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To: lml who wrote (161)	2/1/1999 6:18:00 PM
From: pat mudge	Respond to of 2347

More footprints to ponder: <<< February 1, 1999 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AT&T to Offer Telephone Service Using Time Warner Cable System An INTERACTIVE JOURNAL News Roundup AT&T Corp. struck a deal to offer telephone service over Time Warner Inc.'s cable systems in 33 states, accelerating the long-distance phone company's move into local service and clearing the way for deals with other cable companies. The deal comes as AT&T, based in New York, is close to completing its purchase of Time Warner's biggest rival in the cable TV industry, Tele-Communications Inc. AT&T said that with access to Time Warner and Tele-Communications, it will be able to reach 40% of U.S. households -- about 35 million homes -- in four or five years. Company Profile: AT&T * * * AT&T Wins Phone-Card Contract With Wal-Mart But AT&T is pushing for even greater coverage, and the Time Warner agreement could help break a logjam that has slowed those efforts. Other cable companies had been reluctant to strike deals with AT&T until its widely expected -- and recently delayed -- deal with Time Warner came to fruition. Other cable services wanted to have a glimpse at the Time Warner pact's terms before finalizing their own deals with AT&T. AT&T and Time Warner agreed to form a joint venture that will be 77.5% owned by the big phone company. The AT&T-led venture will pay Time Warner $15 per home as systems are installed, for a total of about $300 million. In addition, the venture will pay a monthly fee of $1.50 for each telephone subscriber, rising to $6 a month over a six-year period. Move for More Coverage AT&T Chairman C. Michael Armstrong and Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin discuss what led to the alliance between the two companies. Further, AT&T will cover the cost of upgrading Time Warner's cable TV lines to handle two-way communications. Costs to install the system are seen ranging between $300 and $500 per home. The venture is expected to have annual sales of $4 billion after three years, AT&T said. In addition to phone service, the companies set plans to offer interactive digital television and high-speed Internet service. "Today's announcement with Time Warner will significantly advance AT&T's ability to offer end-to-end 'any distance' communications services to American consumers and businesses," AT&T's chairman, C. Michael Armstrong, said in a statement. The stakes are high for AT&T. It is moving aggressively to expand its presence in the local phone service market as its long-distance service remains under intense competitive pressure. In doing so, AT&T is battling the Baby Bell companies that it owned until the giant telecommunications company was broken up by the U.S. government in 1984. In addition to its planned acquisition of TCI, expected to be completed in the spring, AT&T spent $11.3 billion last year on Teleport Communications, a smaller local phone company. The companies said Leo Hindery, president of TCI, will head the AT&T/Time Warner venture. Mr. Hindery will head AT&T's cable-service operations once AT&T's purchase of TCI is completed. >>>

To: lml who wrote (161)	2/1/1999 6:45:00 PM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2347

This, from the Financial Times, may have been noted earlier. If so, I apologize for the duplication: >>> Americas January 29 1999 CABLE TV: Reprieve on internet services By Mark Suzman in Washington and Richard Waters in New York The Federal Communications Commission yesterday backed away from forcing US cable television companies to open their networks to internet service providers, a move that could eventually limit the ways companies such as America Online (AOL) deliver high-speed internet services to American homes. The decision also appeared to lift one of the main concerns hanging over the pending merger between two giants of the US telecommunications and cable industry, AT&T and TCI. If TCI were forced to give open access over its networks to competitors, it would dent the value of the acquisition for AT&T, the telecoms company's executives have warned. However, the federal agency said it would keep a close eye on how quickly high-speed internet services developed, leaving open the possibility that it could change its position later. William Kennard, FCC chairman, indicated that he thought it was too early to decide whether the regulatory agency should act. "It is very, very early in the deployment of this technology," he said at a FCC meeting yesterday. "This is an issue we will have to continue to assess." A dispute has flared up in recent weeks between the cable TV and internet service industries over the regulation of cable networks in the internet age. Once they have upgraded their networks to carry high-speed data services, the cable companies want to charge a fee to internet companies which rely on their networks, while internet companies have argued that cable systems should be as open as the public telephone networks. The debate has been accentuated by the pending merger between AT&T, which is trying to compete head-on with AOL, and TCI, whose cable systems could one day form a powerful platform for high-speed internet access. Mr Kennard said the agency would monitor the issue "very closely" in future. However, he also said he hoped that wireless and satellite technologies would also offer similar services to consumers, providing additional competition. His comments were echoed by Michael Powell, another member of the five-person commission, who stressed that while the agency should try to "facilitate" access to broadband services where possible, it should strive to use deregulation rather than regulation to do so Earlier this week, a coalition of consumer and media access groups urged Mr Kennard and the FCC to adopt new rules to ensure competing internet service providers would have mandatory access to cable networks. Mr Kennard was speaking as the agency approved a report to Congress on the state of public access to the so-called "broadband" technology - high speed internet and data services. The report, which is required by the 1996 Telecommunications Act, concluded that widespread availability of such services was still far away. >>>