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To: djane who wrote (51752)	8/6/1998 3:48:00 PM
From: Jan Crawley	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 61433

Gosh! what a friend, I did not receive your tip?? :)) I have a small position with COMS; am sure that Blankmind is happy for COMS.

To: djane who wrote (51752)	8/6/1998 5:32:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

Local Phone Companies Let Loose on High-speed Internet Development [Nice analysis of FCC decision] idgnet.com August 06, 1998 By Elizabeth Wasserman In an effort to spur the deployment of high-speed Internet links to the average American home, the Federal Communications Commission today lifted a major roadblock preventing the big local telephone companies from jumping into the bandwidth market. The five-member regulatory panel, in a unanimous vote, ruled that the local telephone carriers may set up separate subsidiaries to offer a range of high-speed data services - called xDSL - and that these subsidiaries can skirt regulations that now force the carriers to resell use of their systems to competitors. But even today's historic move may not be enough to stave off a congressional review of the panel's commitment to deregulating the telecommunications environment. Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, chairman of the House Commerce Committee's telecommunications subcommittee, said in an interview that he plans to charter a special task force in the next six months to begin looking at the FCC. While Tauzin said the panel's move today was in the right direction, he doesn't believe they have done enough to foster competition in the marketplace. The commission's action today came partly in response to congressional mandates. Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC was to authorize an examination of the deployment of high-speed data lines nationwide by this Aug. 8 if the panel found that those services were not being offered quickly enough. That's why, in a related measure today, the commission also authorized staff to begin an inquiry into how federal officials can help nudge industry into linking consumers to greater bandwidth services from a variety of technologies, such as wireless, satellite, cable modems, set-top boxes and digital television. Most of the industries that are developing these services are not regulated and therefore future commission action would likely focus on breaking down more regulatory barriers for the so-called Baby Bells. "I think there will be a day in the not-too-distant future when we look at the Internet in 1998 as being in a very primitive stage," FCC Chairman William Kennard said before the vote. "These items are all about hastening that day.The key to hastening that day is creating more bandwidth." [Nice quote] The new policy is likely to result in heavy lobbying from a variety of interests. Long-distance phone companies and new telecommunications companies have complained that local carriers have not opened up local markets to competition, one of the requirements before the local carriers are permitted to break some of the federal regulatory shackles. At the same time, the local carriers don't believe the commission's actions go far enough. They had asked for permission to be able to compete for data services across the local access telecommunications areas set up 15 years ago, during the break up of the AT&T monopoly. The companies also oppose the concept of setting up separate entities to provide the data services, which require that they compete for access to the "last mile" of telephone lines to homes and businesses with their competitors. "We think an affiliate is good for competition," said Jason Oxman, a staff attorney in the FCC's Common Carrier Bureau. That way, he added, the local carrier "waits in the same line for access to the incumbent telephone carrier's office space and copper wires." Current rules require the local phone companies - which still retain virtual monopolies over local service although some competitors are starting to make inroads - to lease the use of their systems to new competitors in the local markets. The Bells have argued that these regulations discourage them from investing to upgrade their existing lines to handle high-speed data communications, because the profit incentive is reduced when they have to offer the services for use at wholesale rates to competitors. Opponents argued that the Bells could use their monopoly position in the local market to try to extend that to data services. "We are concerned," the Association for Local Telecommunications Services said in a press release, "that the proposal allowing Bell monopolies to sell advanced data services through unregulated subsidiaries could delay the spread of competitive alternatives. Recent experience demonstrates the difficulty competitors face in accessing unbundled local loops and collocation from the regulated monopoly. Unless they are equally regulated, monopoly-owned data subsidiaries may prove to be even less cooperative." The FCC's action today was a clear victory for the five remaining Baby Bells and GTE, providing them with a way to circumvent the resale regulations and compete to provide data services in an unregulated environment. It amounts to one of the biggest victories for the local phone companies in the wake of the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The Bells have repeatedly petitioned to compete in long-distance markets, but have been rebuffed by the commission and the courts for failing to open up their local markets to competition. The commission's action comes as part of a mandate from Congress in the Telecom Act to review the deployment of high-speed services nationwide, particularly to schools, by Aug. 8 of this year. While Internet broadband access is becoming more widely available, commissioners said they saw the entry of local telephone companies into the market as a way to spur more rapid deployment. Meanwhile, Tauzin said the special task force that he will empanel is expected to examine possible restructuring of the agency, whether it needs a new mission given the changing telecommunications landscape, and even whether it needs to be governed by a panel of political appointees as opposed to a single administrator. "We want to be as open in this process as possible," he said. "They certainly have roles to play as prime managers of the nation's spectrum. And they have an enforcement role in the marketplace. But we need to examine how much of a regulatory role should they have in the marketplace and whether there are bureaus that ought to be abolished." The FCC action is a proposed policy that will be subject to review before it becomes law. They haven't disclosed how lengthy the review period will be. Also, the Bells' requests to compete for data services across long-distance boundaries were denied. Copyright c 1998 The Industry Standard \| All rights reserved \| Webmaster

To: djane who wrote (51752)	8/6/1998 5:35:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

Cisco Announces New Packet-over-SONET/SDH Solutions for Service Provider and Enterprise WAN Networks; New Port Adapter Enables High Performance, Flexibility and Scalability August 6, 1998 SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via NewsEdge Corporation -- Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) today announced a new Packet-over-Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SONET/SDH) port adapter for the Cisco 7500 and 7200 series routers. The new port adapter will enable high performance, flexibility and scalability in service provider and large enterprise WAN applications. "The explosive growth of the Internet coupled with the continued expansion of large enterprise WANs has driven the convergence of technologies," said Richard Palmer, director of marketing for Cisco's Routed WAN Business Unit. "The new Packet-over-SONET/SDH port adapter merges IP and SONET/SDH transport networking for both the Cisco 7500 and 7200 series routers." The Packet-over-SONET/SDH port adapter (POS) provides the same level of high switching performance as the existing Packet-over-SONET/SDH Interface Processor (POSIP) in a single-wide port adapter design. This allows flexible, high-performance networks to be designed with greater port density. With the Virtual Interface Processor 2-50 (VIP2-50) in the Cisco 7500, the POS port adapter substantially increases performance for applications requiring greater connectivity options. In addition, different port adapter technologies such as serial, multichannel, Ethernet and Fast Ethernet, can be combined with the POS port adapter in the same VIP to provide greater network design flexibility and increased port density. In addition, the POS port adapter extends the benefits of Packet-over-SONET/SDH connectivity to the Cisco 7200 series router. Providing tremendous network flexibility, the POS port adapter can be deployed on the Cisco 7200 in SONET/SDH networks that require a large number of distributed multiservice edge routers. Designed for a wide range of applications, the new POS port adapter is ideal for Internet service provider (ISP) backbones and network connectivity for large enterprise WANs. The POS port adapter is specifically suited for building high-speed, fault-tolerant IP networks that use the Cisco 12000 Gigabit Switch Router (GSR). In addition, the POS port adapter supports Cisco's IP class-of-service (CoS) capabilities such as Committed Access Rate (CAR), Random Early Detection (RED) and Weighted Random Early Detection (WRED) so service providers can offer differentiated services while providing advanced SONET features such as Automatic Protection Switching (APS) and payload scrambling. "Mapping IP packets directly onto the SONET/SDH infrastructure will provide greater performance and bandwidth utilization than other Layer 2 transport methods," said Edward Kern, vice president of IP Network Services at DIGEX/Intermedia Communications. "The ability to deploy this technology close to customers in the Cisco 7500 and 7200 series routers and into the backbone Cisco 12000s without having to go through an intermediate LAN technology means enhanced performance, stability and greater bandwidth to the network edge for our business Internet customers." Availability The POS port adapter is a single-port, single-wide OC3c/STM-1 port adapter for the Cisco 7500 series router with the VIP2-50 and the Cisco 7200 series router with the NPE-150 and NPE-200. The POS port adapter is available in three physical interfaces: OC-3c/STM1 Multimode, OC-3c/STM1 Single-Mode Intermediate Reach (SM-IR) or OC-3c/STM1 Single-Mode Long Reach (SM-LR). All interfaces for the Cisco 7500 and 7200 series routers are available in August 1998. About Cisco Systems Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. News and information are available at cisco.com. Cisco, Cisco Systems and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems Inc. in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. CONTACT: Cisco Systems Inc. \| Erin Bergamo, 408/527-0600 (PR) \| ebergamo@cisco.com \| Mary Thurber, 408/526-8893 (IR) \| mthurber@cisco.com [Copyright 1998, Business Wire]

To: djane who wrote (51752)	8/6/1998 5:39:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

Building a Better Backbone Through Digestion. Both WorldCom and GTE Rework Their Holdings For Competitive Edge boardwatch.internet.com By Greg Tally Deciding that the sum of their parts might work better with fewer pieces, two major players in the backbone industry are shuffling the decks on their subsidiaries. Both WorldCom and GTE Internetworking are transforming their corporate structures and networks, digesting several smaller companies in the process. UUNET has grown rapidly after a three-year binge of mergers and acquisitions. During the summer of 1996, UUNET joined forces with MFS Communications Co. in a merger valued at nearly $2 billion. By winter 1996, WorldCom, Inc. acquired both MFS and UUNET in the fourth largest merger in corporate history. Over the past winter, WorldCom also orchestrated a three-way transaction in which WorldCom/UUNET acquired the infrastructures of ANS and CompuServe and secured a multi-billion dollar, five-year contract with America Online. After some head scratching over what to do with its many holdings, WorldCom decided to absorb several of its companies into a newly-formed Internet and Technologies Division. Headed by UUNET CEO John Sidgmore, the division will consist of two parts: UUNET WorldCom and WorldCom Advanced Networks. "These moves are patterned around the two companies with the most momentum and definition," said CompuServe President Peter Van Camp. "We're eliminating redundancy and reordering our key products and services." UUNET WorldCom will offer IP network-based services including Internet access and IP telephony. Its home offices will be at UUNET's headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. UUNET President Mark Spagnolo will head up this section. Peter Van CampCompuserve President WorldCom Advanced Networks will be formed largely out of CompuServe's value-added networking services, including managed virtual private networks, security and hosting. Its headquarters will be at CompuServe's command center in Hillard, Ohio. The restructuring should benefit ISPs through lower costs and uniform pricing, said Van Camp, who will lead WorldCom Advanced Networks. ANS and GridNet's days as distinctive companies - and separate networks - are numbered. Until now, ANS has focused on Internet connectivity for America OnLine and peddling managed security, dial-up access, intranets and extranets. GridNet has specialized in custom network services, remote access and the Internet. WorldCom will fuse ANS and UUNET's dial access networks into an integrated IP backbone by the end of 1998. This means combining the ANS mesh of DS-3 45 Mbps circuits interconnecting 18 transit node POPs into UUNET's regional hubs of OC-12 and DS-3 trunks. CompuServe's Managed Network will connect to the WorldCom ATM backbone, eliminating some of the redundant backbone circuits currently provided by AT&T and MCI. GridNet and ANS will primarily be integrated into CompuServe Network Services, except for the dial portion of ANS and the Internet services from GridNet. Compuserve's DS-3 mesh will be wired into GridNet's DS-3 level backbone. Van Camp said WorldCom's streamlining should not translate into office closings and layoffs: "We actually have a need for real estate. We're setting up a NOC (network operations center) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. And we will increase our headcount in the two companies by year's end." None of the WorldCom restructure is contingent upon its proposed $37 billion merger with MCI, currently under scrutiny by a gaggle of Federal agencies and the European Union. For its part, GTE Internetworking is busy bear-hugging its subsidiaries, Genuity and Nap.Net, to the parental bosom. Nap.Net will continue as a product line (but not a subsidiary company) under the GTE logo. Nap.Net, a national wholesale provider of Internet access to ISPs and universities, utilizes the LDDS/ WorldCom ATM network for its primary system of backbones. Nap.Net will likely be absorbed into GTE's infrastructure sometime in the future. Genuity is already fully integrated into the organization. The Genuity grid of independent SONET-based, fully-meshed DS-3 and OC-3 ATM network have been hooked into GTE's connections. Copyright 1998 Mecklermedia Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Legal Notices. About Mecklermedia Corp. Editor: Jack Rickard - Volume XI: Issue 76 - ISSN:1054-2760 - July 1998 13949 W Colfax Ave Suite 250, Golden, CO 80401 Voice: 303-235-9510; Fax: 303-235-9502 Fable Of Contents

To: djane who wrote (51752)	8/6/1998 5:45:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

Lucent hopes to expand Asia data networking share Tuesday August 4, 4:10 am Eastern Time TOKYO, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Lucent Technologies Inc (LU - news) said on Tuesday that it would expand its business in the Asia Pacific region including Japan by introducing its fast-growing data networking products and other communications software. William O'Shea, the group president for Lucent's business communication systems and data networking systems, said that Japan was an attractive market with an unmet need for the kinds of communication networks and software the company provides. ''Right now we're a $30 billion company, and we want to see a growth of 15 to 20 percent per year. In order to maintain that growth, we must add new business through either new technologies or markets,'' he told a news conference. O'Shea also told reporters that in expanding their business in Japan as well as the region, it would not rule out possible acquisitions of other companies. ''Besides internal development, we have the choice of acquiring others, or forming partnerships through Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) and joint marketing,'' he said. Lucent provides a range of products including intelligent switching, data networking, optical networking and wireless communications. Of those, O'Shea said, data networking is currently the fastest growing segment. Lucent introduced its first data networking products in the Japanese and Asian markets in June.[Hmmm...a little bit late to the party...] In Asia, it will also be promoting eleven of what it calls the ''hot businesses,'' which includes optical and wireless networks in addition to other communications software. ''We now see the overall telecommunications market at $60 billion, but by 2001 we want to make that $104 billion,'' he said. While he was careful not to give any target share figures, he said that at the year 2001, Lucent should be the number one player in the worldwide communication networks business. That would mean it would have from 10 percent to 15 percent of the overall market, he said. [Now, how are they going to do that...] Copyright c 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon

To: djane who wrote (51752)	8/6/1998 5:48:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

The ADSL Tease: Why Super-Fast, Cheap Access Is Taking So Darned Long zdnet.com TUESDAY, AUGUST 04, 1998 Jesse Berst, Editorial Director ZDNet AnchorDesk When you're dating, it's easy to tell when someone is teasing. When you're flirting with new technology, it's not always as obvious that you're being led on. Chances are you're smitten with the promise of super-fast Internet access from home. Especially since phone companies are rolling out super-fast ADSL services in select cities. Click for full story. But I'm here with some bad news. Many Americans will have to wait years for cheap fast access from phone companies. Widespread deployment of ADSL -- with its lure of data transmission at speeds five to 25 times faster than today's dial-up connections -- is still a long way off. Yankee Group analyst Bruce Leichtman estimates there will be only 25,000 paying ADSL customers by the end of the year. Cable modem subscribers, by contrast, could hit 500,000 by then. Click for full story. There are several factors preventing phone companies from making ADSL happen at the speeds and with the prices we all want: Phone bureaucracies. Most telcos still adhere to a business structure optimized for a regulated monopoly. They are not prepared to respond quickly to market conditions. (Not yet, anyway, though things are improving.) Fear of cannibalizing T1 sales. Telcos are making a fortune selling fast access to businesses at high prices. Why jeopardize that revenue for ADSL, which should cost a fraction of what T1 does for comparable speeds? I say should because most phone companies aren't rolling out ADSL at competitive prices. U.S. West, for instance, is offering a $40 per month service. Sounds pretty good until you find out it doesn't include setup, modem or ISP charges. And that it connects at a relatively paltry 256 Kbps. At the high end, its MegaBusiness service starts at $80 per month for 768 K speed and runs up to hundreds and hundreds per month for more serious speeds. Click for the U.S. West service/pricing details. Inadequate infrastructure. As slow as the cable systems have been to bulk up their network underpinnings, phone companies, with a few exceptions, have been slower still. Merger mania. The huge consolidation wave that's hit the telecommunications industry -- GTE and Bell Atlantic, WorldCom and MCI, AT&T and British Telcom -- will prove a serious impediment to ADSL progress. Any merger is an enormous drain of time, money and resources. And these deals are among the largest and most complex in history. It will be years before the dust has settled. Click for full story. To be fair, the media have contributed to the fast-access flirtation. We're eager to see high bandwidth advances such as ADSL. So we get excited about each technology breakthrough -- forgetting the business bottlenecks that can stall the actual delivery of technology. Copyright (c) 1998 ZDNet. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of ZDNet is prohibited. ZDNet and the ZDNet logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Inc.