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To: J Fieb who wrote (27939)	1/10/1998 11:21:00 AM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50808

Closer to home, will the FCC and "big government" cause increased prices for internet access?................... news.com FCC responds to fears of ISP fees By Courtney Macavinta NEWS.COM January 9, 1998, 4:10 p.m. PT URL: news.com The Federal Communications Commission today is clarifying the issues behind a pending report to Congress that some fear could result in new fees for Internet service providers. Federal lawmakers have mandated that the FCC review rules it released in May that restructured the nation's "universal service fund," which traditionally subsidized phone service for rural and low-income residents but was revised to include up to $2.25 billion in annual funding for hooking public schools and libraries up to the Net. Congress ordered the FCC report in part to address whether Net service providers should have to contribute to the universal service fund. They don't now because they are considered "enhanced service providers." If the FCC were to recommend to Congress that ISPs be reclassified as "telecommunications services," online access providers could have to pay into the fund, but only after a lengthy rule-making process. This would be good news for telcos, which pay a big portion of the universal service fund now and have lobbied to the FCC in the past to collect other additional fees from ISPs to offset various costs. The FCC is accepting public comment on the universal service issue until January 20, and will report to Congress in April. This has caused anxiety and confusion for Net users because in a separate incident, an "erroneous" email has been circulating online stating that the FCC is accepting public comment until February on whether a per-minute access charge should be imposed by phone carriers on Net service providers, which is not true, an FCC spokeswoman said today. Still, concern is still mounting in the online industry over how the universal service funding would be collected from ISPs if they were required to contribute. Some worry the collection vehicle would turn out to be a telco access charge that would likely be passed on to ISP customers. Any potential universal service charge is unrelated to the permanent access fee proposed last year and referred to in the erroneous email. "Such a fee will put a lot of non-telephone company ISPs out of business. People who have to pay the telephone companies a fee for every minute they spend online will not stay online as long," said Dave McClure, executive director of the Association of Online Professionals, which fought the access fees last year. "The effect will slow the growth of the Internet." In the past, such access charges were funneled into universal services. But FCC officials said today that it is far too soon to say whether ISPs will ever be classified as telcos, and subsequently have to pay into the fund through an access charge or any other mechanism. According to its January 5 public notice, the FCC report will clarify its definitions of "information service," "local exchange carrier," and "telecommunications service," and "the impact of the interpretation of those definitions on the provision of universal service to consumers in all areas of the nation." In addition, the agency will review "the application of those definitions to mixed or hybrid services and the impact of such application on universal service, and the consistency of the Commission's application of those definitions, including with respect to Internet access for educational providers, libraries, and rural health care providers under the Act." Despite the email notice that has been circulating on the Net, the agency also confirmed that it has not reopened a public comment period on whether phone carriers should be allowed to charge the permanent ISP access fee. The email began circulating a few days before the universal service public inquiry notice was released, according to the FCC. "The email circulating that says the FCC is asking for comment by February 13, 1998, on the issue of whether the ISPs should have to pay access charges to local phone carriers is an erroneous email," an FCC spokeswoman said today. "In its access reform order in May of 1997, the FCC decided not to allow local telephone companies to impose permanent access charges on ISPs. The FCC is no longer asking for comment in this proceeding." Still, Congress's mandate for a review of the FCC's implementation of universal service is yet another example of certain members' dissatisfaction with how the Telecommunications Act has been carried out by the commission--especially issues concerning ISPs. For example, the confirmation of William Kennard as the FCC's new chairman also was held up until two senators were satisfied that the commission would review universal service. Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Montana) argued that states were footing a larger portion of the universal access bill than the federal government. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) pushed through the FCC universal service review as part of a huge appropriations bill for 1998. He forced the issues of whether telcos should have to pay for subsidized access if ISPs aren't contributing. Some members of the online industry say the telephone companies may have a point, but they contend a solution that could increase the cost of Net access is not the best answer. "The telephone companies rightfully feel that they shouldn't be the only ones paying into telephone universal service if those fees are going to go to Internet service," McClure said. "From a global perspective, the real question is whether universal funds are the best vehicle to make sure schools get wired to the Net when the industry is already helping to do this privately," he said. "If it means that a permanent Net access fee will be implemented, it might not be the most equitable way." The cost of Net access is expected to increase for many users. According to the FCC rules, by the end of this year, businesses will pay $2 per month more for each additional phone line. The cost could be as high, however, as $4.21 per additional line by the beginning of next year, because long distance providers will be charged $2.20 for each added line, a fee they could pass on to customers.

To: J Fieb who wrote (27939)	1/11/1998 8:08:00 PM
From: DiViT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

DTS ON DVD IS COMING Titles soon to be announced by Joseph Palenchar LAS VEGAS, January 9, 1998 -- Digital Theater Systems will announce later this month the titles of the first DVD discs that will be available with DTS 5.1 Digital Surround soundtracks, said David DelGrosso, marketing director of the company's DTS Technology division. "Several" discs licensed to DTS and produced by the company will be commercially available in April in North America through software distributor Image Entertainment, he said. Depending on the titles, some of the April discs might be replicated by DTS, and others might be replicated by Image. As the installed base of DTS decoding equipment and DTS-enabled DVD players grows, studios will opt to produce and market their own titles directly, DelGrosso predicted. But for now, DTS "will produce and market the software ourselves." DTS's marketing plans include a "co-funded marketing campaign" targeted to begin in the summer in conjunction with such hardware suppliers as Kenwood, Panasonic, Sherwood, Technics and Yamaha, DelGrosso said. The promotions will take the form of "special purchase opportunities" for DVD-encoded CDs, laserdiscs and DVDs. All told, details of 15 new promotions will be announced in about three weeks. By the end of December, 37 DTS-encoded CDs and 39 DTS laserdiscs were available. This year, said DelGrosso, several studios -- including Fox, Universal and Warner Bros. -- will license movie titles to DTS. But it hasn't yet been determined which studios' titles will be available for the April rollout. DelGrosso promised that the first discs will be "competitively priced" with their Dolby Digital counterparts, but in the future, special-edition and collectible discs would be available at premium prices. The goal of all DTS-encoded DVDs, however, will be to deliver "the best picture quality possible," which "in many cases will be better [than what's currently available]." "Many DTS titles will fit on one layer on one side of a disc," despite the higher bandwidth requirements of DTS 5.1 soundtracks, he explained. "Movie length is the number one determining factor" of how many layers or sides will have to be used. We can do one DTS soundtrack in one language in the same space as three Dolby Digital soundtracks in three languages." Many consumers will prefer a single English-language DTS soundtrack to multiple Dolby Digital soundtracks in different languages, DelGrosso said. "Why make an American disc with French and Spanish soundtracks when you have regional coding?" Nonetheless, using dual-layer or dual-sided discs are "options available for the April releases," he said. "To date, no disc [under discussion for a DTS soundtrack] requires two discs." To listen to the DTS soundtracks, consumers will need one of the new DTS-capable DVD players being introduced at CES by such companies as Marantz, Panasonic, Theta Digital and Yamaha. The players will also have to be connected to DTS decoders, which are appearing in more products at CES. Forty products incorporating DTS decoders are currently available. All DTS-encoded DVD discs, nonetheless, will be compatible with any DVD player because the discs will also feature a two-channel stereo soundtrack, either PCM or compressed two-channel AC-3, depending on the space available after the video and 5.1 audio portions of a DTS disc are produced, DelGrosso said.

To: J Fieb who wrote (27939)	1/11/1998 11:22:00 PM
From: CPAMarty	Respond to of 50808

Intel's plan of the year Jack Robertson Yes, Intel Corp.'s Andy Grove was named Time's man of the year. But perhaps a bigger coup is the company's $4.5 billion in capital spending in 1997 and the estimated $5.4 billion it plans to spend this year. Bill McClean, president of IC Insights Inc., a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based market research firm, reportedly stunned a chip-equipment conference last week in Pebble Beach, Calif., by reporting the Intel tally. The company's 1997 figure is three times that of each of the other major global chip makers. McClean said the outlays will enable Intel to have half of its fab capacity using 0.18-micron processes in 2001 - a position most chip makers can only dream of. Intel's gargantuan spending should keep the company at the top of the heap. Moreover, Intel continues to move into new areas, from networking devices to graphics chip sets to digital video ICs. Perhaps only the federal government will be able to stem the tide that threatens to overwhelm a host of silicon rivals. OEM customers should be able to appreciate the demands for capital that are staring their chip suppliers in the face, and calculate how well vendors will be able to meet challenges down the road. A semiconductor company must spend billions of dollars on fabs with radically new 0.18-micron processes that include argon-fluoride laser step-and-scan lithography, copper metalization and insulation layers, low-dielectric materials, and 300-mm wafers. Adding to the difficulty is that the equipment becomes obsolete in two to three years, causing already steep depreciation costs to skyrocket. Japanese and South Korean producers have learned that you can't easily use obsolete lines to compete with rivals that use state-of-the-art technology. Speaking of South Korea, its companies' chip investment outlook is caught up in the country's economic turmoil and cannot yet be determined. Meanwhile, Taiwan chip companies are holding to projected capital outlays of $40 billion over the next seven years. The silicon landscape is bound to change in the next few years. Intel is almost certain to remain a cover story. But the rest of the field is wide open. Copyright (c) 1998 CMP Media Inc. New Search \| Search the Web You can reach this article directly here: techweb.com