Less antitrust activism is expected from Timothy Muris, who has been nominated by President Bush to be chmn. of FTC. Prudential Securities senior analyst James Lucier said Muris served as antitrust adviser to Bush during his campaign and was widely known in antitrust field. Muris would bring different antitrust approach than that of current FTC Chmn. Robert Pitofsky, who said he would step down from agency altogether when his term expired in Sept. Lucier described Muris’s antitrust approach as “here and now” -- that is, he will actively enforce antitrust when consumer faces immediate harm, whereas Pitofsky pursued antitrust action when merger had potential to harm consumers, such as in AOL-Time Warner deal. Muris is former high-level FTC official, having served as dir. of both Bureau of Competition and Bureau of Consumer Protection, and currently is professor at George Mason U. Law School. He won’t become chmn. until Sept. 26, when Pitofsky is scheduled to depart.

LAS VEGAS -- FTC Comr. Orson Swindle urged wireless industry at CTIA Wireless 2001 show here to focus on self-regulation for protecting consumers’ location-based information, saying that could stave off congressional action. “If you're going to wait around and not deal with a critical issue, then government is probably going to turn around and do something and I don’t think that’s the best solution,” said Swindle, who lauded CTIA petition to FCC that proposed principles for protecting privacy of location-based information. He warned of “incredible harm if we do it the wrong way, especially if we rush into it screaming ‘Oh, my God, Henny Penny, the sky is falling’ before we even understand the business models we are dealing with.”

John Wolters promoted to exec. vp, ABC Broadcast Group… Pascale Sourisse chmn.-CEO, SkyBridge, also named COO, Spacecom, both subsidiaries of Alcatel… Changes at Classic Communications: Jimmie Taylor, ex-TCA Cable TV, appointed CFO; Randall Clark, ex- TCA, named gen. counsel… Brian Kelly, ex-Disney, named senior vp-govt. relations and communications, Electronic Industries Alliance.

TAT-14 consortium of 50 international telecom providers, led by France Telecom, said Wed. it expected to begin service in June on undersea cable linking U.S. with 5 European countries. Consortium members held signing ceremony to mark completion of first phase of project. Second phase, providing automatic protection in event of fault, is expected to be concluded in mid- May. France Telecom will have about 11% of capacity. Others using cable include AT&T-BT venture Concert.

LAS VEGAS -- Wireless industry pitches for more spectrum were almost as prevalent at NTIA convention here as wireless calls themselves. Customer demand for wireless spectrum will exceed supply by 2004 or 2005, Verizon Wireless Vp-Legal Mark Tuller said, and industry will need twice as much spectrum by 2010. He said increasing spectrum efficiency and technology couldn’t meet demand, and key sources were likely to be military spectrum (1755- 1850 MHz) and 2 GHz bands used by MMDS and ITFS wireless communications and educational TV services.

BellSouth and Dell Computer jointly will market broadband- enabled computers with BellSouth FastAccess Internet Service to residential customers in BellSouth region. Offering expected in 2nd quarter will include Dell PC with preinstalled DSL modem and pre-installed software to support connection to BellSouth Internet service over qualified telephone line. As part of alliance Dell will provide computer systems for commercial use to BellSouth and provide servers to carrier.

Mo. PSC opened docket to ascertain status of local exchange competition in Southwestern Bell Telephone (SBT) service territory. Investigation is required under 1996 Mo. telecom competition law that mandated PSC review of competition’s status in 5th year after first competitor was authorized. Agency authorized first CLEC in Dec. 1996. Currently, more than 70 CLECs are authorized to operate in SBT exchanges. PSC will look at state of competition in each exchange where CLECs have been authorized. If it finds effective competition exists, law allows SBT to petition for greater regulatory flexibility within price cap regulation program. Intervenors must apply by April 2. Rest of procedural schedule will be set later.

“Fair and reasonable” compensation for use of public rights- of-way is limited to municipalities recouping costs directly incurred through their use, U.S. Dist. Court, Newark, N.J., ruled in invalidating franchise fee formula of Town of West N.Y. for public payphone franchises that’s based on percentage of provider’s gross revenues. “Plainly, a fee that does more than make a municipality whole is not compensatory in the literal sense and risks becoming an economic barrier,” Judge Alfred Wolin said. Court enjoined town from enforcing ordinance that would establish exclusive franchise for placement of payphones on public rights- of-way based on compensation of percentage of gross revenue from provider after finding that exclusive franchise was barrier to entry under Communications Act. Rejecting town’s argument that it had right to charge fee for public rights-of-way because it’s town property, court said local govt. holds public rights-of-way “easement in trust for the public” and doesn’t possess ownership rights “as a proprietor of the streets and sidewalks.” Highest bidder arrangement under exclusive franchise has no logical link at all to costs or to any other measure of what might be deemed fair and reasonable, court said. Ordinance was challenged by N.J. Payphone Assn.

Teleglobe announced Wed. it had agreed to 3-year lease for 4 C-band transponders on Telesat’s Anik F1 satellite to carry Internet content between N. America and Latin America as well as deliver Internet caching and streaming media services to ISPs in Latin America.

Communications lawyers on Washington Legal Foundation panel on FCC and Communications Policy split 2-2 on whether major revamp of FCC is needed immediately. “It’s hard to disagree about the need to overhaul the FCC,” according to attorney Nick Allard of Latham & Watkins. Moderator and former FCC Chmn. Richard Wiley did disagree, sharply, with Allard -- who called for abolishing 4 of 5 commission seats and actively involving Commerce Dept. and NTIA in regulation of various communications industries. What FCC needs, countered Wiley, is more delegation of authority to staff and more rapid decisions -- something that can be accomplished with present structure -- and “Chmn. Powell can get it done.” Because of Congressional respect for Powell, any agency reform “is going to come first from the FCC itself,” rather than from Hill, Wiley predicted. Panelist Charles Kennedy of Morrison & Foerster generally agreed with Allard, while David Poe of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae partly sided with Wiley. Commission doesn’t need revamping for short term, Poe said, but major overhaul may be necessary in long term. Kennedy said FCC operations were “outmoded… We are going to have to make some fundamental changes… if things don’t turn around.” Allard listed 10 questions that must be answered on FCC’s future, including whether competition was prerequisite for deregulation or was it other way around and did Commission’s current organizational structure make sense. Poe said Powell had shown “he’s not afraid to grapple” with tough issues and that there are many “ambiguities and contradictions” in 1996 Telecom Act. “Statutory reform” of FCC is needed, he said, but it will be very hard to get Congress to pass legislation on issue. On digital TV, Poe said FCC had tried to push broadcasters into new technology but “you can’t make a market if the market isn’t there.”