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 Fri, Feb 28 1992 Date: Fri, 28 Feb 92 05:50:42 EST Message-ID: 02-28 0000 DECISIONLINE: Telecommunications USA TODAY Update Feb. 28-March 1, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network TOP EXECS DISCUSS OUTAGES: Top telecommunications executives met Thursday to come up with a plan to deal with massive outages. Although an actual plan was not formulated, they did agree on what causes outages. They are power outages and cuts in telephone cables. The group met at the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C. (For more, see special Outages package below.) NORTHERN TELECOM MAKES DEAL: Northern Telecom Inc. has reached an agreement with the Communications Workers of America in a suit brought by the union. In the settlement of the class action suit, Northern Telecom agreed to compensate workers and others whom the union alleged were subjected to secret electronic surveillance over a 13-year period at a Nashville, Tenn., manufacturing plant. MCI GAINS GOVERNMENT CONTRACT: MCI Communications Corporation said Thursday it has been awarded a contract to provide international long distance services to all federal departments and agencies. The multi-million dollar agreement, a two-year contract with three one-year options, will provide voice service to more than 200 countries. MCI'S VNET IS PART OF DEAL: MCI Communications Corporation's contract with the federal government will provide agencies with management capabilities that will give them more control over their telecommunications spending, MCI said. Services to be provided under the agreement include MCI Vnet (a software-defined virtual private network service), calling card service, operator service and billing features. NETWORKS MAY WORK TOGETHER: Home Shopping Network and QVC Network, Inc. have initiated exploratory discussions regarding a possible business combination, Home Shopping Network said Thursday. The talks are ongoing, but no agreement or understanding has been reached to date, the firm said. FAXED DOCUMENTS NOT LEGAL: Appeal notices sent by fax transmission won't be accepted because they do not have an original signature, making them illegal, the Maine Supreme Court has ruled. The ruling came in a dispute between environmental officials and a couple seeking to build a house on Horseshoe Cove. TOWN TO RUN CABLE SYSTEM: A plan for Bellevue, Iowa, to build and run its own municipal cable TV system has been approved by the Bellevue City Council. People in the city have been dissatisfied with service from a private firm. Bellevue will spend about $300,000 to buy the system. Residents currently pay $16.60 per month for basic cable. AT&T BUYS FRENCH FIRM: AT&T said Thursday it has agreed to buy all of the shares of DATAID, a French software and information services company, for about $88 million. The acquisition will be made through a public offer on the Paris Stock Exchange, and will be contingent on approval of the Paris Stock Exchange and French regulatory authorities. DATAID had revenues of $125 million in 1991. FIRMS SPONSOR SCIENCE FAIR: Intel Corp., McDonnell-Douglas, Northern Telecom and the Phillips Petroleum Company will sponsor Grand Awards for Science Service's annual International Science and Engineering Fair, Science Service said Thursday. The event brings together more than 750 top science students from the USA and seven foreign nations. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON OUTAGES: SOME WANT STIFFER PENALTIES: The heads of the seven regional Bell companies and AT&T, MCI and Sprint Corp. met face-to-face Thursday to discuss phone outages. Consumer advocates want stiffer penalties for outages. Counters AT&T chief Bob Allen: "The discipline of the marketplace is the most severe discipline we have." OUTAGES HAVE BECOME PROBLEM: Last summer, customers in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles were left without phone service for hours when an error in complex software overloaded call-switching systems. In October, AT&T customers in New York City were left without phone service for hours when AT&T didn't check power levels running the phone giant's switching computers. POWER OUTAGES A BIG CULPRIT: Top executives see power outages and cuts in telephone cables were seen as the major reasons for outages. In 1991, MCI suffered 44,000 power outages lasting more than 20 minutes, says CEO Bert Roberts. Cable cuts are often caused by bull-dozers unintentionally digging up phone 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. 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