Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.telcom From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: telcom Tue, Feb 18 1992 Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 06:36:31 EST Message-ID: DECISIONLINE: Telecommunications USA TODAY Update Feb. 18, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network CENTEL SALE MAY BE CLOSE: A sale of Chicago-based phone company, Centel Corp., may be closer. Centel said Monday its board of directors will solicit proposals for the sale of all or part of the company. Last month, Centel said it was exploring ways to boost shareholder value in Centel, which could include selling all or part of Centel. Centel said prospective buyers have until April 16 to submit offers. CEO SAYS OFFERS LOOK ATTRACTIVE: Centel CEO John P. Frazee Jr. said Monday that based on what the company's investment banking advisors have reported, a sale of all or part of the company could be attractive. "We will not make any decision on whether to sell all or any part of the company until we review the proposals we receive," he said. Centel provides local exchange telephone service in seven states. ROBOFAX OFFERS FAX ON DEMAND: Add-on America's new Robofax-EZ answers incoming calls made from a fax-connected touchtone telephone with a voice greeting and a list of available documents. After selection by the caller, Robofax-EZ then automatically faxes back, over the same fax telephone line, the requested documents without any human operator intervention. It is priced at $1,295. (For more, see special Fax package below.) AT&T SHOULD FOLLOW BANK RULES: BankAmerica Chairman Richard Rosenberg said Monday non-bank companies that compete with banks - such as AT&T, Sears and General Electric - should be forced to comply with the Community Reinvestment Act, which requires banks to make loans in poor and minority neighborhoods. He spoke at the American Bankers Association convention in Washington. NCR MERGES GROUPS: NCR Corporation Monday announced the creation of a new product development organization headed by William T. O'Shea, a former AT&T Computer Systems executive who joined NCR in July during the merger. The new Integrated Systems Group combines NCR's existing Network Products and Integrated Systems Groups. KUWAITI SYSTEM MAY GO PRIVATE: The Kuwaiti government said Monday it is planning to privatize its telecommunications network. The sale could raise up to $1 billion. The government hopes the sale will be underway by the end of 1993. Privatization of the network would first require a change in the law on the government's virtual monopoly on telecoms. SOFTEL OFFERS TAX INFORMATION: Softel has introduced what it says is the industry's only fully automated voice response tax information service, The Softel Tax Hotline. Customers dialing 1-900-776-7500 can receive personalized answers to a myriad of tax questions. The cost is 75 cents for the first minute and $1.50 for each additional minute. AT&T ADDS TO MESSAGE SERVICE: AT&T Monday announced easier access to AT&T Message Service for AT&T Calling Card, AT&T Corporate Card and AT&T Universal Card customers. By pressing 0, 1, 2, 3 on the telephone key pad after receiving a busy signal or no answer, customers making long-distance card calls can access AT&T Message Service from public and other touchtone phones. CODENOLL'S FDDI CERTIFIED: Codenoll Technology Corp., developer of fiber optic network products, Monday said its 100 million bits per second fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) has been certified by Novell. Codenoll's CodeNet FDDI is the only Novell-certified solution for attaching a NetWare server directly to an FDDI network, says Michael Howard of Infonetics Research Institute. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON FAX: SYSTEM HAS VARIETY OF USES: Robofax-EZ is a one-call single telephone line system in which the caller pays for fax transmission to receive a variety of desired faxed documents. Application examples could include new product information, up-to-date financial or sales information, data sheets, written daily horoscopes, product upgrade information, listings of current events, late-breaking news and schedules. DATA CAN BE RETRIEVED ANYTIME: Using Robofax-EZ, callers can retrieve data back to their fax machine 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in any part of the world. "Fax-on-demand is a merging of two technologies that have thrived during the 1980s - computerized voice processing and fax machines," said Yoshi Kurahashi, president of Add-On America, which makes Robofax-EZ. AVAILABLE FOR IBM PCS: Robofax-EZ comes as an internal two-board kit with software for installation in any dedicated IBM-compatible personal computer. It requires a PC with two available half slots and a minimum of 20MB hard disk and MS DOS 3.3 or higher. The product also comes standard with an external speaker, telephone jacks and cables. (End of package.) Telecommunications Editor: Ed Kelleher. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. 08:0002180000D0218 TREN-R J Shoe-war-goes-global.................. A D0218 This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. 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