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 Wed, Mar 11 1992 Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 05:46:04 EST Message-ID: 03-11 0000 DECISIONLINE: Telecommunications USA TODAY Update March 11, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network FIRMS TO BACK EACH OTHER UP: New York City's Department of Telecommunications and Energy has announced an agreement under which 13 carriers have pledged to provide backup services for one another during network outages. The participants include AT&T, MCI, Metropolitan Fiber Systems, New Jersey Bell, New York Telephone, RCI Network Servies, Sprint, Teleport Communications and Wiltel. FIRMS TO PROMOTE MWAVE: IBM Corp., Texas Instruments Inc. and Intermetrics Inc. have announced an alliance to promote the Mwave subsystem, an advanced digital signal processor technology for multimedia computing. TI and Intermetrics plan to introduce the first products later this year. IBM plans to use the Mwave subsystem for audio, image and communications. First system products are expected in 1993. ELECTRONIC DIRECTORY SHOWN: GeoSystems Tuesday demonstrated GeoLocate Plus, a electronic directory and locator system. GeoLocate Plus, available on CD-ROM for personal computers running Windows 3.0, features locating, routing and mapping capabilities. GeoLocate Plus can locate businesses and residences by address or phone numbers. It can also find the closest facility from any specified location. FM PROPOSED FREEZE OPPOSED: The National Association of Broadcaster's proposed freeze on new FM station allotments is starting to draw heat from opponents. Two applicants for new FM stations filed objections with the Federal Communications Commission to the proposal, saying the NAB's request is unjustified and unnecessary. ALABAMA RATES TO GO DOWN: South Central Bell and Alabama Gas Corp. customers will see lower bills under a plan passed by the Alabama Public Service Commission Tuesday. The residential phone rate will drop 25 cents per month starting in April. Gas rates will drop $1.20 by April 1. WIDEBAND FORUMS TO BE HELD: The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association has scheduled open forums on March 17, April 14 and May 5 in Chicago. The forums will explores wideband spread spectrum transmission techniques that could to the cellular phone industry. The March 17 forum will give firms a chance to explain their proposals for wideband spread spectrum transmission. WRITING COMPETITION PLANNED: The Cellular Foundation has launched a writing competition with a first prize of $5,000. The competition will judge academic papers submitted on any topic involving wireless telecommunications engineering. For information, write to The Cellular Foundation, 1133 21st NW, Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20036. POSITION TO FIGHT FRAUD CREATED: The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association has created a new full-time position title Director of Industry Security. The position will work to fight fraud within the cellular industry. Eric W. Hill has been named to the position. The industry spends $2.2 million annually fighting fraud, which includes investigatory, educational and technological assessment work. GTE, IBM SIGN DEAL: GTE Spacenet and IBM Business Recovery Services have signed a marketing agreement to offer satellite access to backup data centers throughout the USA. GTE will provide its Metered Service offering in conjunction with IBM's regional computer recovery sites. Metered Service is designed to meet transmission requirements for numerous business applications. DOWTY UNVEILS ACCESS DEVICE: Dowty Communications Inc. has unveiled a device for routing synchronous and asynchronous traffic over frame relay networks. The FPX2195 Frame Relay Access Device. Two wide-area ports support rates from 2,400 to 64K bits per second. The units cost $5,995. ACCOUNTING RATES SLOWLY GO DOWN: The Federal Communications Commission says it is making progress in bringing down international accounting rates for switched voice services. Foreign carriers often charge to terminate calls in their service areas than do U.S. carriers. The FCC says international accounting rates started to fall overall in 1988 and have dropped slightly each year. CALL ACCOUNTING MARKET GROWS: The U.S. market for call accounting systems grew from $204 million in 1990 to more than $241 million in 1991, according to a study from Seattle research firm The Ergotec Group. The largest growth was by personal computer-based systems. They had more than $64 million in sales last year. 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