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Non-Tech : Amati investors -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pat mudge who wrote (30662)	3/17/1998 10:53:00 AM
From: JW@KSC	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 31386

Re: You still chalking 'em up, Jim???? Pat - Thanks........ Yes, I'm still keeping score! Though my enthusiasm is not what it once was. Still waiting for Compaq to buy a DSL'er.. --------- The Hong Kong government has awarded a video-on-demand (VOD) license to the telecoms operator Hong Kong Telecoms (HK Telecoms) and approved in principle a similar license for Star Interactive Television (Star iTV), a unit of the Internet and paging service provider Star Telecom International Holding. HK Telecoms would launch its interactive TV service, HK Telecom VOD, in March 1998 and provide services such as pay-per-view (PPW), music videos and home shopping. As for Star iTV, it intends to become operational by mid-1998. It would offer high-speed Internet access, home shopping and banking, as well as educational content. -------- The incumbent Spanish telecoms operator Telefonica has agreed to team up with the US long distance operators MCI and WorldCom, which are due to complete a full merger by mid-1998. The three partners have announced the setting up of strategic business ventures covering the European, Latin American and Hispanic markets. The move means the death of the partnership between Telefonica and the leading UK operator, BT, which had been put into question by MCI's decision, in November 1997, to merge with WorldCom instead of BT. The alliance also questions BT's ties with the Portuguese national operator, Portugal Telecom, which has agreed to open talks with Telefonica, MCI and WorldCom to possibly join their alliance. In Europe, Telefonica would join as a distributor WorldCom's corporate service business, which it supplies over its own network in Belgium, Britain, Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. It would also have an option to take a 10% stake in a new company that would be set up to manage WorldCom's European operations as well as a 46% stake in a company that would be set up to manage WorldCom's Italian operations. WorldCom and Telefonica would also establish a joint venture owned respectively 51% and 49% to target Eastern and Southern Europe. In Latin America, MCI would have an option to take at least a 10% stake in Telefonica's overseas arm, Tisa. The two firms already operate a joint venture, Telefonica-Panamericana MCI (TPAM), owned 51% by Telefonica and 49% by MCI. TPAM plans to build a digital network that would interconnect a dozen major leading business centres by the year 2001. MCI and Telefonica would also set up a joint venture owned respectively 70% and 30% and targeted at the US and global Hispanic markets. Meanwhile, Telefonica has agreed that Portugal Telecom, in which it owns a 3.5% stake, could take a 5% stake in Tisa. The two companies would also set up a joint venture focusing on non-Spanish and non-Portuguese speaking countries. ----- On a lighter note: HURTS SO GOOD Chinese researchers claim a new pager- sized device that fits in a man's underwear and transmits electronic pulses can render men sterile for as long as a month, reports the Reuters news agency. The male contraceptive was developed in Xi'an. Reuters quotes the Xinhua news agency as saying the device will be ready for market soon, and marketers are looking for overseas buyers. Ouch! JW@KSC