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 Thu, Mar 12 1992 Date: Thu, 12 Mar 92 05:46:03 EST Message-ID: 03-12 0000 DECISIONLINE: Telecommunications USA TODAY Update March 12, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network FCC TO CHANGE OWNERSHIP RULES: Chairman Alfred Sikes said the Federal Communications Commission will meet Thursday to consider amending rules that limit ownership to 12 FM and 12 AM radio stations and to no more than one FM and one AM station in a market. The FCC would let companies own as many stations they want in a city until its audience share reaches 25% of the market. INTERCHANGEABLE CODES ON WAY: The USA is about to run out of area codes with 1 or 0 in the middle. Bellcore, the research and coordinating entity set up by the Baby Bell phone companies, says there are only two area codes left - 810 and 910. One will probably go to the Detroit region. But in 1995, interchangeable area codes will provide 640 new area codes, or about 4.5 billion possible telephone numbers. (For more, see special Codes package below.) BROADBAND NETWORK CALLED FOR: The USA must construct a nationwide broadband network to remain competitive, a report from the Economic Strategy Institute says. The reports says the U.S. gross national product could grow as much as $361 billion over 16 years in the network is built. Legislation proposed by Senator Conrad Burns, R-Mont., would mandate construction of a broadband network. OPPONENTS AGAINST MAKING POLICY: Opponents of bills for the U.S. to build a broadband network say it's mandating policy that should be made by the telecommunications industry, according to Broadcast Magazine. Says Economic Strategy Institute President Clyde Prestowitz: "The de facto industrial policy of the United States with regard to broadband telecommunications is to pick the United States to be a loser." IBD TO GO ON SATCOM C-5: GE American Communications Inc. and IDB Communications Group Inc. said Wednesday they have signed an agreement for satellite transmission service on Satcom C-5. IDB will join ABC Radio Network, Westwood One, Learfield Communications, and other radio broadcasters using audio program delivery services on Satcom C-5. FRENCH, GERMAN FIRMS MAKE DEAL: France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, announced Wednesday an agreement in principle on a joint venture to provide worldwide services for international companies. Eunetcom, to be equally owned by its partners, is to be in place in three months and will develop international telecommunications services for multinational corporations, said the partners. RMS SELLS CATV DIVISION: RMS International Inc. Wednesday said it completed the sale of its CATV division to a former manager. Shareholders also approved a change in the company's name to Diversified Communications Industries Ltd. RMS' remaining divisions, Color Optic Displays and American Fiber Optics, accounted for 44% of revenues for the first nine months of 1991. CELLULAR USED TO SAVE LIVES: Medical Center of Delaware and Medphone Corp. said Wednesday they have introduced the first cellular rescue program to provide remote medical assistance to cardiac arrest victims. Physicians at the medical center can send signals over the cellular network to the MDphone Cellular Rescue units and initiate remote defibrillation to help save victims of cardiac arrest. SWIFT CRITICIZES LACK OF ACTION: Former House Telecommunications Subcommittee Member Al Swift, D-Wash., says the power of several large special interest groups have helped to stop congress from enacting any meaningful telecommunications legislation, Broadcast reports. "Congress hasn't done anything in the communications field (in the last 14 years)," Swift says. He was on the committee from 1978 to 1990. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON CODES: SECOND DIGIT HAD TO BE 1 OR 0: Area codes were set up in the late 1940s by AT&T. Those early, mechanical telephone switches used the 1 or 0 in the second digit to know to expect a long-distance call. At the time, the phone industry thought the new area codes gave them "300 years worth of telephone numbers," says Paul Hirsch of Pacific Bell. "It was probably a good idea at the time." SYSTEM WOULD LAST UNTIL 2025: With interchangeable area codes, a computer program will allow the system to recognize that anytime a 1 is dialed first, an area code - not a local exchange - is coming next. That will mean the 1 or 0 in the middle of area codes will no longer needed, making way for more possible area codes, enough to last until at least the year 2025, Bellcore says. ALL 10 DIGITS WILL BE NEEDED: New interchangeable area codes won't have geographic boundaries, as area codes do now. They will mix in with a current area code. So Nashville, which now has a 615 area code, may eventually have two more all shuffled together in the same region. As interchangeable area codes sift in, making any phone call - even local calls - will require callers to dial all 10 digits of the phone number. NEW YORK WILL HAVE MIXED CODES: New York is the first place trying a system that mixes area codes in the same geographical region. In January, Manhattan - 212 -added the 917 area code. For now, only mobile phones are getting 917. Later, any new phone will get it. Then it will be possible for next-door neighbors to have different area codes. (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. 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