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, Mar 10 1992 Date: Tue, 10 Mar 92 05:44:45 EST Message-ID: 03-10 0000 DECISIONLINE: Telecommunications USA TODAY Update March 10, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network IRIDIUM TAKES STEP FORWARD: The month-long World Administrative Radio Conference has helped to boost the IRIDIUM program, Lockheed's IRIDIUM program director John Neer says. IRIDIUM is the proposed network of 77 low earth orbiting satellites to provide global, hand-held voice communication service by the end of the decade. The conference was held in Torremolinos, Spain. (For more, see special Iridium package below.) FIRMS TO MEET VIA COMPUTER: Ventana Corp. says Bell Communications Research will conduct a cross-country business meeting Tuesday in which the participants will neither speak to one another nor gather face to face. The meeting will be similar to a conference telephone call, but will be conducted entirely over a personal computer network. Ventana's GroupSystems V software system will guide the meeting. GROUPSYSTEMS PROMOTES IDEAS: Ventana Corp., Southern New England Telephone, Bell Atlantic and Bell South will be among the participants in a meeting that will hook participants via personal computer on a real-time basis using GroupSystems V software. GroupSystems helps to create an environment that promotes idea generation, idea organization, alternatives evaluation and consensus building and decision-making. CABLE RATE INCREASES BLASTED: Cable TV rates in Oregon are too high and have increased much faster than inflation in recent years, two consumer groups charged Monday. Monthly rates range from $16.49 in Coos Bay to $21 in Roseburg. A cable official said the number of channels and the quality of programming has gone up considerably since 1987. COMSAT MAKES PROFIT: A year after reporting a $16 million loss, Comsat Corp. has reported a $45 million in 1991 earnings and a rise in income to $127 million from a $45 million loss in 1990. "Comsat Corp. has returned to profitability," Comsat President Bruce Crockett is quoted as saying in Broadcasting Magazine. SATELLITE INTERVIEWS ROUTINE: President Bush Monday conducted satellite interviews with 10 local TV stations in three Super Tuesday states. Bush isn't the only one taking satellite tours. "It's pretty routine," says Carole Freeman of KVUE-TV in Austin, Texas. "Any campaign that would know about fax machines would know about satellite interviews." ST. PATRICK'S DAY DEAL OFFERED: For the third year in a row, AT&T is offering a special price to help customers celebrate St. Patrick's Day. The offer will be effective all day March 17, and applies to direct dialed calls to the Republic of Ireland from most area codes. Customers calling the Republic of Ireland will pay $1.12 for the initial minute and $0.69 for each additional minute. A 10-minute call will cost $7.33. N.Y. TELEPHONE OPENS CENTER: Preparations for July's Democratic National Convention began Monday in New York when New York Telephone rolled its modular telecommunications nerve center into Madison Square Garden. The remote central office will connect convention participants with each other and the outside world. The central office is contained in a 30-foot-long trailer and can serve 6,000 voice and data lines. ASSISTANCE SERVICE OFFERED: Business as well as individual computer users that need help and are unsatisfied with long-distance, automated calls to computer software companies are now saying hello to toll-free assistance from real people. Subscribers of Miami-based Abacus Global Support call a toll-free number between to speak with consultants. Annual subscriptions cost $59.95. For information, call 800-848-9192. BRIDGING ROUTERS CERTIFIED: Proteon, Inc. said Monday that its frame relay implementation for its bridging routers has successfully completed certification testing by WilTel, Motorola Codex, StrataCom and Netrix. Frame relay is the American National Standards Institute standard that enables network managers to build global, high-speed networks that cost-effectively support data-intensive transmission requirements. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON IRIDIUM: DELEGATION SHOWS COMMITMENT: Lockheed's IRIDIUM program director John Neer says called the recently-held World Administrative Radio Conference "a major endorsement by the world's telecommunications community that will move IRIDIUM forward." He said he was pleased with the U.S. Delegation's commitment to championing the benefits of Low Earth Orbiting space systems and advanced digital communications. LOCKHEED WORKING WITH MOTOROLA: Lockheed is working with Motorola Satellite Communications, to to support the development and production of small satellite buses, the satellite integration and launch base activities, the constellation operations software development, and overall IRIDIUM systems engineering. Lockheed also is supporting Raytheon in the development and production of the main mission antenna. IRIDIUM PLAN ENDORSED: Lockheed says it strongly believes in the viability of global, space-based, personal hand-held communications, particularly with a constellation of small satellites in low earth orbit. Company officials have embraced IRIDIUM as the best program approach to meet the needs of providing high-quality, space-based voice service worldwide at the lowest system cost. CONFERENCE HELD IN SPAIN: The month-long international conference in Torremolinos, Spain, had been convened by the International Telecommunications Union, a United Nations affiliate. The ITU oversees and coordinates the complex issues of radio-spectrum allocation throughout the world. Issues addressed by the conference were significant to Lockheed's participation in IRIDIUM. (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. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM