Me. House Transportation Committee narrowly passed bill (LD- 102) to prohibit use of handheld mobile phones while driving, but defeated another car phone bill that would have been even more restrictive. Because of strong opposition expected on House floor, state Rep. Gerald Bouffard (D-Lewiston), sponsor of LD-102, said he would push for floor amendment to send car phone restriction to voter referendum. Bouffard, as Transportation member, cast deciding committee vote that sent bill to full House. More restrictive car phone bill (LD-95), unanimously defeated by Transportation panel, would have gone beyond car phones to make it illegal to use any kind of hand-operated electronic device while driving, including 2-way radios, CB radios, computers, tape machines. That bill went down under opposition not just from cellphone providers but also from state’s amateur radio enthusiasts.
Panel of consumer advocates and industry representatives Fri. blamed everything from regulatory impediments to lack of trained workers for slow progress in bringing long-promised technological improvements to public. Speaking at “policy summit” sponsored by Alliance for Public Technology, Mike Nelson, dir. of Internet technology at IBM, said he didn’t realize how much regulatory uncertainty could impede technology until he entered private sector. USTA Vp Larry Clinton recommended govt. establish national broadband policy to encourage development of high-speed data transmission. PathNet Gen. Counsel Mary McDermott, who was in audience, said lack of trained technicians to develop and manufacture new products was growing problem for technology companies.
Structural separation of Bell companies is “risky business that puts service, rates and jobs in jeopardy,” Alliance for Public Technology (APT) said in letter it planned to deliver today (Mon.) to NARUC Pres. Nora Brownell, who also is Pa. PUC comr. NARUC is meeting this week in Washington. Pa. PUC recently ordered Verizon to split into retail and wholesale units and CLECs have urged other state regulators to take similar action. APT said residential consumers, workers and people with disabilities could be disadvantaged by structural separation because “at best it would scatter the consumer economies of scale and scope… to the winds of the marketplace,” which tends to favor high end of market. APT said it also was concerned that splitting network could harm universal service system. In addition, union jobs could be lost as retail operations were turned into “marketing outfits,” letter said. APT urged NARUC to “do everything in your power to prevent this risky proposition from gaining momentum.”
Liberty Media Group and Klesch & Co. signed letter of intent Fri. to buy controlling 55% stake in 6 German cable companies owned by Deutsche Telekom for more than $2 billion. Deal, which would give Liberty Media-Klesch consortium option to boost its ownership interest to 75% later, covers 10 million cable homes spread across 13 of Germany’s 16 states. Deutsche Telekom, which has been saddled by $51 billion of debt from acquisitions and investment in new European mobile phone licenses, will retain minority stake in regional cable operations. But Liberty Media- Klesch consortium will be able to compete against Deutsche Telekom’s former monopoly phone network with cable telephony, high-speed data and interactive TV services.
Citing “sharp economic slowdown” in U.S., Motorola said it didn’t expect to meet its first-quarter sales guidance of $8.8 billion or earnings guidance of 12 cents per share. Company provided projections Jan. 11, but revised them Fri. after disclosing reduction in its order pattern. If trend doesn’t reverse, Motorola said it expected quarterly operating loss. The company also said it planned additional cost reduction steps, although it didn’t provide details. Revised guidance means Motorola expects to fall short of $8.8 billion in sales reached in first quarter 2000 and to widely miss earnings for that period that hit 20 cents per share. In conference call, Motorola officials lowered projection for international handset sales in 2001 to 500 million from forecasts of up to 575 million.
FCC extended deadline to March 1 for carriers to file numbering utilization and forecast data for 6 months ending Dec. 31. Waiver was sought by XO Communications, Focal Communications and BellSouth. Companies said they needed time to correct their data, which became “corrupted” when they updated their numbering administration databases.
ISPs are at disadvantage in providing competitive advanced data services because they have to rely on incumbent telcos (ILECs) to offer their customers competitive choice in DSL service, U.S. ISP Alliance (USISPA) said in letter to FCC Chmn. Powell. ISPs “cannot effectively compete if the Commission grants the requests of ILECs to eradicate long-standing FCC restrictions on the bundling of enhanced and basic telecommunications services and customer-premises equipment,” USISPA said. Bundling would allow ILECs to “leverag[e] their persistent monopoly over the local loop into a dominant position within the nascent high-speed Internet access market,” it said. It said ILECs already were gaining competitive advantage by bundling services and equipment.
Legal seminar offered lawyers for last 20 years on day before start of NAB convention is being totally revamped this spring to focus on “a soup-to-nuts” station audit to help attorneys advise their clients “on daily issues from antitrust to zoning.” That’s word to go out SOON to prospective attendees from sponsors NAB, American Bar Assn. Forum on Communications Law and, for first time this year, Federal Communications Bar Assn. Titled “Representing Your Local Broadcaster,” seminar is scheduled April 22 at Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, NAB said FCC Chmn. Powell would speak at Chairman’s Breakfast April 24. Regulatory panel later in day will include FCC Comrs. Furchtgott-Roth, Ness, Tristani.
Access Integrated Networks (AIN) said Fri. it had sent letters to every state utility commissioner in BellSouth’s 9-state region suggesting that full structural separation of company was only permanent remedy for interconnection problems it and other CLECs have been facing. Letters are same as AIN sent to Ga. PSC commissioners suggesting they should require BellSouth to separate its wholesale and retail business units before endorsing its pending interLATA long distance entry bid. Letters to Ala., Fla., Ga., Ky., La., Miss. N.C., S.C. and Tenn. regulators weren’t official complaints, AIN said, but were meant to call regulators’ attention to need for action. Macon,. Ga.-based CLEC, which relies on unbundled network element platform (UNE-P) services from BellSouth to serve 44,000 lines across 8 of BellSouth’s states, said it had experienced 2 main types of problems: (1) Long service delays due to inefficient operation support systems (OSS) for ordering. (2) Failures by BellSouth to coordinate disconnection and reconnection functions of establishing UNE-P service, with AIN customer losing dial tone as result. Rodney Page, AIN vp-marketing and former BellSouth employee, said that while many BS employees on wholesale side were committed to serving their CLEC customers, “organizationally, the retail side of the house rules the roost.” He acknowledged establishing UNE-P service was complex job but said AIN must have predictable, consistent service from BellSouth if it’s to get and keep customers. “As a separate business unit, the wholesale side will have the same corporate incentives as retail to efficiently serve its customer base,” Page said. BellSouth spokesman said company regretted any service problems suffered by AIN or other CLECs and was striving regionwide to eliminate wholesale glitches. BS said service losses cited by AIN represented failure rate of under 1% on CLEC orders, and that structural separation would be unlawful and excessive punishment for claimed wholesale service problems.
As lawyers prepared for Fri. hearing in U.S. Dist. Court, San Francisco, on details of Napster injunction (CD Feb 13 p3), the music industry increased its pressure on music file-sharing companies, announcing a major new partnership to compete with Napster and warning Napster clones of their potential copyright liability.