Today's dog is wireless telephony
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
USA/Lycos, a Merger Chasing Electronic Commerce (WP)
Amazon.Com Plans To Revise Its Ad Program
Quarterly Internet Ad Revenues Double
AOL to Offer Advice, Sell New PCs Online (WP)
In China, the Internet Is Double-Edged
EDTECH
Copyright Law Raises Questions for Distance Education
TELEPHONY
Progress Report: Long Distance & Local Service (NTIA)
Speech: The Telecom Act at Three: Seeing the Face of
the Future (FCC)
Bell Atlantic, in Wake of GTE Deal, Still Hopes to Extend
Wireless Network (WSJ)
Speech: Crossing Into The Wireless Century (FCC)
'Caller Pays' System Eyed for Mobile Phones (SJ Merc)
Speech: Consumers, Competition, and the Veil of Ignorance (FCC)
U.S., Europe Wireless Roaming Made Easier (SJ Merc)
CABLE
Kennard: AT&T/TCI Need Not Unbundle (B&C)
AT&T Faces a Heated Party Line (B&C)
TELEVISION
Study Finds TV Misses a Chance with Sex (WP)
ANTITRUST
Us Challenges Microsoft On Videotape Showing Web Access
Using Its Browser (WSJ)
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ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
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USA/LYCOS, A MERGER CHASING ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Walker calls the new USA/Lycos Interactive Network "yet another hastily
assembled contraption that is part fast-moving Internet machine, part
slow-moving traditional business." Under the merger announced yesterday,
Internet gateway Lycos would be married to two ventures
under Barry Diller -- cable TV's Home Shopping Network and Ticketmaster
Online-Citysearch. Lycos chief executive Robert Davis said, "We have
created a framework for becoming the largest electronic commerce entity
anywhere." Mr. Diller said, "I think we are entering a period of new convergence
-- of information, entertainment and direct selling." Lycos' new services
will position it better as a portal, a starting point for Web exploration,
including shopping. After Lycos' stock prices dropped yesterday, analysts
said that in addition to being disappointed at the valuation of the company,
shareholders are concerned that the addition of home shopping and ticket
sales could make the new company more like the traditional media businesses,
which have lower valuations in the stock market than Internet entities.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E1), AUTHOR: Leslie Walker]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/daily/feb99/lycos10.htm
See also:
LYCOS DEAL MEETS THE NEW INTERNET MATH
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Saul Hansell]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/02/biztech/articles/10net.html
AMAZON.COM PLANS TO REVISE ITS AD PROGRAM
Issue: Advertising/E-commerce
The online book giant, Amazon.com, has pledged to change its book
endorsement policy as a result of complaints from its customers. Amazon
received a flood of emails from customers disappointed to discover that the
company places titles on recommend book lists, such as "What We're Reading,"
in exchange for advertising fees from book publishers. The book seller has
agreed to disclose when publishers have paid to have their books featured in
special sections of the site. [Now if only real-world bookseller would do
the same!] The new policy, however, will not take effect until March 1st. In
the meantime, Amazon has expanded its book return policy to demonstrate its
faith in the recommendation it has provided.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Doreen Carvajal]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/02/biztech/articles/10amazon.html
QUARTERLY INTERNET AD REVENUES DOUBLE
Issue: Advertising/Internet
Quarterly revenues for Internet advertising have more than doubled in the
past year, according to a report issued by the Internet Advertising Bureau
on Tuesday. The IAB, a New York based trade group, estimated that
advertising revenues for the year would total $2 billion. While this
represents large gains for the Internet, that figure would only represent
1% of the total spent on advertising in America each year. "It sends a signal
both to the agencies and their clients that this is a true mass medium that
they're going to have to deal with going forward," said Paul Noglows, who
follows consumer media for Hambrecht & Quist, a San Francisco investment bank.
[SOURCE: CyberTimes , AUTHOR: Lisa Napoli]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/02/cyber/articles/10ad.html
AOL TO OFFER ADVICE, SELL NEW PCS ONLINE
Issue: Electronic Commerce
In March, America Online will start offering online computer shopping
guides on the main AOL service, on Compuserve's online service, and at
http://AOL.com. The AOL guides will offer shoppers product reviews,
recommendations, and up-to-date prices and will allow consumers to make
purchase online. Under the deal announced yesterday CNET Inc., the producer
of the guides, will gain revenue from advertisements appearing on the
service and from selling phone-book style listings to computer stores. The
service attempts to automate the job of the salesperson in a retail computer
store. "What you want is a simple experience," said Jonathan Sacks, an AOL
vice president. "Buying a computer is an unnecessarily difficult and
confusing process for many consumers." CNET already has a version of the
service at http://computers.com.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E5), AUTHOR: Shannon Henry]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/daily/feb99/aol10.htm
IN CHINA, THE INTERNET IS DOUBLE-EDGED
Issue: Internet/ International
In China, the Internet - which only became commercially available in 1995 -
has opened up a world of information to its more than 2 million users. While
the government still has a tight grip on Internet communication, with all
connections passing through one of just four state-controlled gateways, the
Web has enabled scholars and others to access research and information
previously inaccessible. The Internet has also allowed the Chinese to embark
upon the new frontier of e-commerce. The going is slow in a nation where
only a select few actually have a credit card. More immediately feasible,
however, are new possibilities for sales between Chinese and foreign
companies introduced by the Web. As the Chinese government desperately tries
control "objectionable" sites and messages, it also knows that the growth of
the Internet must be fostered in order to move China ahead in the realms of
technology and commerce. And, as Guo Liang, a philosopher at the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences notes; "Once this information door is opened, you
can't close it."
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Erik Eckholm]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/02/cyber/articles/10china.html
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EDTECH
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COPYRIGHT LAW RAISES QUESTIONS FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION
Issue: Advertising/Internet
The U.S. Copyright Office is holding a series of public hearings to
determine whether or not the current copyright laws are sufficient to
protect teachers of distance learning courses. Educators say that -- while
there are laws protect the use of materials for distance learning -- there
needs to be additional language that accounts for the use of new technology
such as the World Wide Web. "We want laws in place...that make it clear
what we can and cannot do, so we move in an environment that is supportive
of distance learning rather than undermining of it," said Leslie A. Harris,
a lawyer and lobbyist for groups including the Consortium for School
Networking. Copyright holders, however, are concerned about any possible
changes to the current laws. "If you carve out this huge exemption and allow
anyone who calls himself a 'distance educator' to digitize and disseminate
material to a large number of people, control of the product can quickly get
out of hand," said Fritz E. Attaway, general counsel to the Motion Picture
Association of America.
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Pamela Mandels]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/02/cyber/education/10education.html
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TELEPHONY
=========
PROGRESS REPORT: LONG DISTANCE & Local Service
Issue: Long Distance
From the executive summary: 1) Growing competition in long-distance services
has eroded AT&T's market share from its former monopoly level to about 50
percent. With this competition has come increasing availability of low-cost
calling plans for a broad range of consumers. As a result, average revenue
per minute earned by carriers has been declining steadily for several years
and long-distance usage has increased substantially. Consumers will likely
reap further benefits as competition grows in the long-distance market under
the Telecommunications Act of 1996. 2) Many new carriers have entered the
wireline local services market since the 1996 Act, providing both
switched voice and high-speed data services to customers. To date they have
created more than 50,000 new jobs and attracted over 30 billion dollars
worth of capital investment, not counting debt or private venture financing.
Recent entrants, including resellers, have so far captured between 2 and 3
percent of the local services market measured by lines and about 5 percent
of the market measured by revenues. The competitive emphasis to date has
been on business rather than residential customers, due partly to underlying
economic and regulatory factors. As competitors establish their businesses
and expand their networks, and now that the Supreme Court has affirmed the
FCC's broad authority to implement the 1996 Act's market-opening provisions,
local competition for residential customers is likely to increase.
[SOURCE: NTIA]
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/press/ceafinalrpt.htm
SPEECH: THE TELECOM ACT AT THREE: SEEING THE FACE OF THE FUTURE
Issue: Competition
Address of Chairman Kennard at Comptel 1999 Annual Meeting and Trade
Exposition in Atlanta, GA on February 8, 1999: The Telecom Act is the
foundational document for a world where monopoly has been replaced with
competition, where uniformity of service has been replaced with a multitude
of choices, and where the technologies enjoyed by the privileged are
available to us all. The Act is three years old. A good time to judge our
progress. On one hand, three years is not a long time. We will be judging
this law for many years to come....When figuring out what sort of
telecommunications framework to establish for our country as it entered the
21st century,
Congress wisely reached back to a value as old as America itself: choice.
The idea that once given an array of options, individuals can best decide
what is best for them. Thus, Congress gave the FCC the tools to break open
monopoly markets to competition....It's a model that recognizes that our
shared aspirations for a strong community based on the value of equal
opportunity are not entirely met by market forces. That we must have a
strong, independent regulatory system to pry open markets and keep them
open....Now that the courts have upheld most aspects of the FCC's
implementation of the Act, we must ensure that the Supreme Court's recent
decision produces momentum to the market-opening mandates of the Act. Not
more delay. Not more confusion. First and foremost, that means making sure
that each of the three pathways to competition spelled out in the Act is
open: facilities-based competition, resale, and unbundled network elements.
[SOURCE: FCC]
http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Kennard/spwek905.html
BELL ATLANTIC, IN WAKE OF GTE DEAL, STILL HOPES TO EXTEND WIRELESS NETWORK
Issue: Wireless
Bell Atlantic Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg said their
pending merger with GTE may not mean ownership of a nationwide wireless
network,
but will provide scale: "Large numbers of customers will enable the company
to cut costs and
invest in better services," Mr. Seidenberg said. Meanwhile, Vodofone Groups PLC
merger with Airtouch last month may affect the PrimeCo partnership between
Airtouch and Bell Atlantic that covers part of the Midwest. The two companies
say there are legal stumbling blocks, but would prefer to keep it together.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (p. B9A), AUTHOR: Shawn Young]
SPEECH: CROSSING INTO THE WIRELESS CENTURY
Issue: Wireless
Speech of Chairman Kennard at the CTIA Convention in New Orleans, LA on
February 9, 1999: there are over 68 million Americans who own a mobile
phone. Last year, they made calls on a service that cost 40 percent less
than it did three years ago. And over the next five years, some say that the
price will drop yet another 40 percent. Last year's wireless revenues were
$30 billion....Wireless is the poster child for competition....Only five
percent of phone calls are now made on mobile phones. I think that number
would increase dramatically with a calling
party pays system. This is not an easy matter. Your industry has been
divided on this question in the past and there are some tough consumer
protection issues to work through. But I believe that it's time to tackle
these issues together."
[SOURCE: FCC]
http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Kennard/spwek906.html
'CALLER PAYS' SYSTEM EYED FOR MOBILE PHONES
Issue: Telephony
Normal landline telephone service operates on a "calling party pays" plan.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard suggested Tuesday
that a similar plan be used in wireless service. Right now, if you accept a
call on your wireless phone, you pay an air time charge for the call. The
FCC this spring is expected to propose rules that would allow wireless
carriers to levy "calling party pays" charges, if their customers chose that
option. Speaking at a wireless convention in New Orleans, Chairman Kennard
said, "Only 5 percent of phone calls are now made on mobile phones. I think
that number would increase dramatically with a 'calling party pays' system."
Pacific Bell has opposed the idea, saying many people who call a mobile
phone might not realize they are paying extra for the call. Tom Murphy of
Sprint PCS said, "The goal from our perspective is to see more minutes go to
the wireless network. We want to see people make their Sprint PCS phone
their everyday phone for all their calls."
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News (Mercury Center), AUTHOR: Deborah Kong & Jon
Healey]
http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/cell021099.htm
SPEECH: CONSUMERS, COMPETITION, AND THE VEIL OF IGNORANCE
Issue: Regulation
Introductory Remarks of Commissioner Tristani at the CTIA conference panel
on "Public Policy Affecting Your Bottom Line" February 9, 1999: There's been
a lot of discussion lately about competition and deregulation. In these
discussions, one becomes the chicken, the other the egg, and we go around
and around debating which comes first....If I could, I'd like to take a step
back and look at the full regulatory landscape. From this perspective, I
see three aspects of public policy: policies that address the foundation
for competition, policies that address industry's relationship with its
consumers and its competitors, and policies that address the public
interest....The Communications Act directs that we ensure that
communications services be available to all people of the United States.
And that it be used for the purpose of protecting life and property. So I
would ask, consistent with that statutory obligation, where might the market
fail to provide the goods that we all, as citizens, would want our society
to provide?....Let's resist the temptation of reducing our public policy
dialogue to the mere issue of whether we ought to "regulate markets." Such
a reduction is simplistic and wrong. I certainly have no interest in
managing the competitive markets of wireless. But the Commission will
always have its critical obligation to ensure that spectrum is used for the
benefit of all.
[SOURCE: FCC]
http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Tristani/spgt902.txt
U.S., EUROPE WIRELESS ROAMING MADE EASIER
Issue: Telephony
U.S. wireless customers buying phones after the middle of next year will be
able to use them in Europe. An agreement announced Tuesday means phone
manufacturers will begin selling phones that can work over the two most
common wireless standards in the United States (TDMA and analog) as well as
over the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), the standard in
Europe and Asia. The agreement should also boost the fortunes of the limited
number of US carriers that use GSM. The agreement was struck between two
competing groups of service providers, the North American GSM Alliance and
the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium. Presently the US has
about three million GSM subscribers and about 60 million using the analog or
TDMA standards. Outside of the U.S. more than 130 million people use GSM phones.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News (Mercury Center), AUTHOR: Reuters]
http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/reuters/docs/131645l.htm
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CABLE
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KENNARD: AT&T/TCI NEED NOT UNBUNDLE
Issue: Cable/Internet
Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard said last week
the FCC will not require the broadband network proposed by AT&T and
Tele-Communications Inc. to be opened up to Internet competitors. His
comments came a week after the Commission decided against launching an
inquiry into the need for unbundling rules that would apply to the entire
cable industry. Chairman Kennard said that requiring one company to open
its network to Internet competitors would be unfair and would dissuade other
cable companies from merging to enter the broadband market. Earlier in the
week, the FCC's Cable Service Bureau recommended the commissioners approve
the merger without unbundling conditions. In his comments, Chairman Kennard
did leave open the option of reopening the unbundling question later if
consumers do not have a wide choice in broadband service providers. America
Online, US West and other proponents of open-access rules last week formed a
lobbying group called OpenNet to convince regulators and Congress that they
cannot use dial-up services to compete against cable and high-speed
networks. Cable industry officials derided the new lobbying effort. In
meetings this week Chairman Kennard is expected to tout the AT&T/TCI merger
as one of the benefits of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable (p.12), AUTHOR: Bill McConnell]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ 2/8/99
AT&T FACES A HEATED PARTY LINE
Issue: Cable/Broadband
Three multiple system cable operators (MSO), Comcast Corp., Cox Communications
Inc. and MediaOne are joining up to negotiate a deal with AT&T comparable to
the Time Warner deal made last week. That deal allows AT&T to equip 12.9
million
Time Warner customers with long distance service. "They're getting together
so AT&T
can't play one off the other, said the CEO of another MSO not involved in this
round of talks." The three MSO's also have some additional leverage: MediaOne
owns 26% of Time Warner Entertainment and therefore has a say in the approval
of the current deal with AT&T. The Time Warner deal is important to AT&T in
order to bypass Baby Bells in offering long distance. AT&T is committing
billions to prod MSO operators to upgrade their systems to be telephone-ready.
The three MSO's argue their systems serve as many homes as Time Warner, so they
should get the same deal. AT&T executive said the trio is likely to "snag
negotiations that are already difficult." The currently proposed deal is quite
lucrative for Time Warner. The company will receive $15 per household that is
upgraded to telephone ready cable. After five years Time Warner will receive
monthly payments from AT&T equal to 25% of its telephone-ready system base.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable (p.51), AUTHOR: John M. Higgins]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ 2/8/99
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TELEVISION
==========
STUDY FINDS TV MISSES A CHANCE WITH SEX
Issue: Television
The Kaiser Family Foundation released a study yesterday of 1,300 network and
cable shows, finding only 9% of those that deal with sex also deal with
risks or contraception. Sitcoms were the worst offenders, showing
responsibilities around sex only 3% of the time. President of the Kaiser
Foundation Drew Altman says, "It would be wrong and a total waste of time to
try to talk the entertainment industry out of sex. But our philosophy is that
it's possible to both entertain and make money and do good at the same time."
One show, Felicity, about a college-age woman who is exploring the idea of
losing her virginity this season, came on the air too late to be part of the
study. J.J.Abrams, executive producer of the show has consulted with the Kaiser
Foundation on its treatment of sex on the show and says, "To depict sex or any
subject without showing the realities and consequences of that act is
irresponsible." Other Kaiser studies have shown 1/4 of teens say they "learned a
lot about pregnancy and birth control from TV." Kaiser conducted the study to
create data for public debate about the impact of TV and will do another study
in 18 months.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (C1), AUTHOR: Sharon Waxman]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-02/10/017l-021099-idx.html
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ANTITRUST
=========
US CHALLENGES MICROSOFT ON VIDEOTAPE SHOWING WEB ACCESS USING ITS BROWSER
Issue: Antitrust
The Justice Department questioned a video demonstration made by Microsoft that
compared accessing the Internet by using Windows 98 and the older 3.1 version
of Windows. Microsoft's aim was to show the efficiency of accessing the
Internet with Windows. David Boies, lead trial counsel for the Justice
Department argued that a faster modem was used in the Windows 98 demonstration,
therefore making it an unfair comparison. Microsoft executive Tod Nielson
said outside
the courtroom that the Windows 98 demonstration used a 33k modem, only a bit
faster than the 28k modem used in the 3.1 demonstration. With 7 more defense
witnesses to go for Microsoft, District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson says a
recess next month is likely. Closing arguments may not be made until April.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (p. B6), AUTHOR: Keith Perine and John R. Wilke]
See also:
NEW MICROSOFT TAPE DISPUTED
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E1), AUTHOR: Rajiv Chandrasekaran]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/microsoft/micro.htm
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