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