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To: jhild who wrote (14494)	4/3/1998 3:07:00 PM
From: Moonray	Respond to of 22053

AT&T to Lower Price of Internet Phone Services Amid Competition Bean Town Express - April 3, 1998 Boston, April 3 (Bloomberg) -- AT&T Corp. President John Zeglis said the U.S.'s largest phone company will lower the price it charges for phone calls that travel over the Internet amid increased competition. AT&T is considering offering the service, called WorldNet Voice, for lower than the 7.5 cents to 9 cents a minute it announced in January as other companies cut their rates, Zeglis said, though he added that AT&T hasn't decided on a final price. IDT Corp. said last month it will offer its Internet phone service for as low as 5 cents a minute for customers who sign up for long-distance service. AT&T will begin offering the service in three unidentified cities during the second quarter. The services use Internet protocol technology, which breaks a call into several ''packets'' of information and sends them over multiple routes, reassembling them at the destination. Traditional phone services use a single line for the duration of the call. ''We'll come up with the right price point per market,'' he said. Separately, Zeglis said the company may commercially test its new wireless technology to bypass traditional local phone lines by the end of 1998. Known as Project Angel, AT&T would mount a pizza-sized box on the side of homes to receive local phone calls and Internet services. New York-based AT&T is refining the technology to make it less costly, he said. Zeglis made the remarks before and after a speech at the Northeastern University CEO Breakfast Forum in Boston. o~~~ O

To: jhild who wrote (14494)	4/3/1998 3:25:00 PM
From: Moonray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22053

Outlook on Japan's economy getting darker TOKYO (AP) -- The head of a top company says the economy is near disaster. A leading credit rating agency is losing confidence. A quarterly survey finds deepening pessimism. The forecasts for Japan's economy are getting darker. Tokyo stocks tumbled today after credit rating agency Moody's Investors Service signaled it may downgrade Japanese government debt, and the U.S. dollar soared to a six-year high against the yen. Moody's changed its outlook for Japan's economy to ''negative'' from the previous ''stable'' -- a sign it may be considering lowering its appraisal of the Japan's ability to repay its debts. In Washington today, President Clinton called Japan the ''key to stability and growth in Asia,'' and urged the Japanese government to take bold action to address its own economic problems. Clinton said it appeared there was an internal battle being waged between those who believe Japan must act more decisively and the country's entrenched bureaucracy, which favors a more cautious approach. ''The people within the government there ... have to realize that the strategies that worked in the past are not appropriate to the present,'' Clinton said. The remarks came a day after the chairman of consumer electronics giant Sony Corp. warned that Japan's economy is on the brink of imploding and could threaten the health of the global economy. Norio Ohga spoke to reporters Thursday, shortly after the Japanese central bank released its latest survey showing businesses are increasingly pessimistic about the state of the country's economy. ''The Japanese economy is on the verge of collapsing,'' Ohga said. ''If the economic situation continues to decline ... this will no doubt have a damaging effect on the world economy.'' He urged the government to stimulate consumer demand, and said that simply cutting taxes wouldn't be enough. ''Instead, we need to do away with taxes related to purchasing a home, even if only for the short term,'' he suggested. The Bank of Japan's quarterly survey said big companies cited sluggish economic growth at home and worries about the impact of Asia's financial crisis for their deepening pessimism. ''I think this is a pretty catastrophic report,'' said Russell Jones, chief economist at Lehman Brothers Japan Inc. ''Japan is sliding deeper into recession.'' The survey said there were no signs that corporate confidence would recover anytime soon. Companies blamed the government for not implementing effective economic stimulus measures. The report surveyed 9,308 companies. ''Even the U.S. economy will not be able to maintain its healthy state'' if Japan's economy continues in its slump, Ohga warned. Speaking to a press conference after the Moody report's release on Friday, Japanese Finance Minister Hikaru Matsunaga said the government may move to prop up the yen, which he said has fallen too far. The Moody's report pushed both the yen and Japanese stocks into a nosedive by heightening already intense concern about the country's faltering economy. The dollar bought 134.56 yen in Tokyo at late afternoon Friday, up 0.69 yen from the same time Thursday and above its late New York rate of 133.50 yen overnight. The U.S. currency rose as high as 135.20 yen -- its strongest since April 1992. o~~~ O