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 Mon, Mar 16 1992 Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 05:48:19 EST Message-ID: 03-16 0000 DECISIONLINE: Telecommunications USA TODAY Update March 16, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network MCI AWARDED LINCS CONTRACT: The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it has awarded the Leased Interfacility National Airspace Communications Systems (LINCS) contract to MCI Telecommunications Corp. LINCS is FAA's new air traffic control network. The deal is worth about $558 million. With the exercise of all options, it will provide the FAA with leased communications for the next 10 years. MCI BEATS OUT SPRINT, AT&T: The Federal Aviation Administration's LINCS system will replace and improve upon the network now used by the FAA to interconnect its thousands of facilities, the FAA says. Air traffic controller-to-pilot communications, radar information and computer data will all flow through the network. A total of 95 companies bid for the contract won by MCI. Sprint and AT&T were the other finalsts. CELLULAR RESCUE SYSTEM IN USE: Ambulance crews from Talleyville and Christiana Fire Companies in Delaware can now communicate with doctors at the Medical Center of Delaware using briefcase-sized MDphone Cellular Rescue systems. The systems transmit an electrocardiogram to the emergency room. A doctor can pull a "trigger" to make the unit at the patient's side shock the heart back to effective beating. (For more, see special Rescue package below.) GALAXY V SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED: A General Dynamics Atlas I launch vehicle successfully deployed the Hughes Galaxy V communications satellite Friday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Successful separation of the spacecraft occurred approximately 30 minutes after liftoff as planned. It is the second satellite to be launched for the U.S. Air Force's Defense Satellite Communications System. SOUTHWESTERN TO CUT JOBS: Early retirements will be offered by April 15 to 1,500-1,800 Communications Workers of America union members in St. Louis who work for Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., officials say. It's bid to trim 2,000 "surplus" jobs is caused by consolidation, new technology and the early retirements of 3,500 managers in 1991. MISS. EDUCATION NET PROPOSED: A firm in Jackson, Miss., has proposed to build a $70 million system that would allow state's students to plug into an educational TV network. Mississippi Fibernet 2000 could bring courses to smaller school districts that can't afford them now. The System would be in place by 1998. AT&T RECALLS 100 WORKERS: The 100 workers laid off from AT&T's Shreveport, La., plant in AT&T are now going to be recalled, the company says. The call back will raise employment at the plant to 1,950. In 1974, it employed 7,500, but drop in demand for business communications equipment led to years of layoffs. GTE GAIN MOROCCO CONTRACT: GTE Spacenet has been awarded a $4.7 million contract with Morocco's Office National Post & Telecommunications. GTE will build a new standard earth station to be located outside the capitol city of Rabat. It will allow Morocco to transmit information to North America and Scandinavia via digital technology. TAT-9 HANDLES 80,000 CALLS: The Trans-Atlantic Telecommunications-9 can now handle 80,000 voice calls simultaneously, Network magazine reports. TAT-9 is owned by a consortium of companies, including AT&T, British Telecommunications and France Telecom. TAT-10 will is scheduled to go into operation later this year. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON RESCUE: DEFIBRILLATION DONE REMOTELY: Though paramedics have training and equipment to defibrillate - restore a normal heartbeat - the first "responders" or rescue workers do not. They summon paramedics when needed. Now, using the MDphone Cellular Rescue systems, the rescue workers can communicate with doctors and the doctors can administer treatments to heart patients such as defibrillation via the cellular system. SYSTEM CAN USE REGULAR JACK: Although similar devices, MDphones, have been in use for several years, they work only with regular phone lines. The MDphone Cellular Rescue unit works anywhere and, if the cellular system is down, can be plugged into a regular telephone jack. The system is now being used by two rescue squads in Delaware. SYSTEM CALLS AROUND: If an emergency room does not answer the MDphone Cellular call, said MEDphone Corp. President S. Eric Wachtel, the unit calls other bases around the world until it gets an answer. The distance record for a defibrillation is held by a doctor in Belfast, Ireland, who treated a patient in St. Louis. The devices cost $9,975 each. MEDphone has donated them for six to eight months of field testing. RESCUERS, DOCTORS PUT TOGETHER: Officials say the two test companies make about 4,100 ambulance runs a year. "For the first time, we - fire companies and physicians - are drawn together in actual hands-on care of the patient. ... If you think about it, every commercial airliner ... should have one," said Dr. Ben C. Corballis, chairman of Emergency Medicine at the medical center. (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