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To: Stephen B. Temple who wrote (1950)	11/18/1998 6:21:00 AM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Respond to of 3178

US West, Ameritech Ready 'Always-On ISDN' Services November 18, 1998 PC Week: Several telecommunications companies are readying an enhancement to their ISDN services that could give corporations a low-cost method of remote access. US West Communications and Ameritech Corp. plan to roll out next year " always- on ISDN" services, joining Regional Bell Operating Companies SBC Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp., which already offer the service in their respective territories. Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. are both evaluating the service. The service lets users maintain constant 9.6K-bps connections to a corporate LAN or the Internet over an ISDN circuit's D channel, instead of racking up usage charges by connecting both of an ISDN circuit's B channels. The connected D channel has sufficient bandwidth for receiving small data streams, such as e- mail headers or news updates. When a user requires more bandwidth than the D channel can provide, the service automatically activates one or both of the B channels, which shut down automatically when they're no longer needed. In most instances, the D channel capability is offered for a small, additional monthly fee. In SBC's territory, for example, the feature costs $5 a month, except in Texas, where it's $2 a month. The always-on ISDN feature "certainly makes sense in some environments, " said Jeffrey Fritz, principal network engineer at West Virginia University, in Morgantown. "It handles maintenance traffic and e-mail pretty well." US West, of Denver, will introduce its service in the first quarter of next year. Chicago-based Ameritech will debut its service by midyear. In Atlanta-based BellSouth's region, business customers can assemble the service by buying components from BellSouth's ISDN tariffs for $15 a month. In SBC's territory, the service, which has been available since late 1997, " provides a real nice economic service model" for many remote business customers, said Don Norman, SBC product director in San Antonio. <<PC Week -- 11-16-98>> [Copyright 1998, Ziff Wire]

To: Stephen B. Temple who wrote (1950)	11/24/1998 7:25:00 AM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Respond to of 3178

Bell Atlantic-GTE deal opposed in comments to FCC November 24, 1998 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Reuters [BR]: The three largest U.S. long-distance telephone companies on Monday asked federal regulators to block Bell Atlantic Corp.'s proposed $52 billion acquisition of GTE Corp., arguing the deal would further stifle competition for local service. In separate comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission, AT&T Corp., MCI WorldCom Inc. and Sprint Corp. all said the combination would increase the incentives of the two local carriers to discriminate against potential competitors. Bell Atlantic, in a statement, rejected the charges and said it would file a reply to the FCC as required on December 23. The FCC, the Department of Justice and several state regulators must approve the deal and two other pending huge telecom mergers -- the $48 billion marriage of AT&T and cable giant Tele-Communications Inc. and the $61 combination of SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. AT&T said New York-based Bell Atlantic and Irving, Texas-based GTE faced no effective local competition in any of their regions and were potential competitors to each other. AT&T also said Bell Atlantic was barred from providing long distance within its region, as GTE does in some parts, and has little chance of being allowed to offer long distance any time soon. MCI WorldCom said the companies did not need to merge to become powerful competitors in other local phone markets. MCI also noted that regulators would lose the ability to compare, or benchmark, rates and services provided by the two companies. MCI and AT&T both rejected any ''transitional'' plan allowing Bell Atlantic to continue to offer GTE long distance in its region pending further regulatory approvals for Bell Atlantic to offer its own long distance service. Sprint said the merger would prevent competition between Bell Atlantic and GTE in those local exchanges where they now have contiguous service areas, eliminating each other's most likely competitor. Also, the proposed merger threatened competition in local markets, long-distance markets and markets for new services because the merger increased the ability and incentives of the merged company to act in an anti-competitive manner, Sprint said. REUTERS@ [Copyright 1998, Reuters]