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To: George Coyne who wrote (36437)	2/25/1998 7:32:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 61433

EU says phone services gradually improving Reuters Story - February 25, 1998 17:03 %EEC %FR %TEL %GB %IT %AT %BE %LU %DE BT.L FTE.PA V%REUTER P%RTR BRUSSELS, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Telephone users in Europe are gradually seeing lower prices, better service and more consumer protection as countries abolish their state monopolies, the European Commission said on Wednesday. The Commission, in a review of services in all 15 European Union countries, said it saw no reason to strengthen EU rules requiring governments to guarantee "universal service" -- affordable basic phone services for all. In particular, it said it would not propose changing the definition of "universal service" to include Internet access for groups such as schools, an idea pushed by Belgium and France. It said it would instead ask national regulatory authorities to encourage phone companies to offer special tariffs to connect schools to the Internet. The Commission prepared the report in connection with the EU's programme for opening telecoms markets in most countries to full competition by January 1. It found that: -- The number of fixed phone lines in the EU has risen to more than 190 million, with mobile phone subscribers totalling about 45 million. The number of fixed-line subscribers had risen to 50.6 per 100 people in 1996 from 48.8 in 1994. About six million households do not have telephones. -- The Dutch had the most phone lines in the EU in 1996 with 123.4 per 100 households. Portugal, the least connected of countries supplying data, had 70.6. -- On the whole, consumers have benefited from price cuts for services. But there are exceptions, with people who make few calls paying higher fixed charges. -- The major tariff cuts from 1995 to 1997 were for international and long-distance services. Costs for local services fell the most in Finland and Britain. -- Only Italy and France have set up special funds to help companies provide universal service, as allowed under EU law. Austria, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg have enacted measures that allow them to do so if necessary. -- Estimates of the cost of providing universal service vary widely. While Britain says the net cost is as much as 1.6 percent of British Telecom's turnover, France says the figure is 5.5 percent for France Telecom .

To: George Coyne who wrote (36437)	2/25/1998 9:36:00 PM
From: Gary Korn	Respond to of 61433

YTD performance of selected network stocks through Wed., 2/25/98: Stock 12/31/97 02/25/98 %gain(loss) XYLN 15 1/8 26 1/8 76.7 MADGF 3 7/8 6 1/16 56.5 ASND 24 1/2 36 1/4 48.0 SHVA 8 9/16 12 1/16 40.9 LU 79 7/8 106 3/8 33.2 XIRC 10 1/16 13 1/4 31.7 BAY 25 9/16 31 9/16 23.5 CSCO 55 3/4 66 3/4 19.7 NT 44 1/2 51 1/8 14.9 NWX 277.83 315.43 13.5 TLAB 52 7/8 59 5/8 12.8 FORE 15 1/4 16 1/16 5.3 CS 15 15 3/4 5.0 MRVC 23 7/8 24 1/8 1.0 COMS 34 15/16 35 1/8 .5 PAIR 19 3/8 19 5/16 ( .3) WSTL 12 3/4 11 13/16 ( 7.4) CIEN 61 1/8 40 7/16 (33.8) NN 34 7/8 22 (36.9) Gary Korn