Stevens said the FCC made a mistake
by exempting Internet Service Providers and other information services from
payments to support universal service. Earl Comstock said the Commission
undermined the universal service program while creating a system of
"regulatory favoritism" because it also exempted Internet companies from
paying access charges.

Title: Economist Says Internet Wiring Funding Will Cost $2.63 Billion
Source: Telecom AM---feb. 23, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Universal Service
Description: The FCC's use of long distance charges to fund its new
universal service programs will cost American consumers $2.63 billion in
economic inefficiency and is a regressive tax scheme, according to economist
Jerry Hausman. He said the FCC should have funded the programs to wire
schools, libraries and rural health care providers to the Internet by
increasing subscriber line charges to $4.50 from $3.50. He said such an
increase would account for inflation over the last 14 years, during
which time SLCs have not gone up.

** Telephony **

Title: AT&T, BellSouth Criticize FCC Order On Customer Information
Source: Telecom AM---feb. 23, 1998
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Privacy
Description: Complying with the FCC order on customer's proprietary phone
information will cost the telecom industry "hundreds of millions" of
dollars, said BellSouth VP Randy New. At issue is a recent ruling that
requires phone companies to get approval to sue private information about a
customer's phone service before using that information to offer new
services. "The new restriction imposes new costs on an industry already
cutting costs," he said. AT&T said it was "concerned" about a "major
anti-competitive loophole" in the order that favors Bell companies. AT&T
also said the regulations could allow a Bell company's long distance
affiliate to access private information about a customer's local phone use
if it wins the customer for long distance.

Title: Technology That Tracks Cell Phone Draws Fire
Source: New York Times (D3)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/022398track.html
Author: Peter Wayner
Issue: Privacy
Description: Cellular telephone companies around the world have begun to
install equipment that will allow them, or police, ambulance dispatchers,
worried parents, jealous spouses, etc, to track the location of the callers.
This new technology is being defended as public safety insurance for people
placing 911 or emergency calls. But it also offers the ability for someone
to continuously monitor a caller's position and movement -- even months after
a call was placed -- in detail, which is drawing fire from privacy advocates
and civil liberty groups. "The question is whether the telephone system is
being built for communication or surveillance," said David Banisar, a staff
attorney for an advocacy group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
The Federal Communications Commission will require cell phone companies to
include rough
position information when passing along a 911 call by April of this year,
and within three and a half years, they must be able to identify a caller's
location within 125 meters.

** Internet/Online Services **

Title: Technical Management of Internet Names and Addresses
Source: NTIA
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/new.html
Issue: Internet
Description: "The DNS Management Proposed Rule and Request for Public
Comment http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/domainname130.htm on
Improvement of Technical Management of Internet Names and Addresses was
published in the Federal Register
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/022098fedreg.txt on February
20, establishing March 23 as the deadline for public comments in this
proceeding. All comments received are posted on this site
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/130dftmail/."

Title: Staying With the Pitch
Source: New York Times (D1,D5)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/022398sales.html
Author: Lisa Napoli
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Description: While a large majority of businesses are racing to begin
selling their wares across the Internet, a group of the traditional
direct-sales businesses are opting to swim against the tide. "The Internet
is an information source, not a sales source," said Lawrie Hall, a
spokeswoman for Tupperware. "We see it as a wonderful way to educate people.
The Internet doesn't provide the kind of service we see as beneficial to the
consumer," she said. Other door-to-door businesses, including Amway, Mary
Kay and Electrolux, also are shunning the notion of selling their wares to
customers online, even though each company has a Web site. Officials from
the Direct Selling Association, an industry group in Washington, say that by
maintaining their traditional approach to selling they can more effectively
educate the consumer about the product by offering first-hand, personal,
service. Proponents of electronic commerce suggest that direct sellers are
holding on to their old way of doing things because the Internet could wreak
havoc with companies that are built on a pyramid of salespeople. Don
Peppers, co-author of "Enterprise 1 to 1: Tools for Competing in the
Interactive Age" said, "If you're in the business of selling
distributorships, you don't want your end users to go around the channels to
obtain that stuff."

Title: Services Using Web Search Engines Challenge Commercial Databases
Source: Washington Post (F23)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-s...te/1998-02/23/0321-022398-idx.html
Author: Margot Williams
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Description: Commercial databases, and their fees, are moving to the Web in
search of a wider consumer market. Dow Jones and Dialog have made the move.
But can they compete with the speed and power of popular search engines like
Excite and InfoSeek? In the wide-open Web market, new players are
challenging the longtime database vendors by making their own deals with
content providers and providing access through familiar Web search
technology to a similar (and growing) range of information.

Title: Computer Industry Races to Conquer the Automobile
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Joseph B. White & David Bank
Issue: New Internet Technology
Description: This summer, Clarion Corp. is expected to be the first to offer
a personal computer for the car as a replacement for factory-installed
radios. The device -- with a list price of $1,299, not including a wireless
modem -- will use Microsoft's Auto PC software, which includes the company's
Windows CE operating and voice-recognition systems. Using it, a driver will
be able to retrieve e-mail or make a cell phone call without letting go of
the wheel. Drivers can also get digital directions: Auto PC's synthesized
voice will read out left and right turns. The package will include a player
for CDs and CD-ROMs. Ford Motor Co.'s Visteon unit is collaborating with
Microsoft and Intel to develop its own version of a speech-recognizing car
PC, called ICES. [So, car phone aren't distracting enough...]

Title: European Web Sites Are Found Lacking In a Recent Survey
Source: Wall Street Journal (B7B)
http://wsj.com/
Issue: Internet/International
Description: Despite newfound corporate enthusiasm for getting online,
European websites are still sorely lacking when it comes to communicating
with their audiences and implementing credible electronic-commerce
strategies. This was the conclusion of a new study, "The Missing Link," that
analyzed the Web sites of 100 multinational companies (least half of
which were European). The survey emphasized that nearly all of the companies
were found to have the same problems: difficult to use pages, little
understanding of what visitors to the sites hope to find, and undeveloped
online selling strategies.

** Television **

Title: More channels, power for DTV
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.6)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Chris McConnell
Issue: Digital TV
Description: The broadcast industry won more spectrum and UHF broadcasters
will be able to use more power according to revised rules released by the
Federal Communications Commission last week. "The real-world problems of
implementation are still with us," said one broadcaster. "The big mystery is
whether any of this is going to work," said another. Broadcasters are still
dealing with concerns around set-top antennas and finding space for
transmitters by November. [In related news, B&C reports that the FCC will
address "must carry" rules for digital broadcasts in March.]

Title: TV Cable Box Software May Blur Digital Signals
Source: New York Times (D6)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/022398cableboxes.html
Author: Joel Brinkley
Issue: Digital TV
Description: Microsoft has gained a small foothold in its efforts to cajole
the nation's television broadcasters into abandoning high-definition TV and
using only lower-resolution transmission formats for digital broadcasts
through the company's agreement to supply the operating system for several
million digital cable boxes being purchased by Tele-Communications Inc. This
move has angered government officials, television set makers, broadcasters
and others. During a broadcaster's convention last month, Gary Shapiro, head
of the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association, complained, "TCI's 14
million customers may never have a chance to see HDTV. This is a huge
tragedy for the American consumer." Leo Hindery Jr., president of
Tele-Communications replied that the associations "information is incorrect,
and it was extremely irresponsible for them to mislead the public." The main
issue in this argument is how the digital cable boxes will handle the
high-definition signals that broadcasters in the nation's 10 largest cities
plan to put on the air in six to eight months.

Title: In Atlanta, Cable TV Bolsters a Newspaper's Circulation
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/ga-paper-media.html
Author: Iver Peterson
Issue: Cable/Newspapers
Description: The Gwinnett Daily Post in Lawrenceville, Ga. is trying to
bypass the slow job of building circulation one sale at a time in favor of a
marriage of convenience with the medium most often blamed for eroding
readership: cable TV. The papers are being paid for by the local cable TV
company for its subscribers. In exchange for increased circulation, the
paper rents a channel on the company's system and produces news and
entertainment programs. The move also shows the competitive challenge faced
by Richard Rae, publisher of The Daily Post, and Thomas Stultz, president of
the publishing div. of Gray Communications Systems. "Everybody in this
industry sits around saying that somebody, sometime, has got to do something
about declining readership or there's not going to be a newspaper industry,"
Stultz said.

Title: Granite bid makes strange bedfellows
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.15)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Chris McConnell
Issue: Ownership
Description: Promising that its application will promote minority ownership
in the broadcast industry, Granite Broadcasting is asking the FCC to let it
own stations in San Francisco and San Jose with overlapping signals.
Broadcasters are eyeing this matter thinking it may open the door to a
relaxed duopoly standard. The FCC has granted common ownership of stations
with overlapping Grade B (45-70 mile) signals. This case would be the first
to allow Grade A (within 45 miles) overlap.

** Satellites **

Title: FCC eyes cable/DBS ownership ban
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.13)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
Author: Chris McConnell
Issue: Ownership
Description: The FCC has invited the public to comment on DBC/cable
crossownerhip as part of an effort to streamline technical DBS rules. "It
should be the policy of this commission to promote competition whenever we
can," said Chairman Bill Kennard. [See
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/International/News_Releases/1998/nrin8004.html
for more info]

Title: Satellite Policy and Industry Web Page
Source: NTIA
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/new.html
Issue: Satellite/International
Description: "NTIA's Office of International Affairs (OIA) has created a
satellite policy and industry web page
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/oiahome/satellite.htm, containing links to U.S.
and overseas sites. OIA welcome your views on and suggestions for/revisions
to this new page. Also, the page of links to international telecom and
Internet policy sites http://www.ntia.doc.gov/oiahome/dianelist.html has
been expanded, including more Latin American sites."

** InfoTech **

Title: Protecting the Ownership Right to Copyright
Source: Washington Post (F05)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-s..te/1998-02/23/0161-022398-idx.html
Author: Elizabeth Corcoran
Issue: Copyright
Description: Paul Schneck, VP of MRJ Technology Solutions believes he has
come up with a technique that will enable those who create books, movies,
art and other "content" to protect their copyright in the digital world.
People who have seen Schneck's technology work are impressed. What Schneck
wants to do is turn the box that displays or prints information into the
watchdog that ensures that a consumer is following copyright rules. In his
scheme, owners/publishers would first electronically send a license to view
a work once. A consumer would electronically sign an agreement and return it
to the owner with payment. The consumer's PC, meanwhile, stores a copy of
the license, which is encrypted so that only the consumer's PC can make
sense of it.

Title: The Nemesis of a Slow Computer
Source: Washington Post (F22)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/23/029l-022398-idx.html
Author: John Burgess
Issue: Computer Technology
Description: A 10-person research team at the University of Cambridge in
England, headed by computer scientists, Simon Crosby and Ian Leslie, have
spent the past four years working on an entirely new operating system for
personal computers. Their aim is to make truly reliable machines that can
effectively deliver the video, sound and instant network communications of
the emerging multimedia world. The new system, called Nemisis, has the
division of time at its core, it allows the user to specify "how much of the
computers attention, what percentage of the millions of work cycles it is
racing through each second, will be given over to each of the tasks it's
doing." So rather than obsessing over a job that does not need to be done in
real time, Nemisis will slow down that task so the video, or other
multimedia information, will flow uninterrupted. The researchers say they
are academics that are more than happy to share their work with outside
parties. "Our aim is to show people the right way to do it, and not try to
compete" in the market ourselves, said Crosby.

Title: In the Data Storage Race, Disks Are Outpacing Chips
Source: New York Times (D1,D3)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/022398diskdrive.html
Author: John Markoff
Issue: Computer Technology
Description: Last year, scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Laboratory
announced they had stored more than 11.6 billion bits of data in one square
inch on the surface of a rotating magnetic disk, and last week, researchers
at Quinta, a division of Seagate Technology Inc., announced a new storage
approach that blends microscopic optical lasers with magnetic technology,
pushing the disk drive's storage capability well beyond what was previously
believed possible. Given these recent storage space accomplishments, disk
drive engineers are now considering the possibility of actually replacing
computer memory chips with tiny disk drives for devices like hand-held
computers and digital cameras. For consumers, this increase in capacity
means continued falling costs for computer data storage.

** Jobs **

Title: New Quota For Technology Workers
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/022398workers.html
Author: Robert Pear
Issue: Jobs
Description: The White House is seriously considering increasing the
immigration quota for computer scientists and other information-technology
workers, so that foreigners can fill the thousands of job openings in the
United States.

Title: In The Shadow of Silicon Valley, 'Digital Coast' Appears
Source: New York Times (D4)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/022398coast.html
Author: Amy Harmon
Issue: How to Rival
Description: Last week, Los Angeles Mayor, Richard Riordan, announced that
the city would henceforth be known as "Digital Coast." Riordan said,
"multimedia is our ticket for success into the next century. The future is
in our hands, and we're going to win." The name came about as members of the
high-technology industry in LA formed a committee to put itself on the map.
The name was selected from a list of hundreds of suggestions made over the
past several months. However, Digital Coast is receiving little more than
"snickers and derision from its geographic rivals.' Mark Stahlman, a
co-founder of the New York New Media Association and the man who coined the
name Silicon Alley label to describe the group of Internet companies located
in lower Manhattan, sniffed at the LA's new title, saying that already
people are talking about "Digital Toast."

Title: Telecomunications '98
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Miscellaneous/Informal/fsu.html
Issue: Jobs
Description: "Fayetteville State University, Federal Communications
Commission, and the National Association of Broadcasters present,
Telecomunications '98. This conference will provide a perspective on one of
the nation's fastest growing industries and will explore opportunities and
related communications industry issues." For additional information contact:
FSU - Dr. Perry Massey,Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs or
Alfreda Cromartie, Executive Asst: 910-486-1460(v) or 910-486-1782(f)
*********