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Technology Stocks : Qwest Communications (Q) (formerly QWST) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John S. Baker who wrote (1065)	4/3/1998 11:49:00 AM
From: Nick	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6846

Friday April 3, 11:07 am Eastern Time GTE jumps on plan to cut costs, sell assets NEW YORK, April 3 (Reuters) - Shares of GTE Corp. (GTE - news) jumped more than six percent on Friday after the telecommunications company outlined plans to cut costs and sell non-core businesses. GTE gained 3-13/16 to 64-1/4 in morning trading. The Stamford, Conn.-based company aims to generate $2 billion to $3 billion by selling nonstrategic operations and plans to cut annual costs by more than $500 million over two years through staff cuts and efficiency moves. The changes will give GTE added capital for investments and acquisitions as it looks to bolster its presence in the fast-growing data market. ''It's the right step. Everyone needs to keep their mind set on the attractive, faster-growing parts of the business and keep getting costs down,'' said Kevin Gooley, an analyst with S&PConsumer Markets. GTE Chief Financial Officer Mike Kelly said the actions were not being taken to make the company a more attractive takeover target. ''These actions ... were not preparing for us to acquire something or not thinking that somebody was going to buy us,'' but instead will allow the company to trim non-strategic assets, Kelly said. GTE last fall entered the bidding war for MCI Communications Corp. (MCIC - news) but lost to WorldCom Inc. (WCOM - news). Since then GTE has been seen as a possible partner for MCI's other spurned suitor, British Telecommunications Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BT.L), or upstart Qwest Communications International Inc. (QWST - news).

To: John S. Baker who wrote (1065)	4/3/1998 2:13:00 PM
From: Nick	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6846

FCC may seek fees on Internet long distance calls WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission is considering levying fees paid by ordinary long distance firms on the new breed of provider offering traditional telephony service over the Internet, people familiar with the plan said. If approved by the five-member commission, the plan could put a crimp in the strategy of firms, such as Qwest Communications International Inc (QWST - news) and IDT Corp (IDTC - news), that want to offer Internet long distance service at rates as low as 5 cents per minute. AT&T Corp (T - news) has also announced plans to offer a similar service. Ordinary long distance firms are required by the FCC to pay local phone companies per-minute charges on every call as well as monthly per-subscriber fees. The local phone companies use the money in part to support universal service, subsidizing the cost of local service for people in rural and low-income areas. But the FCC has exempted Internet service providers from paying so-called access charges to support universal service. That seemingly opened an opportunity for lower-priced long distance service if calls were carried by an ISP instead of an ordinary long distance network. At first, Internet telephony relied on consumers using their computers with modems to make such calls. But the new breed of services plan to allow consumers to use an ordinary telephone to make Internet long distance voice calls, although some extra digits would have to be dialed. The situation caught the attention of FCC policymakers, who were already reviewing the ISP access charge exemption for a report requested by Congress and due April 10. Lawmakers from states highly dependent on access charges, led by Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, are opposed to the ISP exemption, and demanded the FCC justify the policy in the report. The preliminary report, which has not been approved by the five commissioners yet, recommends closing the loophole by assessing access charges on long distance calls made telephone to telephone regardless of the type of network used to carry the call. The report does not recommend revoking the ISP exemption or ''taxing the Internet,'' as some had feared, people familiar with the report said.