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To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (15986)	6/11/1998 9:07:00 AM
From: Moonray	Respond to of 22053

Advanced Fibre Communications and 3Com to Jointly Market ADSL DMT-Based Solution - PRNewswire, 05:41 p.m Jun 10, 1998 Eastern PETALUMA, Calif., June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Fibre Communications(R), Inc. (AFC) (Nasdaq: AFCI) and 3Com Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. (Nasdaq: COMS) announced today that they have broadened the scope of their strategic relationship to include end-to-end standards compliant DMT ADSL solutions. guide-p.infoseek.com o~~~ O

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (15986)	6/11/1998 11:49:00 AM
From: Moonray	Respond to of 22053

FCC to Vote on Plan Requiring Cable Boxes to Be Sold in Stores Washington, June 10 (Bloomberg) -- Cable TV customers would be able to buy cable set-top boxes directly from retail outlets like Circuit City Stores and Best Buy Co., Inc., under U.S. Federal Communications Commission rules scheduled to be voted on tomorrow. Set top box manufacturers, like General Instrument and Scientific Atlanta, are anxious for the retail roll-out because it'll give them more flexibility to try out different features and functions in the boxes that might not work on a mass scale. Cable companies, like Time Warner Inc. and Tele- Communications Inc., would also benefit from customers being able to buy the boxes. ''It should only benefit the cable operators because they won't have to fund the purchases of the boxes anymore,'' said Douglas Shapiro, a media analyst with Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. Cable customers who want to order pay-per-view movies or get premium movie channels like HBO and Cinemax must now rent a set- top box directly from the cable company at an average monthly cost of $2.53. Under the FCC's plan, those same boxes would have to be sold in stores directly to cable customers beginning in 2000, much the same way satellite TV dishes are sold today. The boxes will likely sell for about $300-$400. Increasingly Important Role Set top boxes could play an increasingly important role for cable companies as new digital boxes open up new sales opportunities. The analog boxes that about half to two-thirds of the 67 million cable customers have now allow them to order pay- per-view movies and get premium movie channels. The new digital boxes allow cable systems to boost their channel capacity and receive better quality pictures and sound. More advanced digital boxes that'll be rolled out beginning next summer are intended to allow customers to surf the Internet, send e-mail, and shop from home. ''Retail availability of set tops helps the industry as a whole to promote digital cable,'' said David Fritch, senior manager of marketing and strategy for General Instrument's digital network systems. TCI, the second largest U.S. cable company, now offers some subscribers a limited digital package with 36 video and 10 music channels at a cost of $10 a month. Because most customers also use their boxes to order pay-per-view movies and additional movie channels, each box brings in an average total of $12-$13 per month, said Shapiro. About 1.9 million households will have the digital boxes by year's end, growing to 5.5 million in 1999 and to about 10 million by 2000, Shapiro estimated. General Instrument said the company has digital set-top box contracts worth $4.5 billion with 12 major cable operators, including TCI, Time Warner, and Comcast Corp. Scientific Atlanta has digital set-top contracts with nine cable operators, including Time Warner, Cox Communications, and Comcast. Smart Cards One key feature of the FCC's proposed new rules is that the cable boxes sold in stores won't include built-in security devices used to unscramble local cable company signals. Instead, customers will have to get a so-called smart-card security device from the cable company that'll plug into the set-top box. The rules will apply to both analog and digital cable boxes. The FCC's rules to be voted on Thursday would let cable companies continue leasing customers set-top boxes that have the security functions built in, as the cable industry requested. Set top boxes that decode direct satellite broadcast signals would also be unaffected. The FCC plans to leave it to the manufacturers and cable industry to come up with the technical specifications for the set tops so they will work with a cable company's smart card. One of the most difficult technical issues still to be resolved is how to manufacture cable boxes in such a way that they'll work anywhere in the country, on any cable system. Cable operators have different transmission systems, security technologies and other characteristics. Cable operators say the law doesn't require portability. The equipment manufacturers say a standard product that can be used anywhere is critical to retail sales. ''Without that kind of portability, you don't have a national market, and without a national market, it's very difficult to manufacture'' the set-top devices, said Cynthia Upson, vice president of strategic communications for the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association. o~~~ O

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (15986)	6/15/1998 2:10:00 PM
From: Moonray	Respond to of 22053

MCI to Sell All Internet Units to Appease Regulators London, June 15 (Bloomberg) -- MCI Communications Corp., the No. 2 U.S. long-distance phone company, offered to sell all its Internet assets to win regulatory approval for its $40.2 billion acquisition by WorldCom Inc., said an EU official close to the negotiations. Cable & Wireless Plc, the U.K.'s No. 2 telephone company, insisted today it still had an agreement to buy some of MCI's Internet assets. It also said MCI agreed to negotiate with it first before it sells the rest, even though a U.S. court ruled Friday MCI can look for other buyers. Negotiations between MCI, WorldCom -- the No. 4 U.S. long- distance phone company -- and regulators in Europe and the U.S. threatened to undermine the agreement between Cable & Wireless and MCI, which analysts agree would considerably boost the U.K. company's U.S. and international presence. Earlier this month, MCI agreed to sell its wholesale Internet business for $625 million to Cable & Wireless. MCI's corporate accounts and retail Internet businesses were not included in the agreement. ''The issue is whether MCI's entire Internet business goes up for auction or whether it goes at a price that suits Cable & Wireless,'' said Keith Mallinson, managing director of The Yankee Group Europe, a telecommunications consultancy. He said U.S. telecommunications mergers and takeovers since the latest round of deregulation in 1996, including WorldCom's bid for MCI, make economic sense because they eliminate duplicated costs. C&W Confident However, Cable & Wireless remains confident its agreement with MCI will proceed as planned. ''We're pleased that as part of the proceedings, all parties agreed our contract is still in force,'' said Peter Eustace, a spokesman for Cable & Wireless. He declined to say whether Cable & Wireless will bid for the enlarged MCI Internet business or what it will do if it loses the wholesale business. ''Those are all bridges we'll cross when we come to them,'' he said. Cable & Wireless's shares fell as much as 4 percent to 643.5 pence. On Friday, MCI's closed up 1 3/16 at 49 13/16 and WorldCom's shares closed up 1/4 at 42 1/2. Last week Cable & Wireless sought an injunction in a U.S. court to require MCI to comply with its agreement to sell its wholesale Internet business to the U.K. company. The court refused to grant the injunction. Potential bidders for MCI's Internet businesses include IXC Communications Inc., AT&T Corp., Sprint Corp., GTE Corp. and PSINet Inc., analysts said. IXC officials refused to comment, and the other companies didn't return calls seeking comment. WorldCom officials weren't available to comment. British Telecommunications Plc declined to comment on whether it is interested in buying any of MCI's Internet businesses. It's likely that one buyer would get all of MCI's Internet assets, leaving Cable & Wireless empty-handed -- except for a $25 million payment from MCI for breaking the earlier sales agreement -- unless it wins the bidding, industry analysts and antitrust attorneys said. ''The economic justification for buying the enlarged Internet business is quite possibly weaker for an organization that doesn't already have a stronger North American presence.'' Setback Others said all is not lost for Cable & Wireless. ''This is a setback for Cable & Wireless rather than a grave disappointment,'' said Jim Sloane, a telecommunications analyst at Deloitte & Touche Consulting. ''But they're obviously worried -- the injunction was quite a severe reaction. It won't have done relations with MCI any good.'' European Union regulators view MCI's new proposal as a positive step toward securing EU approval for the acquisition, said an official close to the negotiations, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said MCI still needs to deliver a formal proposal clarifying some aspects of the offer in order to convince EU regulators it's divesting its entire Internet network. One stumbling block, he said, is finding a way to transfer MCI's Internet services customer accounts to the buyer without interfering with MCI's agreements to provide other telecommunications services to retail customers. MCI's Internet services business is integrated with MCI's other telecommunications services, making it difficult to separate the two customer bases, the official said. He wouldn't say whether MCI's offer included naming a buyer for the assets. He said, though, that the buyer would have to meet EU criteria. It would have to be a viable competitor to MCI and to guarantee that it would put the assets to good use in the market and that it would be prepared to invest in further developing the assets. The agreement will have to include a guarantee from MCI that it won't try to lure its old customers back for a certain period of time following the sale, the official said. The official said he expects MCI to deliver the necessary details in coming days, allowing regulators to decide whether to approve or block the WorldCom acquisition before Friday's meeting of an advisory committee of competition officials from the 15 EU nations. The European Commission is working on WorldCom's proposed acquisition of MCI in tandem with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission. Scarce Property If Cable & Wireless loses the opportunity it seized to buy MCI's wholesale Internet business, it will find it difficult to replicate it, analysts said. ''It was very serendipitous that this opportunity appeared and Cable & Wireless was able to get it,'' said Mallinson. ''It's a pretty scarce property -- there are not that many international Internet assets around -- most have fallen into UUnet's clutches.'' UUnet is WorldCom's Internet unit that carries traffic for businesses and other Internet providers. The EU official said MCI's offer to sell its other Internet business is a positive move in ensuring that overlap between WorldCom's and MCI's Internet backbone businesses is eliminated. Regulators are worried that a combined WorldCom-MCI would control more than half of the world's Internet traffic. ''They've told us they will go out for a rebid on assets that include those involved in this transaction,'' Charles Lettow, Cable and Wireless's lawyer, said at Friday's hearing. Lawyers for Cable & Wireless asked for a temporary order enforcing the May 28 agreement between the companies. o~~~ O