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The Teleputing Hotline No 99 Vol 3
The Teleputing Hotline
The Worldwide Network Letter
Volume 3 Number 99 -- December 18, 1990
215 Winter Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30317
FAX: 404-378-0794 Phone: 404-373-7634
MCI:409-8960 GEnie: nb.atl CompuServe: 76200,3025
SOVIET UPDATE
CommStruct International of the U.S. signed a joint-venture to
operate an analog cellular system in Byelorussia. Chairman James
Lewis admitted a possible veto from the USSR central government
is a risk. CommStruct builds cellular systems for others in the
U.S., but has worked on its own overseas, as in Zaire. About
4,000 customers should be linked in Minsk by mid-year -- total
capacity will be over 200,000. It now takes 10 years to get a
phone in Minsk.
In Moscow, the rapidly growing number of Caller ID devices has
caused local exchanges to break down. Authorities are now
discussing whether to prohibit the devices or to charge fees for
their use. All such add-ons are produced locally by small
enterprises. The price for a typical box displaying the number of
the dialer has risen to 2000 roubles ($95.24).
Soviet banks will soon be connected to the worldwide Interbank
system. Only the Soviet central bank uses the service now.
According to Erhard Starc, SWIFT U.S.S.R. coordinator, any Soviet
bank having permission to do foreign transactions will gain
access to SWIFT information services with the help of the Lanit
Joint venture, which will provide equipment and services.
Finally, Alcatel agreed with the Soviet Ministry of
Communications to build a 250-kilometer fiber optic line in the
Soviet Union. And Computer for You, a Bulgarian magazine, is
offering its readers a free copy of a regularly updated antivirus
package, writes Kirill Tchashchin for Newsbytes.
SINGLE EUROPEAN MOBILE STANDARD IN 1991
GSM (Groupe Special Mobile) digital cellular will be launched in
22 countries starting next year, the European Commission said.
Problems remain, notably the diversity of phones and market
fragmentation. This requires a consistency of licensing and
procedure, it argues. The Commission also underlined that GSM can
be threatened by "restrictions by holders of intellectual
property rights concerning software and components" of terminals.
New GSM systems will run at 1800 Megahertz in order to create
products that can be used other than as car phones, writes Eric
Dauchy of Newsbytes.
A study from DPA Consulting Group warned, however, that long-term
GSM prospects depend on better marketing. France, Germany, Italy
and Spain have analog cellular penetration rates of under 5 per
1,000, so the GSM launch may be delayed, writes Peter Jones for
Newsbytes.
HONG KONG UPDATE
Hong Kong Telecom won rate hikes December 5. Basic line fees,
including those for the Faxline 100 fax service, rose about
6%, but international tolls dropped, except to Taiwan. Meanwhile,
Hong Kong Telecom's Datapak and Hutchison's INET packet networks
were linked, so users of one can get services from the other,
with permission.
CABLE FIRM ENTERS UK PHONE MARKET
British Telecom now faces competition for its local telephone
revenues from a cable TV firm. United Artists Communications,
which runs the nation's largest Cable TV service, has with U S
West entered the local phone market south of London, and plans to
expand throughout the UK. Long-distance calls are made through
Mercury, BT's arch-rival in long distance.
VIRUS UPDATE
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and City University of
London found a new MS-DOS virus which infects the File Allocation
Table of a disk and is only transferred via floppy disk. It's
called the "Beijing" virus because of a message "Bloody! June 4,
1989" which it displays. Current versions of anti-viral programs
don't detect it.
Meanwhile, nearly 5,000 U.S. Army PCs have become infected with
viruses. Officials are concerned about effects on Operation
Desert Shield. Both the Jerusalem-B and "stoned" varieties were
detected, mainly from computer games bought by troops in Saudi
Arabia.
SW BELL WINS A PIECE OF MEXICAN PHONE SYSTEM
A group including Southwestern Bell won the bidding for the right
to privitize the Mexican phone network, Telmex. The group, which
also includes France Telecom -- the French national phone company
-- and Grupo Carso of Mexico City, bid $1.76 billion for a 51%
stake. (The rest will be sold on the open market.) Southwestern
Bell will contribute $485.8 million for 5% of Telmex and has an
option for 5% more. It won a waiver allowing it to handle long
distance calls between Telmex and the U.S. Telmex employs 67,000
and is worth about $8 billion. But it takes months to get dial
tones to business customers, and many businesses have taken to
buying cellular lines in order to link to the outside.
ONLINE FACTOIDS
DTN of Omaha launched DTN Treasuries, which displays prices and
yields for US Treasury securities during the U.S. trading day for
$40 a month.
HAYES will start defending its modem patents in court January 4.
It charges 4 U.S. competitors with stealing crucial elements of
its PC modem designs.
HITACHI and NISSAN will cooperate on building auto electronics,
including audio and video, telephones and navigation systems.
Hitachi owns 51% of the 2.5 billion yen ($19 million) venture.
NTT estimates Japan now has over 500,000 car phones, up from
239,000 at the end of 1989.
INDONESIA will award the contract for launching its next
satellite to China. Previously, Indonesia looked to the U.S.
for such launches.
MCCAW will soon provide seamless coverage from the Pacific
Northwest to the whole of Canada. Such service should be
available throughout the U.S. by late in 1991.
MEAD integrated its Lexis and Nexis services, so law firms can be
sold a single password and access either system.
METRO SOFTWARE unveiled PC Artifax, a Hewlett-Packard Laserjet
emulation package for PC fax cards. The UKP 99 package allows
users of PC fax cards to "print" from their word processors
to a disk file that can be transmitted by the fax card.
MOTOROLA is going ahead with a chip plant in Sendai, Japan, but
is angered by NTT's success in using delays in approving the
Motorola Micro-Tac to design a lighter phone with help from NEC,
Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, and Matsushita. Still, Motorola will offer
20% lower calling rates than NTT in Tokyo next year, and its
orders in Western Japan outpace supply 2 to 1.
THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION launched "EFF News," an online
newsletter dealing with electronic privacy, on the USENET
network.
CONTACT:
CommStruct, James Lewis, +607-786-8724
Computer for You, Veselin Bonchev, +359 2 87-50-45
DPA Consulting Group, G A Garrard, +4471-828- 7744
DTN, Richard Piersol, +402-390-2328
Electronic Frontier Foundation, Michael Godwin, +617-864-0665
Hayes, Peggy Ballard, +404-449-8791
HK Telecom, +852 808 6470
McCaw Cellular, Bob Ratliffe, +206-828-8685
Mercury, Doug Walker, +071-528-2106
Metro Software, Matthew Murton, +0491-579857
Motorola, +708-397-5000
R.G.Software, Ray Glath, +602-423-8000
SWIFT, Spanowsky, +7 095 119-8804
Universal Cellular, Cliff Tompkins, +714-572-1000
U S West, Rebecca Herbst, +303-649-4676
