- Palo Alto Moves Fast To Center Of Internet Fiber-optic ring nearly completed San Francisco Chronicle Thursday, June 26, 1997 - Palo Alto is on the verge of completing its own fiber-optic cable ring, a move that some say could put this city solidly at the center of the universe -- the Internet universe.
The 26-mile fiber-optic ring will make possible breathtakingly fast Internet connections, which could turn Palo Alto into the O'Hare Airport of the Internet. Fiber-optic connections are at least 30 times faster than a T-1, now becoming the minimum standard for businesses and academia.
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City Of Palo Alto Signs Up First Fiber Customer On May 7, 1997, the City of Palo Alto struck a deal with Brooks Fiber Communications of San Jose, a competitive local exchange carrier, for the license of a portion of the City's newly constructed fiber optic backbone. This landmark deal marks the City's first dark fiber license agreement and the first use of the new fiber optic infrastructure being installed by Palo Alto's Electric Utility.
- Planned fiber optic line will push Palo Alto into the future San Jose Mercury News - Sept. 11, 1996: Palo Alto's fiber ring will help businesses gain ultra-reliable, high-speed, high-capacity access to the Internet. The potential of this connection is immense. For instance, doctors at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and Stanford University Hospital could share X-ray images of patients electronically. Or business people could come together in a video conference without leaving their offices.
- Utilities Advisory Commission Telecommunication Strategy Study June 25, 1996 - This report presents the results of Phase 4 of the City's Telecommunication Strategy Study and requests that the UAC approve and recommend to the City Council staff's recommendation for the Electric Utility to develop a dark fiber ring around Palo Alto.
- L.A. is on cutting edge of public telecom systems BY JONATHAN WEBER Los Angeles Times( 4 aug 97 SJ Merc) Cities build and maintain all kinds of infrastructure, from roads to ports to electricity grids; in a few places they even own the cable TV system. Fiber-optic communications networks, which use lasers to carry voice and data and video communications at extremely high speeds, are increasingly vital for many types of economic and social activity, and there's no reason in principle that local governments shouldn't be involved.
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Pac Bell May Pay for Service Delays - PUC staff readies recommendation for refunds by utility ( 23July97 Jonathan Marshall, Chronicle Staff Writer) The California Public Utilities Commission staff is preparing to recommend sanctions against Pacific Bell for long delays in installing new lines and making repairs, sources said yesterday.
- Telecommunications Reform (Slate June 28) The United States is in the midst of something called "telecommunications reform." What is it, and how is it going? The Telecommunications Act, passed in February 1996, was the first congressional overhaul of telecommunications policy since 1934. The new law promised to promote competition by repealing government regulations. The early results have been poor to middling. Competition (particularly in local residential telephone service) has been slow to bloom. And the promised "convergence" of the various communications media has not arrived.
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Phone competition off to a slow start; ratepayers waiting (San Jose Merc 6/30/1997) Nearly 18 months have passed since the signing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Pacific Bell was supposed to be offering long-distance service. AT&T was supposed to be offering local phone service. TCI Cable was supposed to be doing both.
None of this has happened in any significant measure, especially in the local telephone market.
In fact, true competition is so far off for residential phone users that many telecommunications analysts believe it won't happen for decades, if at all.
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PAGE ONE -- Need for Speed Spawns 2 Internetlets(Jon Swartz, Chronicle Staff Writer 1997/07/28) Two consortiums fed up with gridlock on the information superhighway are constructing separate sequels to the Internet.
The government-backed Next Generation Internet (NGI) and Internet2, a collection of more than 100 universities and high-tech companies, are modeled after the original Internet -- except they'll use high-speed fiber-optic circuits and more sophisticated software.
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Cable modem customers complain
By Jeff Pelline August 11, 1997, 5:25 p.m. PT (C-net) You can't please all the people all the time. Just ask some customers of @Home (ATHM) and Time Warner's (TWX) Road Runner, two leaders in the race to offer high-speed Net access via cable modems.
One @Home user was so disgruntled that he just posted his own Web page, titled Comcast @Home Sucks, borrowing the logo of the newly public company. In a parody, he chided: "The occasionally high-velocity, sometime multimedia-rich, Internet service with the high price and miserable customer support is here!" He added: "The wait has just begun.
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CABLE TV: A CRISIS LOOMS An array of new rivals has the industry on the defensive Business Week 14 Oct 1996 Cover Story - Many cable operators are suffering weaknesses in their operating results, which harms their ability to roll out quickly new technologies that require hugely expensive upgrades to their existing wires. How expensive? Schroder Wertheim & Co. cable specialist Philip Sirlin estimates that together they have to spend about $25 billion just to install hybrid fiber-coaxial cable and interactive capabilities. That is roughly equal to the industry's entire annual revenue. To date, he estimates, only about 25% of this work has been done.
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GILLMOR: TCI's info highway appeal is disingenuous San Jose Mercury, Oct. 15, 1995 - I can think of businesses less entitled to claim they have the public's interest in mind ... the tobacco companies come quickly to mind. But the cable industry has set a modern standard for arrogance and lousy customer service. For years, the business was a largely unregulated monopoly. It acted like one, naturally.
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Citizens for Better Cable in Boulder - Ask You To Just Say NO TO TCI A look at the successful grassroots campaign waged against renewal of TCI's cable television franchise in Boulder, Colorado, which voters rejected by a 2 to 1 margin in the November election. A recent survey of residents found 45% had past or present problems with TCI. Eighty percent had problems with the franchise proposed -- 27.5% opposed the length of the franchise. Here's a long-winded description of the arguments made against TCI by a grassroot group.
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Phone, Cable and Digital Blur in Wake of Merger CyberTimes by By KATHRYN JONES - April 20, 1996 - The announcement early this month of the merger of SBC Communications and the Pacific Telesis Group could ring in yet another alliance among the Baby Bells -- this time between the two multimedia ventures formed to push the telephone companies into cable television, video and, ultimately, interactive television and high-speed Internet services.
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Thinking About Why Some Communications Mergers are Unthinkable by FCC Chairman Reed E Hundt(June 19, 1997) It is natural in this time of transition from the monopoly paradigm to the competitive regime for firms to explore the possibility of entry into new markets by way of merger. It is natural for firms to ask lawyers what is thinkable and what is unthinkable in the way of such mergers. And it is unsurprising, if unprecedented, for AT&T to assert publicly that the hypothetical of an AT&T-Bell merger is "not unthinkable."
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AT&T-SBC Merger Talks Are Said to Unravel(NYT June 28,1997) AT&T Corp. broke off its merger talks with SBC Communications on Friday after a hailstorm of criticism from regulators and mounting internal disagreement about how to structure a deal, according to several executives involved in the talks.
The crux of the disagreement, according to people involved in the negotiations, was that AT&T wanted SBC to open its local phone network to new rivals at a level unprecedented in the local phone business. AT&T hoped to present SBC's initiatives as part of a merger announcement, in an effort to win support from reluctant regulators.
SBC, however, flatly refused to take any such steps until a deal had been approved, several executives said. The steps would have included unbundling various elements of SBC's local phone network and offering access to rivals like MCI Communications, Sprint and other regional Bell companies.
- On March 31, 1997, the California Public Utilities Commission approved the merger of Pacific Telesis (Pacific Bell) and SBC Comminications (Southwestern Bell) in a decision that is the regulatory equivalent of an obscene phone call.
The new merger allows Pacific Bell renege on $16 billion in commitments to ratepayers and increases monopoly power in California. Simply put, California consumers have been seriously harmed by the Commission's ruling. In New York State, in contrast to California, the Attorney General ruled for customer service improvement requirements, an equitable finding of $4 billion worth of merger related savings, and the companies' secured commitment to upgrade network infrastructure. In California, consumers will get a bigger and more aggressive monopolist in the local service market.
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The Telecom Wars (Fortune March 3, 1997)For long-distance companies, going local is a grind AT&T, MCI, and Sprint have been aching to get into the $100-billion-a-year market for local phone service. But their strategies are poorly defined, the Baby Bells are fighting back, and even GTE has knocked them for a loop.
The haziest strategy of all belongs to AT&T, which has said only that it will do whatever it takes to crack the local market in all 50 states--either slogging through negotiations to resell Baby Bell service, building local networks of its own, or aligning with bypass companies like Teleport, which runs fiber-optic telephone lines into office buildings. WorldCom, an upstart long-distance.
- The Name of the Game These Days Is Technology (NYT August 11, 1996 ) In a society that has become utterly dependent on computers and instant communications, technology is becoming as important in the process of office design as decisions on layout and amenities. Some aspects of technology, like the computer animation, are highly visible demonstration devices. But more of it is in the largely unseen infrastructure, with the emphasis on wiring and devices to provide for an ever greater flow, and on communications and power facilities to keep operations running through almost any foreseeable calamity.
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Sky-High Dreams for the Internet CyberTimes By PETER WAYNER, May 22, 1997 - At first glance, the plan by Craig McCaw and Bill Gates to circle the Earth with 288 satellites supplying high-speed Internet access to the world sounds like a broad grab for power that only a pair of multi-billionaire megalomaniacs could dream up. Closer scrutiny suggests that the plan may actually be feasible -- at least from a business standpoint --even if technical challenges loom large.
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