SPECTRUM
Big Companies Win Airwave Bids (NYT)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
Help on the Way for Former CLC Students (WP)
INTERNET
Mining the 'Deep Web' With Specialized Drills (NYT)
FTC Ends Investigation of DoubleClick (EPIC)
SPECTRUM
BIG COMPANIES WIN AIRWAVE BIDS
Issue: Auction
The nation's largest wireless phone services are taking advantage of
rules intended to help the smallest telecommunications companies by
striking agreements with smaller partners that will enable them to
win more than 160 licenses at a sharp discount, and by one rival's
estimate cost taxpayers as much as $626 million. The small companies
that were supposed to have received special treatment to promote
competition are complaining that they lost at the expense of giants
like AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS, VoiceStream and Cingular, the joint
venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth. As the Federal
Communications Commission prepares to close its $17 billion auction,
more than 95 percent of the high bids have come from the largest
companies and their partners. FCC officials say the rules are supposed
to prevent smaller companies from being used as shams. But the rules
are also not supposed to discourage larger companies from making
investments in the smaller companies because telecommunications is so
capital intensive. Officials at the FCC said today that they would
examine the structure of the companies to assure that they complied
with the rules.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stephen Labaton]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/25/technology/25SPEC.html)
(requires registration)
See Also:
FCC AUCTION OF WIRELESS LICENSES RAISES A RECORD $17 BILLION SO FAR
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (), AUTHOR: Mark Wigfield]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB980393070677828094.htm)
(requires subscription)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
HELP ON THE WAY FOR FORMER CLC STUDENTS
Issue: Digital Workforce Development
Federal and state education officials are aiding thousands of students
who were shut out of computer technology career training classes after
Computer Learning Centers Inc. of Manassas suddenly closed its 25
schools on Monday. The company closed its doors following a federal
government decision not to prepay student loans to CLC, after which
CLC's lender put a hold on its assets. CLC had 10,000 nationwide.
Federal and state officials are helping students complete specific
classes at other institutions, transfer to new programs or get their
loans forgiven. One Maryland official is suggesting that students who
just started a CLC program should lean toward retrieving funds, and
students who have almost completed their course work should look for
comparable programs. The situation is similar for Virginia students
and those other students nationwide. Many students were only a week
or two away from completing their degree programs and were banking
on completing their programs for job placement or advancement.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E05), Author: Amy Joyce]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43136-2001Jan24.html)
INTERNET
MINING THE 'DEEP WEB' WITH SPECIALIZED DRILLS
Issue: Internet
When President Bush made his choice of the new Labor Secretary, the
media were buzzing with news about Linda Chavez. But from the results
coming up in most popular search engines, you would never have known
it. On Alta Vista, some of the first results linked to Ms. Chavez's
old columns for an online magazine, but none of the links provided
even a hint of the fact that she had become front-page news. Search
engines can be pitifully inadequate, partly because they rely on
Web-page indexes that were compiled weeks before. Pages deep within
Web sites are also often missed, as are multimedia files, bibliographies,
the bits of information in databases and pages that come in PDF, Adobe's
portable document format. According to BrightPlanet.com, traditional
search engines have access to only a fraction of 1 percent of what exists
on the Web. To dig deeper into the Web, a new breed of search engine
has cropped up that takes a different approach to Web page retrieval.
Instead of broadly scanning the Web by indexing pages from any links
they can find, these search engines are devoted to drilling further
into specialty areas. Looking for timely financial data? Try
FinancialFind.com. Seeking sketches of molecular structures or even
scientific humor? Biolinks.com may help.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Lisa Guernsey]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/25/technology/25SEAR.html)
(requires registration)
FTC ENDS INVESTIGATION OF DOUBLECLICK
Issue: Privacy
The Federal Trade Commission ended its investigation today into the
business practices of DoubleClick, Inc., a leading provider of
Internet-based advertising. In a letter to DoubleClick, the FTC
concluded that the company never used personally identifying information
in contravention of its privacy policy. In February 2000, EPIC filed
a complaint against DoubleClick, alleging that the company engaged in
unfair and deceptive trade practices by revising its privacy policies
to accommodate the advertiser's new data practices.
[SOURCE: Electronic Policy Network]
(http://www.epn.org/)
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