[IS news]
Steve --
I don't know how often it's released, but I do like the IS news that shows up in my mailbox from time to time.
If you glance down the list without focusing on any one item, it gives an amazing overview of what's happening in telecommunications globally.
How anyone could think this sector won't ignite over the next couple years is beyond my comprehension.
And, you're right about Amati's balloon leaking air. I doubt I'll find another balloon quite like it, but I'm sure I'll keep trying.
Hope all's well at your end of the state.
Night --
Pat
<<<
Information Society Trends
Issue number: 76 - (1.12.1997 - 11.1.1998) EUROPE
Trends: Topping the news is of the course the full
liberalisation of the EU telecoms market that took place on
1 January 1998. Other important EU events include the
adoption of a Green Paper on convergence and a draft
Directive on copyrights in the information society, as well
as the opening of an investigation into accounting rates.
INFRASTRUCTURE
MFS Communications, the corporate telecoms services arm of
the US long-distance operator WorldCom, has unveiled plans
to invest 175 million Ecu in the interconnection, by
mid-1998, of the fibre-optic networks it has developed in
major European cities, including Amsterdam, Brussels,
Paris, Frankfort and London. On top of this, MFS is co-
financing with the UK operator Cable and Wireless (C&W) the
development of a 400 million Ecu worth transatlantic cable.
MFS is thus confirming its position as one of the major
rival for European operators in the corporate
communications market.
LEGISLATION AND POLICIES
The European Commission has adopted a Green Paper on the
convergence of telecoms, media and the information
technologies sectors which aims at launching a Europe-wide
debate with interested parties on how the converged sectors
should be regulated in the future
(http://www.ispo.cec.be/convergencegp/97623.html).
*****
The European Commission has adopted a draft Directive on
copyright and related rights in the information society
which aims to adjust and complement the existing legal
framework with emphasis on new on-line and off-line
multimedia products and services.
*****
The European Commission has opened an investigation into
charges paid to dominant operators for international phone
calls. Accounting rates, which correspond to transfer
prices between operators aimed to cover the cost of
carrying calls, amount to an important part of these
charges. But as a result of technological changes and
consequent cost cuts, it is widely believed that these no
longer reflect the true cost of calls.
*****
The European Commission has cleared the planned acquisition
by the US operator Ameritech of a 34% minority stake in the
incumbent Danish operator Tele Danmark. It stressed that it
is the first time that a US operator acquires decisive
influence in a European operator and that this is taking
place in a context where there is still incertitude about
the conditions under which the US market will be opened to
European investments.
*****
The German Telecoms Regulatory Authority has asked the
incumbent German operator Deutsche Telekom to stop
collecting fees from customers that decide to switch to a
competing operator unless it has given it official
clearance.
*****
The German TV giants Bertelsmann and Kirch have suspended
marketing operations involving their digital TV platform
Premiere Digital and sales of the d-box decoder in response
to European Commission warnings that this amounted to a
partial implementation of the planned merger of the two
firms' digital pay-TV operations ahead of official
clearance, thus constituting a breach of European merger
control rules.
*****
The Armenian government has agreed to sell a 90% stake
worth 123 million Ecu in the state-owned telecoms operator
ArmenTel to the national Greek operator OTE. The move is
part of OTE's development strategy in the Black Sea and
Balkan regions, which includes a 20% stake in the Serbian
operator Telecom Serbia and a joint venture with America's
Hughes Network Systems to develop a telecoms network in
Ukraine.
MARKET AND COMPANIES
An increasing number of European telecoms operators are
planning or have already started to offer bundled fixed and
mobile telephone services by which subscribers enjoy a
single and cheaper subscription as well as a single
telephone number. A pioneer in this converged telecoms
market is the Danish operator Tele Danmark, which already
has over 50,000 subscribers to its bundled service launched
in September 1997. Other operators intend to follow suite,
for instance Belgacom and Deutsche Telekom. However,
mobile operators complain that incumbents operators
capitalise on their fixed- network subscriber base, which
they argue, constitutes an abuse of dominant position.
*****
The French cable TV operator Suez-Lyonnaise des Eaux said
that it would not seek to establish a partnership to enter
the French telecoms market in 1998. Lyonnaise intends to
invest 30 million Ecu over five years to offer its 620,000
cable TV subscribers a large choice of new services,
including telephony, digital TV and high-speed Internet
access.
*****
The incumbent French telecoms operator France Telecom said
it has agreed to spend 410 million Ecu on buying Casema,
the largest Dutch cable TV operator with 1.1 million
subscribers, from its mother company, the incumbent Dutch
telecoms operator KPN.
*****
Cadence Design Systems, a US supplier of software tools and
services for the design of computer, communications and
electronics products, has agreed to team up with Scottish
Enterprise, Scotland's main economic development
organisation, to set up its largest design centre, which
would employ up to 1,800 engineers by the year 2004.
Cadence's decision is the culmination of Project Alba, a
six-month benchmarking study realised in partnership with
Scottish Enterprise, which concluded that Scotland has the
potential to establish itself as a global leader in
system-on-a-chip (SOC) design.
TECHNOLOGY
The French pay-TV giant Canal+ has announced the launch,
before the end of 1998, of its second-generation digital
set-top box, the Multimedia Home Platform. It would act as
a single control interface for all household communication
appliances (TV set, PC, fixed and mobile phones) and
provide access to interactive services and the Internet.
The new decoding box would be based on the universal
programming language Java and the MHEG (Multimedia Home
Expert Group) standard. Canal+ is also seeking official
support from the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) project,
a group set up in 1993 that brings together over 200
companies from relevant sectors.
SOCIAL, SOCIETAL AND CULTURAL
The German government said that all of Germany's 44,000
schools would enjoy access to the Internet by the beginning
of the 2001/1002 academic year. To meet this objective, the
German state and the incumbent operator Deutsche Telekom
agreed to extend their 29 million Ecu worth joint
initiative, "Schulen an Netz," launched in 1996, and invest
respectively an extra 20 million Ecu and 30 million Ecu
from 1999.
NORTH AMERICA
Trends: Regulation tops the news in the USA with the
adoption of the US NET Act and a temporary order against
Microsoft, as well as the FCC's opposition to a US District
Court decision lifting conditions to Baby Bells' entry into
the long distance market. Also important are further moves
towards consolidation of the US telecoms industry with
three new mergers involving small carriers: SBC-SNET,
AT&T-Teleport, Teleport-ACC.
MULTIMEDIA SERVICES AND PRODUCTS
Intel, the world's leader in PC microprocessors, has said
that it would develop a "lean client" machine, a concept
that is very close to that of the network computer (NC), as
it too would be priced less than $500, have limited memory
and computing power, and leave most of the intelligence to
the network. The lean client machine would be an
end-to-end Intel device with an integrated Pentium chip and
relying on a more powerful Pentium II or Pentium
Pro-powered server. It would not necessarily have to rely
on Microsoft's Windows platform and could rely on other
operating systems, for instance from IBM, Novell or Oracle.
The move could therefore constitute a first serious breach
in the traditional alliance between Intel and Microsoft,
the world's leader in PC software.
*****
The US regional telecoms operator Ameritech has announced
the launch of a high- speed Internet access service based
on ADSL, a technology that allows for the high- speed
transmission of digitised data over regular phone lines
LEGISLATION AND POLICIES
US Federal Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson has issued an
order asking the US PC software giant Microsoft to stop
bundling its Internet browser Explorer with its operating
system Windows 95 and its follower, Windows 98, to be
released in April 1998. The order bars Microsoft from
forcing PC manufacturers that license Windows to also
accept Explorer. The order will be in effect at least until
May 1998, when the court revisits the issue based on a
report to be prepared by an appointed special expert.
While bundling Windows and Explorer has allowed Microsoft
to win a significant market share over arch-rival Netscape
Communications, the order is likely to make it a lot easier
for Netscape to distribute its own browser through PC
makers.
*****
US President Bill Clinton has agreed to sign into law the
No Electronic Theft Act, a controversial new bill aimed at
curbing breach of copyrights. Under the so-called NET Act,
offenders could be jailed for up to five years and have to
pay up to $250,000 in fines for pirating material such as
software, video, music or literature of a value of $2,500
or more over electronic networks, in particular the
Internet.
*****
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has said it
would ask for the suspension of the decision of US District
Court Judge Joe Kendall to let US regional telecoms
operators enter the long-distance market without having to
meet preliminary conditions, in particular that their home
market is sufficiently open to competition.
*****
The Canadian regional operator New Brunswick Telephone has
applied for a license to offer cable TV services over its
telecoms network in 1998. While other Canadian operators
are testing cable TV services, New Brunswick Telephone is
the first that has firm plans to enter this market. This
follows the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission's decision to fully
liberalise telecoms in 1998
MARKET AND COMPANIES
The US regional telecoms operator SBC Communications said
it has agreed to spend $4.4 billion on purchasing the US
local operator Southern New England Telecoms (SNET). The
move seems aimed at gaining access to the local,
long-distance, wireless and Internet service markets
outside of SBC's core Western and Southwestern markets, in
direct competition with rival Bell Atlantic-Nynex.
*****
The US long-distance giant AT&T said it has agreed to spend
$11.3 billion on purchasing Teleport Communications, the
largest US competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC), a
move that would give it immediate access to the US local
telecoms market in over 60 large US cities, including New
York City and Los Angeles. CLECs are small telecoms
operators which build their own networks to bypass Baby
Bells. This shortly followed the decision by Teleport,
which specialises in local telecoms and Internet access
services, to spend $1 billion on buying the small US
long-distance operator ACC Corp., in a move to become a
full-service provider.
*****
The Finnish telecoms manufacturer Nokia has agreed to spend
$120 million on purchasing Ipsilon Networks, a leading US
supplier of open Internet Protocol (IP) platforms for fixed
and mobile broadband networks. Ipsilon would be fully
integrated in Nokia's infrastructure arm, Nokia Telecoms.
The move is part of Nokia's strategy to have a stronger
presence in the US data communications business.
*****
The US software giant Microsoft has said it would purchase
Hotmail, a US start-up that has become the leading free
Internet e-mail service with 9.5 million subscribers in
less than two years, in a move to strengthen its grip on
the unfolding Internet market.
*****
The US computer installation and maintenance company
Network Associates has agreed to spend $36 million on
buying Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), a leading US provider of
cryptographic solutions for secure electronic
communications. The venture would have a strong rational in
the security market as it would combine Network Associates'
McAfee anti-virus software with PGP's Internet encryption
software.
*****
The Japanese software company Softbank said it would spend
$51 million on taking a 22.5% stake in GeoCities, a US
Internet start-up that allows Internauts to set up their
own home page for free. Softbank said it would finance part
of the investment by selling back shares in America's
Yahoo!, the most popular Web search engine, but that it
would retain a 30% stake in Yahoo!. Softbank and GeoCities
already collaborate in Japan, where they have set up a
joint venture, GeoCities Japan Corp., in which they
respectively own 60% and 40%. It has attracted 40,000 users
since October 1997.
*****
The US telecoms giant AT&T said it has agreed to sell back
its 2.5% stake in the US digital satellite broadcasting
group DirectTV. AT&T would sell the stake to DirecTV for
$162 million, or a 10% premium compared to its 1996 buying
purchasing price of $137 million. The move is part of
AT&T's strategy to refocus on its core telecoms
activities.
ASIA AND PACIFIC
Trends: Competition is heating up for NTT in the Japanese
local telecoms market with the launch of cut-price services
by TTNet and JT. Competition is also gaining momentum in
the overseas market with new initiatives by KDD and foreign
operators.
INFRASTRUCTURE
The Japanese telecoms giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
(NTT) said it plans to wire up homes in isolated areas such
as Hokkaido by next summer by using the wireless personal
handyphone system (PHS) technology rather than by relying
on fixed networks. It would provide households with two
phone lines of 64 Kbit each.
MULTIMEDIA SERVICES AND PRODUCTS
Four leading Japanese electronics groups, Hitachi,
Matsushita, Mitsubishi and Toshiba, have announced that
they would set up a consortium to jointly develop a smart
home system for remote control over the Internet of home
appliances, heating, lights, air conditioning and other
functions, as well as connection to emergency and police
services.
*****
The Japanese telecoms giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
(NTT) said that its strategy would shift away from its
focus on basic phone services and focus instead on the
provision of multimedia services. NTT explained that
telephony can no longer generate sustained profit and that
it must therefore generate demand for new multimedia
services.
LEGISLATION AND POLICIES
The Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecoms (MPT) has asked
the Japanese Radio Regulatory Council to study deregulation
measures regarding investment in satellite-based
broadcasting. The MPT plans for industry deregulation by
February 1998.
MARKET AND COMPANIES
The Japanese long-distance operator Kokusai Denshin Denwa
(KDD) has announced the launch of an Internet-based
international phone service which offers prices 80% lower
than KDD's normal calling rates. The service will be
operated by KDD Communications, the Internet access arm of
KDD.
*****
The regional operator Tokyo Telecoms Network Co. (TTNet)
has launched a cut- price local and long-distance phone
service in the Tokyo area in competition with the incumbent
operator Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT). With local
prices 10% lower than NTT, TTNet is said to offer the
country's cheapest local communications. Rival Japan
Telecom (JT) said it would launch its own cut-price local
telecoms service in competition with NTT starting in
February 1998.
*****
A number of US and European telecoms operators intend to
take advantage of the liberalisation of international
calling services, which took place at the end of 1997, to
offer cut-rate overseas phone services in Japan. New comers
would include Japanese subsidiaries of AT&T, Cable and
Wireless (C&W), Global One and Telecom Italia.
*****
The Japanese digital satellite broadcasting (DSB) systems
JSkyB and PerfecTV have unveiled plans to merge their
operations. The move would leave only two rival DSB
systems, the second being DirecTV Japan (DTVJ), which is
led by America's Hughes Communications. JSkyB is owned by
the US media giant News Corp. and the Japanese software, TV
and electronics groups Softbank, Fuji TV Network and Sony.
PerfecTV is led by the Japanese trading houses Mitsui,
Itochu, Sumitomo and Nissho Iwai.
TECHNOLOGY
The Japanese electronics group NEC said it has developed an
encryption technology that is safer than the popular RSA
technology and more difficult to break than the next-
generation of elliptic encryption code. It would be
marketed in mid-1998.
*****
A group of 20 leading high-tech companies said they intend
to test in Japan in March 1998 a technology that allows for
the high-speed transmission of data over wireless personal
handyphone system (PHS) circuits. While PHS currently offer
a 32 Kbit per second transmission speed, the new technology
would increase that to 25-30 Mbit per second. Involved
companies would include the Japanese telecoms operators
NTT, KDD and DDI, the Japanese electronics groups NEC and
Fujitsu, and possibly the US and European telecoms
equipment manufacturers Motorola and Ericsson.
MIDDLE-EAST
LEGISLATION AND POLICIES
The Israeli government agreed to let the UK telecoms
operator Cable and Wireless (C&W) increase its stake in the
incumbent telecoms operator Bezeq to 20% from 10.2%.
Also available electronically:
ispo.cec.be E-mail subscription:
Majordomo@www.ispo.cec.be; enter SUBSCRIBE ISTRENDS + your
e-mail address>>>> |
