Taxes, Taxes. 

Wireless Week (1/17/00) reports another court decision supporting immunity from state taxation for wireless telecommunications traffic, while the Federal Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce continues to debate the efficacy of taxing goods sold over the internet to out of state consumers. DM News (1/17/2000, P.1) reports, that to that date, 31,805 Americans had contacted the commission. Of those, 93 per cent oppose new internet taxes. While this may be the only issue that all of the presidential hopefuls in both parties agree on, the final recommendation by the commission - or what is done with that recommendation - is uncertain. At their December meeting in San Francisco, the ACEC members defeated two resolutions that would have recommended (1) a prohibition on state taxation of internet access and (2) a repeal of the 3 percent federal excise tax on telecommunications. Don't look for any tax relief from the current administration. According to Transactions 12/21/99, P.4, (www.ecassociation.org), the three administration commission members defended their reluctance to support an excise tax repeal because they felt the $4 Billion in lost revenue would have to be made up from some other source. Everyone agrees that the U.S. is operating at a surplus and some form of tax cut is justified. Why not start by cutting a tax that was originally levied to finance the Spanish American War? It's over!

Copyright ã 2000 Hattrick Group

AT&T MultiQuest 900 Reorganizes. 

AT&T '900' executives met recently in Las Vegas to discuss terms of their recent sales and support reorganization. In a meeting with account executives there, they expressed strong support and enthusiasm for the new setup. While commitment to the product by the AT&T sales force has never been in doubt, C. Michael Armstrong, AT&T's energetic chairman, likes to deal in big numbers with a broad vision. Bob Sheehan, head of MultiQuest, has recently picked up additional responsibility for Calling Card operations (a purported money loser.) AT&T has been steadily refining its '900' product. They are the only provider to maintain a dedicated inquiry center. They have the majority of the exchanges in place, and they are principal suppliers to a majority of major service bureaus. Let's hope AT&T's broadband strategy provides access to a majority of homes before the LECs (local exchange carriers) destroy casual billing completely (OTE 1/00: I'm Y2KOK, You're Y2KOK) or the chairman decides '900' is no longer a good fit with the corporation's strategic vision.

Copyright ã 2000 Hattrick Group

Bionic Mouse.

(Infoworld 1/17/00, P.58) For a lot less than $6 Million, CompuLink Research offers the U-Match BioLink mouse which verifies your identity through the use of a thumb print scanner. Can't remember passwords? Thumb your nose at convention. Know your thumb as the convention.

Copyright ã 2000 Hattrick Group

Show Me The Money, But Spare Me The Cache! 

All of the major long distance companies have resorted to bribery to gain market share. A few days ago, I came across a piece of misdirected mail that is too funny for words. A check for $20.00 from AT&T, signed by a Mr. Edward Duyer, offering that amount to the "Owner" of telecom competitor WinStar Telecommunications [symbol WCII, market capitalization $4.4Billion] for converting all of their long distance service. The accompanying letter went on to proclaim "You'll pay 60% less for your business long distance - all the time." With long distance rates plummeting, 60% looks like a pretty attractive margin. If the letter had been properly delivered, it just may have been the most costly $20 expense AT&T ever made. Speaking of misdirection, you may remember our previous discussion related to ISPs storage of web site information in a 'cache' in order to save on transmission time and expense. A common technique used to ensure that you are viewing 'fresh' information is to click on the 'reload' button in your browser. However, some providers have taken 'caching' to a new level. (As previously recommended, having more than one ISP is as important as backing up computer files or installing a backup power supply.) The cache is stored at an intermediary point, and refreshed only when the site itself updates its information. So, if you are accessing Bloomberg.com or some other major site where information is constantly updated, you won't notice the difference. However, if you access a 'static' site, such as government and other public sites, which are never updated more than daily, you are stuck with any interrupted or incorrect file stored in the cache, until the system refreshes itself, usually in 24 hours. Pressing 'reload' will only retrieve another incorrect copy, because the intervening provider has blocked your direct access to the source. While the fault may not lie directly with your ISP, the only way around the problem may be another ISP.

Copyright ã 2000 Hattrick Group

Back To The Future. 

While the world awaits the first shipments of Windows 2000 from Microsoft in mid-month, the first virus designed to run on Windows 2000 has already been discovered. (Infoworld, 1/17/00, P 3.) The term 'faster than a New York minute' may soon be replaced by 'faster than an Internet minute'. With 200 million PCs connected to the internet, there are a multitude of opportunities for spreading malicious code, as the scourge is referred to by experts. Some of the subcategories of malicious code are excerpted from page 37 of the same edition (www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/00/01/17/0000117hnvirus.xml). 

"Virus - A true virus is capable of self-replication on one machine. It may spread between files or disks. Transmission time to a new host is slow, on the order of days or weeks.

Worm- A worm is designed to spread from one machine to another, over any type of network. Via the internet, transmission time is on the order of seconds.

Trojan Horse- A trojan horse cannot replicate and need not spread; it is any code that does something you don't expect it to do. A graphics file might actually forge bogus e-mail messages. According to Roger Thompson, director of malicious code at ICSA, 'a Trojan horse can get 57 million e-mail addresses and fire itself off instantly around the globe. So it hardly matters whether or not it can replicate itself.' "

Copyright ã 2000 Hattrick Group

Separating Rights From Wongs.

In what may be the first test of recent cyber squatting (OTE 9/99: Lost In Cyberspace) legislation passed by Congress, the Wong family of northern California was forced to give up their claims to domain names falsely associating them with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (Windows Users News, Feb.,2000) To subscribe http://wun.mswin.net.

Copyright ã 2000 Hattrick Group

Other Deja News (Updates):

UCITA (OTE 7/99: 2B Is Not To Be) the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act, continues to plod along, currently in the pre-legislative stages in Virginia. 4CITE (For a Competitive Information and Technology Economy) is an organization made up of software users (e.g. John Hancock, Caterpillar, associations, foundations, and Infoworld)., who have pledged to fight the changes to software licensing law on a state-by-state basis. Infoworld has established a forum to run on a full time basis for all UCITA-related communications and comments.

Copyright ã 2000 Hattrick Group

Will Toll Free Service Become Obsolete?

One of the advantages (and disadvantages) of being the ex-owner of a telecommunications carrier is the constant onslaught of network information from a variety of sources. US West Network Disclosure Announcement No. 44 advises that the toll free exchange '866' will become available for assignment on April 1, 2000 with '855' opening on April 8, 2000. Reasons given are "due to the pending exhaust of telephone numbers assigned with 800, 888 and 877." Page 26 of the January 11, 2000 issue of USA TODAY featured a full page ad for long distance service at a $9.95 flat monthly rate using VoIP (voice over internet protocol). Whether the offering succeeds or not, the trend is clear - flat rates for bandwidth access, no matter what the content or protocol of the transmission. '800' service was met with resistance in its early days, becoming a symbol for customer service and quality in recent times. However, steadily declining rates have brought some less than desirable results with some scam artists using toll free numbers to shield their identity or location. The post office has recently mandated a distinction between addresses of individual dwellings and offices and the addresses of post office boxes provided by vendors. With the cost of long distance voice calling asymptotically approaching zero, will consumers begin to place more importance on knowing who they are dealing with? With the internet increasing the impersonality and 'facelessness' of transactions, will consumers begin to associate 'brand' qualities with a familiar area code known for specific expertise or products, just like they did long before zip codes were even established? And will toll free numbers lose all attraction related to cost avoidance before total exhaust, with only those 'vanity' numbers strongly associated with an existing brand retaining any utility?

Copyright ã 2000 Hattrick Group

Pacific Bell Resists Paying Termination Compensation.

(Wireless Week 1/3/00, P.50) The 1996 Telecommunications Act calls for compensation between carriers who terminate calls originating on another's network. Long distance carriers have paid RBOCs $Billions to terminate calls on their local networks. In some cases, the local termination fees account for as much of the cost as the long distance portion of the call. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld paging carriers' right to compensation for calls terminated on their networks. PacBell continues to resist payment, arguing that reciprocal compensation arrangements should not apply to one-way services. There isn't a more 'one way' service in the history of telecommunications than the $14 Billion toll free industry, from which the RBOCs are receiving hundreds of millions in terminating fees. I wonder if PacBell intends to refund the access fees IXCs have paid to terminate '800' number on their network - paging services included. It wouldn't be the first time a RBOC changed its tune. (OTE 4/98: Your Honor, May I Object To My Previous Testimony?).

W. E. Miller, Jr.
Editor

Copyright ã 2000 Hattrick Group