SPECTRUM
FCC Delays TV-Spectrum Sales; Allowing Bidders to Access Risks
(WSJ)
U.K. Telecom Auction Nets Windfall; License Winners Defend High
Prices(WSJ)
INTERNET
Several Web Sites Trying To Net Teen Buyers (USA)
Net Will Lift Rural Life Says Greenspan (NYT)
FIRST AMENDMENT
First Amendment Lawyer Takes on Movie Studios in DVD Case (NYT)
BROADCASTING
Pacific Century Forms Venture With a Hong Kong Broadcaster (WSJ)
NonCommercial Educational Broadcast Stations (FCC)
ANTITRUST
A Split of Microsoft Might Not Help Rivals and Could Harm
Consumers(WSJ)
Attorneys General Press for a Unified Front on Microsoft (NYT)
TELEPHONY
Intellectual Property Rights (FCC)
SPECTRUM
FCC DELAYS TV-SPECTRUM SALES; ALLOWING BIDDERS TO ACCESS RISKS
Issue: Spectrum
The Federal Communications Commission plans to delay two spectrum
auctions, which were originally scheduled for June, to give potential
bidders more time to assess the risks. The auctions were to involve spectrum
currently allocated to television broadcasters as UHF channels 60 through
69. Verizon Wireless (Bell Atlantic's new joint venture with Vodaphone), US
West and BellSouth all sent letters to the FCC expressing concerns that
under current rules, broadcasters will not have to stop using the spectrum
until they have made the transition from analog to digital broadcasts, which
would be 2006 at the earliest. The FCC has suggested that winning bidders
work out deals with broadcasters to clear the spectrum early. A BellSouth
spokesman said,
"The cost of clearing them could be more than the cost of bidding and
building the networks in many cases."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal Interactive, AUTHOR: Staff Reporter]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB956876326983361244.htm)
See Also:
DELAY SOUGHT IN AIRWAVES SALE
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E4), AUTHOR: Peter S. Goodman]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30824-2000Apr27.html)
UK TELECOM AUCTION NETS WINDFALL; LICENSE WINNERS DEFEND HIGH PRICES
Issue: Spectrum
The British government closed its two month auction of five
mobile-telecommunications licenses to the tune of $35.4 billion, seven
times the initial estimates. The auction began with 13 companies bidding for
the right to offer Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS)
services, which are expected to include high-speed wireless access to the
Internet as well as telephone calls and messaging. The auction ended with
the withdrawal of NTL Mobile, a joint venture of France Telecom SA and NTL
Inc., leaving only five bidders, one for each of the licenses being offered.
It's not clear whether new services such as wireless Internet access will
prove lucrative enough to justify the cost of the licenses. "All of them
undoubtedly have bid far more than they expected to at the beginning, and
all will be wondering how the hell they will make a profit out of it," said
John Matthews, a consultant at Ovum Ltd., a research firm in London. The
winning bidders are: Telesystem International Wireless Inc. of Canada,
Vodafone Ltd. (a subsidiary of Vodafone AirTouch PLC), British
Telecommunications PLC's BT (3G) Ltd., Deutsche Telekom AG's One2One
Personal Communications Ltd. and Orange PLC's Orange 3G Ltd. Upcoming
auctions for similar licenses in other big European countries are
expected to be equally expensive to bidders.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal Interactive, AUTHOR: Stephanie Gruner and
Marc Champion]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB956832552994572492.htm)
INTERNET
NET WILL LIFT RURAL LIFE SAYS GREENSPAN
Issue: Internet
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said that the "great wave of
invention and innovation" represented by technological innovation will
benefit not only people living in cities but in small towns and on farms.
"Like all the previous episodes of technical advance, the revolution in
information technology already has improved living conditions in numerous
ways and it will likely bring future benefits to rural communities that we
now can only scarcely imagine," Greenspan said in a speech to a Kansas City
conference on rural America. Greenspan noted that satellite television and
other electronic products that "have helped to counter the remoteness of
many rural places." He also spoke of how rural areas stand to benefit from
innovations just now being developed such as telemedicine, which allows
doctors to diagnose illnesses in rural areas through television and computer
hookups.
[SOURCE: New York Times (Online), AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/biztech/articles/28greenspan-rura
l.html)
SEVERAL WEB SITES TRYING TO NET TEEN BUYERS
Issue: Internet
The number of Web sites seeking to separate teenagers from their money
is on the rise. While some are merely e-commerce sites selling
teen-oriented items, others offer financial information and services.
Those offering financial advice should probably be taken with a grain or two
of salt, according to critics. "They are trying to make kids comfortable
with shopping online, and education is generally of secondary importance."
says Lydia Sheckels, a financial planner in Philadelphia. It is not
surprising that Web entrepreneurs are looking to cash in on the teen market.
As a group, they spent an estimated $153 billion last year, according to
Teenage Research Unlimited. One of the barriers to teens shopping online is
the fact that they are unable to have credit cards before they are 18. Some
sites are responding to this problem by creating accounts that teens and
parents can add money to for online purchases. Others offer pre-paid cards
for online shopping.
[SOURCE: USA Today (3B), AUTHOR: Christine Dugas]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000428/2209794s.htm)
FIRST AMENDMENT
FIRST AMENDMENT LAWYER TAKES ON MOVIE STUDIOS IN DVD CASE
Issue: First Amendment
The eight movie studios who have sought a court order forcing Web
publisher Eric Corley to stop offering links to sites where software for
cracking the security on DVDs have another adversary in the case. New York
trial lawyer and First Amendment specialist Martin Garbus, has been brought
in recently to assist the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a cyber-liberties
group representing Corley in the suit. The Motion
Picture Association of America, objects to the software (called DeCSS)
because it has the potential of letting individuals pirate its titles.
Garbus says that there posting the software and linking to sites that
have posted it are very different things. If a major newspaper that
operated an online news site wrote an article saying that somebody had
broken the DVD encryption code, and it linked to a site that had the
code on it, "I think they'd have absolutely every right to do that,"
Garbus says. "I have a defendant who is a journalist," he continues. "He has
run a Web site magazine for three years. So he's not The New York Times. But
there are certain protections that go to him as well as The New York Times."
[SOURCE: New York Times (Cyber Times), AUTHOR: Carl S. Kaplan]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/cyber/cyberlaw/28law.html)
BROADCASTING
PACIFIC CENTURY FORMS VENTURE WITH A HONG KONG BROADCASTER
Issue: Broadcasting
Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd. plans to form a joint venture, called PCC
Skyhorse, with Commercial Radio Productions Ltd., a Hong Kong broadcaster,
to produce Chinese-language content. Commercial Radio will provide PCC
Skyhorse with exclusive access to its library of existing
and future radio and multimedia content. Pacific Century has earmarked $1.5
billion to invest in Internet content over the next five years. PCC Skyhorse
is Pacific Century's first step in its "Network Of the World" project, a
cable and satellite-based broadband network to be rolled out in midyear. The
network will allow the streaming of live television programs and
simultaneous Internet access, on both TV sets and personal computers. It is
widely believed that PCC Skyhorse will announce more links with local and
international content providers.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal Interactive, AUTHOR: News Roundup]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB956850453747924006.htm)
NONCOMMERCIAL EDUCATIONAL BROADCAST STATIONS
Issue: Broadcasting
The Federal Communcation Commission has adopted a new procedure to select
among competing applicants for noncommercial educational ("NCE") broadcast
channels. The new selection process, which will replace a subjective
comparative hearing process that has been used for the past thirty years,
uses points to compare objective characteristics whenever there are
competing applications for full-service NCE radio or television stations.
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Mass_Media/Orders/2000/fcc00120.txt)
ANTITRUST
A SPLIT OF MICROSOFT MIGHT NOT HELP RIVALS AND COULD HARM CONSUMERS
Issue: Antitrust
Many observers say a split-up Microsoft could bring with it unintended
consequences for consumers, in the form of software that both costs more and
doesn't work as well with other programs as current Microsoft offerings.
"Microsoft has been successful because they have integrated the applications
with the operating systems. Now I as a consumer am going to have to do that
myself. And each of the companies is going to have its own overhead -- that
is going to jack up my costs," says Joe Clabby, an analyst with the Aberdeen
Group, a Boston consulting firm. With the split-up, consumers could get a
version of Microsoft Office that runs on the free operating system Linux.
The lack of availability of Microsoft's popular application programs such as
Office is one reason that Linux hasn't moved much beyond its current core
group of technically oriented computer users. A split-up Microsoft could
also offer consumers some promising products. The new "Microsoft
applications company" could move its technology to work directly on the
Internet, providing a new, network-oriented approach to computing. Steve
Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, thinks the split-up is not the best
for consumers saying, "some innovations might only come from bigger
companies." He thinks Microsoft's best work can be done only if its
operations are in a single form.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal Interactive, AUTHOR: Lee Gomes and Rebecca
Buckman]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB956868359896169995.htm)
ATTORNEYS GENERAL PRESS FOR A UNIFIED FRONT ON MICROSOFT
Issue: Antitrust
Last night, on the eve of the filing deadline, many of the 19 state
attorneys general who were plaintiffs in the antitrust suit against the
Microsoft Corporation were lobbying a few of their colleagues to join
the majority and ask the court to break Microsoft into two parts. A few
attorneys general view this remedy proposal, favored by the Justice
Department and most of the states involved, as too extreme. Four leading
academic economists, William D. Nordhaus of Yale University, Roger G. Noll
of Stanford, F. Michael Scherer of Harvard and Robert E. Litan of the
Brookings Institution, have recently filed a legal brief with the Judge
Thomas Penfield Jackson, arguing that the proposed state-federal remedy is
the minimum required. They say "this case provides an important test of how
antitrust law and remedies should be applied in the 'new economy'" and add
that conduct remedies "would be the least disruptive of all the options" but
are also "the least likely to remedy the core problem."
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Joel Brinkley]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/biztech/articles/28soft.html)
TELEPHONY
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
Issue: Telephone Regulation
Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ordered incumbent local
exchange carriers (LECs) to use their "best efforts" to obtain intellectual
property rights from equipment manufacturers and software suppliers for
competitive LECs when the competitive LECs utilize network elements provided
by the incumbent LECs.
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/News_Releases/2000/nrcc0025.html)
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