CABLE
Proceeding on "Cable Access" (FCC)
MERGERS
Sprint Is Expected to End Deal With WorldCom This Week (WSJ)
German Giant Plans Global Phone Strategy (NYT)
Microsoft to Offer Remedies To Save Its Telewest Deal (WSJ)
TELEPHONE REGULATION
FCC Authorizes SBC Communications to Provide Long
Distance Service in Texas (FCC)
INTERNET
Online Journalists Look to Political Conventions to Help
Define Their Medium (NYT)
Building Curb Cuts on the Information Highway (FCC)
Napster Raises 'Fair Use' Defense Of Its Music-File
Sharing Service (WSJ)
LIFESTYLES
Wireless and Witless (NYT)
Study: Girls Don't Want To Be Geeks (SJMerc)
CABLE
PROCEEDING ON "CABLE ACCESS"
Issue: Cable/Internet
From Press Release: FCC Chairman William Kennard announced 6/30 that he will
propose that the FCC begin a formal proceeding on the issue of multiple
Internet service providers gaining access to a cable company's platform.
Chairman Kennard said that a recent decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit in the AT&T v. City of Portland case confirmed the
FCC's role in establishing a national broadband policy for the country. He
also said that the court clearly recognized the FCC's authority to forbear
from regulation in this area. Kennard said, "I have asked the FCC staff to
develop a framework for addressing these issues. I continue to believe that
there are powerful marketplace incentives that will move the cable platform
to an open platform. Now is an appropriate time for the FCC to address the
legal issues and to assess developments in the marketplace. I agree with the
municipalities in the goal of an open cable platform. The question is how do
we get there, through government intervention or market forces? My
preference is market forces, but if the market doesn't work then we'll have
to step in."
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/News_Releases/2000/nrcb0017.html)
MERGERS
SPRINT IS EXPECTED TO END DEAL WITH WORLDCOM THIS WEEK
Issue: Merger
Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG is expected to launch an offer valued at more
than $110 billion for Sprint after the failure of Sprint and WorldCom
merger. But the German phone company is not putting all its eggs in one
basket. It is still looking at another U.S. player, Qwest Communications.
"There is still a question about whether they will do Sprint," says one
person familiar with the situation. Even if Deutsche Telekom decides to
pursue Sprint, this person says, Deutsche Telekom isn't prepared to match
the $76 a share WorldCom offered for Sprint. The CEO of Deutsche Telekom is
doubtful that the German carrier will be able to reap the same cost savings
from a merger as WorldCom hoped to get. A Deutsche Telekom offer would come
on the heels of the Justice Department's move last month to file suit
against WorldCom and Sprint, blocking their merger on antitrust grounds and
effectively killing the deal. Deutsche Telekom has been reluctant to launch
a bid for Sprint up till now because it didn't want to risk landing in a
legal quagmire, as it nearly did when it made a run for Qwest in March. US
West, which already had an iron-clad merger accord with Qwest, vowed to
fight any effort to break up the deal and even threatened legal action.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A3), AUTHOR: Anita Raghavan And Deborah
Solomon]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB962655281358139254.htm)
GERMAN GIANT PLANS GLOBAL PHONE STRATEGY
Issue: Mergers
The chief executive of Deutsche Telekom has $100 billion to spend and wants
to buy something big in America. ["Hmmm, the presidency is for sale this
year...no, let's think of something with more promising returns."] With the
demise of the WorldCom Sprint merger, Ron Sommer may step in to try to buy
Sprint and its national wireless network -- making DT the global operator it
wants to be. A contractual agreement blocked a DT bid for Sprint earlier,
but that agreement with France Telecom has since been abandoned.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Edmund Andrews]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/070500market-place.html)
See Also:
EUROPEANS ARE SETTING MERGER SIGHTS ON U.S. TARGETS
A look at merger activity of European companies including Vivendi, Terra
Network, Deutsche Telekom and more.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C4), AUTHOR: Andrew Ross Sorkin]
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/europe-us-mergers.html)
MICROSOFT TO OFFER REMEDIES TO SAVE ITS TELEWEST DEAL
Issue: Merger
The European Commission has circulated a draft decision recommending that a
Microsoft proposal to take a 29.9% stake in and assume joint control of
Telewest together with AT&T's Liberty Media be blocked on the grounds
that it threatens competition in the market for digital-television
technology. It is likely that the commission will approve the deal if
Microsoft merely signs on to a series of promises regarding the company's
use of its software -- something Microsoft has already offered to do. The
commission is currently investigating Microsoft's behavior in a number of
cases in which the software giant is suspected of leveraging its power in
the market for personal computer operating systems into related markets such
as Internet servers. The commission worries the same could happen with the
set-top boxes that link consumers' television sets with the Internet.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A3), AUTHOR: Brandon Mitchener]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB962722686177424573.htm)
TELEPHONE REGULATION
FCC AUTHORIZES SBC COMMUNICATIONS TO PROVIDE LONG DISTANCE SERVICE IN TEXAS
Issue: Telephone Regulation/Long Distance
From Press Release: The Federal Communications Commission approved SBC
Communications's application to provide long distance service in Texas. The
decision marks the Commission's second authorization of a Regional Bell
Operating Company (BOC) to provide long distance services in its local phone
region. Approval promises substantial benefits for consumers in the form of
new service providers, lower prices, tailored and bundled service packages,
and better customer service. In December 1999, the Commission approved Bell
Atlantic's long distance application for New York. In the Telecommunications
Act of 1996, Congress envisioned fundamental pro-competitive changes in the
telecommunications environment by making a BOC's entry into long distance
contingent on the BOC first opening its local service monopoly to
competition. A BOC satisfies this contingency by demonstrating compliance
with section 271 of the Act.
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/News_Releases/2000/nrcc0034.html)
INTERNET
ONLINE JOURNALISTS LOOK TO POLITICAL CONVENTIONS TO HELP DEFINE THEIR MEDIUM
Issue: Online Journalism
With the broadcast television networks cutting back on prime-time coverage
of the conventions, online journalism, even more than cable television
networks, is rushing in to fill the void. "In a lot of ways, it's the
perfect Web story," said Kerry Lauerman, the Washington bureau chief of
Salon, an online magazine. "It's a story that's live, with its own peaks and
depths." A parched landscape for news does not faze the dot-coms, which
liken the arrival of e-journalism to another innovation in political news,
the television camera, introduced 52 years ago at a political convention in
Philadelphia. "What the 2000 campaign is doing to the term 'new media' is
taking the 'new' out," said Carin Dessauer, election director for CNN
Interactive. "We've arrived."
But will online journalism reach beyond the politically obsessed? Andrew
Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press,
answered with his own question: "Did the advent of C-Span lead to that much
greater knowledge and greater connectedness to Capitol Hill? It's going to
be a matter of great enrichment to people who are really interested in this
stuff. And yet they may be painfully small in numbers."
[SOURCE: New York Times (A12), AUTHOR: Peter Marks]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/070500wh-convene.html)
See Also:
CRIME NEWS WEB SITE TO FILE FOR BANKRUPTCY
[SOURCE: New York Times (C5), AUTHOR: Felicity Barringer]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/07/biztech/articles/05net.html)
BUILDING CURB CUTS ON THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY
Issue: Disabilities
Chairman Kennard's Remarks before the National Association of the Deaf, in
Norfolk, Virginia re: making the Internet accessible for people with
disabilities.
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Kennard/2000/spwek016.html)
NAPSTER RAISES 'FAIR USE' DEFENSE OF ITS MUSIC-FILE SHARING SERVICE
Issue: Intellectual Property
The Internet music-sharing service, Napster, is raising sweeping legal
defenses in its effort to head off a court challenge that threatens its
survival. Napster documents filed Monday contend the company's behavior is
an extension of the "fair use" doctrine that, for example, allows someone
who buys a CD to also record it on tape for listening on a car stereo while
driving to work. Napster's software allows users to share MP3 music files
created from store-purchased compact discs. In an effort to resolve differences
with the music industry, Napster held meetings, but talks went nowhere.
Hank Barry, Napster's acting president, said "meaningful" discussions no
longer are occurring. Several record labels and other music-industry
institutions joined in suing Napster, charging it with a variety of
copyright-related offenses. In a pre-trial suit filed in federal district
court in San Francisco, the music industry seeks to close down Napster in
its current form. The argument that use of Napster is completely legal
doesn't find much support outside the company's defense team. Most copyright
experts say the fair-use doctrine applies to personal use within a
household, not to sharing music files with hundreds or even thousands of
strangers via the Internet.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B2), AUTHOR: LEE GOMES]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB962672369235812685.htm)
LIFESTYLES
WIRELESS AND WITLESS
Issue: Lifestyles!
[Op-Ed] A look at the author's "cell phone rage" directed at people who use
no discretion about when and where to use their wireless phone. Some
municipalities are banning cell phone use while driving. Restaurant owners
are creating special sections for cell phone users. School districts are
cracking down on students talking on phones in the hallways and classrooms.
But people continue to make and take phone calls at the doctor's office, the
theater, and even funerals. Taylor concludes: It seems we need more than
laws to change this kind of discourteous -- and even dangerous -- behavior.
I say it is time for the cell phone police to step forward and devise some
cell phone etiquette.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A21), AUTHOR: Sharon White Taylor, former magazine
editor]
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/oped/05tayl.html)
See Also:
MANILA'S TALK OF THE TOWN ISN'T TALK AT ALL
In the same vein as above, a look at the heavy use of wireless for email in
the Philippines.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Wayne Arnold]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/07/biztech/articles/05talk.html)
STUDY: GIRLS DON'T WANT TO BE GEEKS
Issue: Digital Divide
A recent report by the American Association of University Women found that
girls often are not attracted to careers in technical fields, which they view
as "geeky." The study, "Tech-Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age,"
involved interviews with 70 middle school and high school girls, an online
survey of almost 900 teachers, and anecdotes from the experiences of
commission members and other women in high-tech fields. The bad image of
computers among girls is taking them off the path to high-paying jobs in the
computer industry. "What we want is to have qualified people we can hire,"
said Linda Scherr, chairwoman of IBM's Women in Technology program. "Since
women are half the work force and so few go into computers... we're on the
brink of disaster here."
Many schools are offering programs that attempt to combat the tendency of
girls to steer clear of technology. The Young Women's Leadership Charter
School is opening this fall on the campus of the Illinois Institute of
Technology. The school will have 75 girls per grade level, with grades six
and nine focusing on math and science.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Jacqui Podzius Cook (Associated
Press)]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/ap/docs/159584l.htm)
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