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Technology Stocks : Newbridge Networks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: j g cordes who wrote (5892)	8/6/1998 11:36:00 AM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18016

when the charts blip and chirp I'll let you know. I'll be waiting. In the meantime, I feel as though I need a 12-step program to keep me from buying more. Waiting for the sun to break over the horizon --- Pat

To: j g cordes who wrote (5892)	8/6/1998 10:04:00 PM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18016

Time to wake the troops. The FCC proposal is a major turning point for highspeed upgrades. This is fantastic news: <<< August 6, 1998 FCC Proposal Encourages Bells To Build High-Speed Net Links An INTERACTIVE JOURNAL News Roundup Internet users frustrated by long waits to visit their favorite Web sites could get some relief under a government proposal to encourage the rollout of high-speed data connections for homes. On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission proposed giving incentives to local phone companies to encourage them to build the expensive infrastructure needed for such connections. The final plan could be adopted by year's end. "Most Americans ... are getting very used to high-speed Internet access in the office. They go home and it's the World Wide Wait and it's very frustrating," said FCC Chairman Bill Kennard. "We want to bring that same high-bandwidth capacity into every home in America." Local, long-distance, satellite, cable and wireless companies are in a race to create lucrative high-speed connections to homes. The FCC will be exploring ways to give other companies incentives to build fast connections into the home, too. Bell Atlantic Corp., for instance, plans to offer in some markets this fall a connection, digital subscriber line, that is 250 times faster than is offered by a typical modem. Consumers would be charged an installation fee and would have to buy a special modem, and would also pay a monthly fee for various packages of service. The lack of fast connections to the home is only part of the problem. Much Internet traffic flows over phone-company networks that were designed for voice calls, not data, and are much less efficient in dealing with the latter. But regional telephone companies Bell Atlantic, U S West Inc., Ameritech Corp. and SBC Communications Inc. say current regulations discourage them from building networks designed for data inside their own local phone regions. They want the FCC to use its powers under a 1996 law to remove regulatory barriers hindering development of these advanced networks. The FCC proposed giving the Bell companies and other major local phone providers, such as GTE Corp., some regulatory relief in the delivery of high-speed data services -- but with certain conditions. Under the proposal, the local companies wouldn't have to discount new high-speed services to rivals, as they are required to do with other services. They would, however, still be required to lease these services to competitors. And the phone companies would be free to set consumer prices for interstate data services without first filing price information with the FCC. State authorities, however, would decide whether to regulate consumer prices of data services offered in their states. In exchange for these changes, the local companies would have to lease crucial pieces of their networks so other companies could provide competing high-speed data services. The local companies also would have to provide their data services through a separate affiliate. The FCC believes this is crucial to ensure that the Bells and other entrenched local phone companies don't use their monopoly power to block rivals from offering competing services. The affiliate would be required to provide the same services at the same terms to rivals as it receives from its parent. The FCC isn't expected to grant the Bells' request to let them directly offer data services across local calling boundaries, which would constitute a "long-distance" service, something they are currently forbidden from offering. In other action, the FCC is expected to: Beef up enforcement of rules requiring cable programmers to make shows available to satellite TV companies and other cable competitors. Propose giving U.S. phone companies more flexibility in cutting deals with foreign carriers to terminate calls in countries that don't have much competition. Regulators hope this will make it cheaper for U.S. customers to call most Latin American countries. Adopt rules for public-safety groups to eventually get more slices of the public airwaves to coordinate communications, and to provide services such as wireless transmission of fingerprints and mug shots to and from police cars. >>>>