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---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Monday, October 18, 1999, 3:40 PM -0400
From: Faulkner Information Services <flash@faulkner.com>
To: ???
Subject: Faulkner Comm Flash 10/18/99 - (Part 1 of 

	 TOP OF THE NEWS

	 * SBC Introduces $6 Billion Initiative	
	 * AT&T, Dobson Buy American Cellular	 
	 * GTE Acquires Ameritech's Wireless Properties	
	 * SBC Completes Ameritech Merger	 

Agreements/Joint Ventures 
	 America Online and Travelocity.com entered into a multi-year,
	 multi-million dollar alliance through which Travelocity.com will become
the exclusive reservations engine integrated into the AOL service, AOL.COM,
CompuServe, Digital City, and Netscape. The deal is valued at up to $200
million. AT&T and IBM will join forces to sell services and products that
	 will enable small- and mid-sized businesses to deploy Web sites that
handle e-commerce. AT&T will offer Internet connections, and IBM will
provide computers and software that support the Web sties. The package will
cost about $35,000.
	 Bell Atlantic and VocalTec signed a contract to work together on a
widescale IP telephony network. Bell Atlantic will use the network to
provide VoIP services wholesale to ITSPs. Together with Cisco Systems,
VocalTec will supply its Gatekeeper software. A separate agreement between
VocalTec and Cisco Systems signed last week brought the companies together
to develop and market hybrid IP telephony solutions to ITSPs.
	 If Concert, the joint venture between AT&T and British Telecommunications
fails, it will not be from lack of investment by the parent companies. The
two companies unveiled an aggressive expansion plan that will increase the
coverage provided by Concert's IP-based network to 60 cities by the end of
the year and 100 cities outside the UK and the US by the end of 2001.
Currently, Concert is constructing a network to connect 22 cities in 17
countries. The carriers expect to enhance video, text, and voice
transmissions by investing $3 billion in Concert over the next five years.
In related news, AT&T received approval from the US DoJ and the FBI to go
ahead with Concert. The FCC's approval is the only remaining regulatory
hurdle. Cable & Wireless Optus formed a strategic alliance with Commerce
	 One to create an Australian business-to-business electronic marketplace.
The marketplace will be known as CWO MarketSite and is designed to link a
global network of portals operated by Commerce One, British
Telecommunications, Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, and Singapore
Telecommunications. Following China's decree that foreign investments in
	 China Unicom were illegal, the company informed its foreign partners they
will no longer receive payments on revenues generated from the 40 ventures
they are involved in with the company. A number of major telecommunications
companies, including Sprint, NTT, France Telecom, and Motorola, invested
more than $1.4 billion in joint ventures with China Unicom, which used the
money to build its mobile network. Many of the companies are threatening
lawsuits over lost potential income.
	 Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems agreed to jointly market a
	 comprehensive service, a "unified communications solution," that will
allow communications service providers to offer their customers
consolidated voice, fax, and e-mail services independent of location, time,
or device.
	 In addition, Cisco Systems and VocalTec Communications agreed to offer IP
telephony services to ISPs, Internet telephony service providers, and
carriers. The deal centers around Cisco's Open Packet Telephony framework
for voice services over a data infrastructure and VocalTec's strength IP
voice services. VocalTec will also become a reseller and integrator of
Cisco's VoIP and data communications equipment. Both companies are founding
members of the VoIP Forum.
	 Concord Communications integrated Network Health with BMC Software's
	 PATROL application management product. In addition, Concord entered BMC
Software's PATROL Developer Network (PDN) program. The resulting product,
the Network Health--Server Integration for PATROL, will be designed to
provide BMC Software customers with the opportunity to deploy scalable,
automated performance analysis and reporting.
	 German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported that SBC Communications is in
talks with Deutsche Telekom, although the article did not specify if the two
companies were discussing the possibility of an alliance or a merger. Both
companies declined to comment on the talks, SBC denied that they are in
negotiations at all, but a move between the two companies would make sense.
SBC is looking to increase its foothold in Europe, and MCI WorldCom's
acquisition of Sprint left Deutsche Telekom without an American ally. DT,
Sprint, and France Telecom are partners in the Global One  alliance, but
Sprint announced that it plans to exit the partnership since MCI WorldCom is
involved in a rival venture. Separately, SBC completed its $61-billion
acquisition of Ameritech.
	 Ericsson signed a contract with China Unicom for the third phase of a GSM
expansion in the Sichuan province. This contract, the largest to date
between the two companies, is worth nearly $55 million (SEK 450 million).
After the expansion, China Unicom's GSM capacity in the province will serve
some 680,000 users. The expansion is expected be completed in February 2000.
	 Ericsson, IBM, Lotus, Oracle, Palm Computing, and Symbian are joining
forces in the GPRS Applications Alliance (GAA), a cross-industry initiative
designed to advance applications based on the new mobile packet switching
technology, GPRS.
	 Excite@Home struck a deal with IBM to offer Excite's Web site as the
Internet launch page on IBM's line of Aptiva personal computers.
	 France Telecom and Sonae formed a strategic alliance to develop global
telecommunications operations in Portugal for both business and residential
customers. Sonae will own the majority of the project with a 56.67 percent
stake. The alliance hopes to play a large role in the Portuguese market when
it is fully liberalized in January 2000. The European Union must still
approve the venture.
	 GE Information Services and Ventix Systems introduced several strategic
initiatives. The Ventix Answer Network will serve as the self-service
support framework for several GE Information Services platforms. As part of
the agreement, GE Information Services will embed the Ventix AnswerWeb for
e-Business in its products and market the combined solutions to its
worldwide customers. GE Information Services will also make an equity
investment in the privately funded Ventix Systems.
	 INTELSAT and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) joined
	 forces to try to bring universal access to rural and isolated areas. The
two will assess the technical and financial needs of these areas and suggest
satellite-based pilot programs for the construction of a communications
infrastructure to address these needs.
	 Metromedia Fiber Network (MFN) entered into an agreement with Bell
	 Atlantic (BA), valued at $550 million, to provide dark fiber
infrastructure to BA for a 20 year period. The agreement will speed the
deployment of both Bell Atlantic's data services and Metromedia's plan to
build out its fiber-optic infrastructure. Under terms of the agreement, BA
will have access to MFN's network in 50 major US markets and multiple
cities internationally via MFN's fiber-optic infrastructure. Additionally,
BA will invest $700 million to purchase approximately 9.9 percent of the
equity on MFN through the purchase of newly issued shares at $28 per share.
Also as part of the transaction, BA will buy $975 million in debt
securities convertible into common stock at a conversion price of $34 per
share. The transactions will increase BA's potential equity investment in
MFN to about 19 percent of the company. Micromuse and InfoVista introduced
	 a strategic alliance designed to focus on the business needs of the
enterprise and service providers. The combined effort of the companies will
focus on integrating the InfoVista product line with Micromuse's NETCOOL
software suite, as well as joint marketing and sales. British
	 Telecommunications (BT) and Microsoft joined forces to develop wireless
handheld devices. These devices will use Microsoft's Windows CE operating
system and should be ready in 2000. The formation of this strategic
alliance is a counter move to a recent announcement from Palm Computing and
Symbian that they were considering an alliance of their own. Motorola and
	 Phone.com signed a strategic agreement for software licensing and
distribution. The move combines Motorola's market leadership in wireless
devices as well as its comprehensive portfolio of infrastructure products
and global services with the technological leadership of Phone.com's
wireless Internet access technology based on the Wireless Application
Protocol (WAP).
	 Nokia Networks, the infrastructure arm of Nokia, and Alcatel entered a
joint project for the testing of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) open
interfaces, to ensure the interoperability of both parties' GPRS systems.
These plans aim to facilitate commercial deployment of multivendor GPRS
networks in 2000.
	 Nortel Networks agreed to provide Prism Communication Services with its
Internet Telephony solutions, in a deal valued at $460 million. Nortel will
supply its multi-service switching and access equipment and a suite of
professional services to support Prism's national rollout of its RED voice,
data, and Internet service and digital network expansion. The solution will
migrate Prism to the Succession Network, which will provide Prism with the
flexibility to transition its network architecture to capitalize on emerging
technologies and packet-based services. 
	  In other news, Nortel Networks signed an agreement with Unefon
	  subsidiary, Sistemas Profesionales de Communicacion, to build a high
performance wireless network in Mexico. The deal, valued at $480 million,
will further Nortel's leadership in supplying turnkey solutions to new
service providers globally. Nortel will supply its cdmaOne (IS-95 CDMA)
equipment and services, including a 100 percent trunkless prepaid system,
and will plan, construct, and deploy the wireless network. The service,
expected to begin in December 1999, will provide telephone service to 1.5
million people throughout Mexico.	
	 Novell will integrate VeriSign's digital certificate services into its
digitalme service. Planned initiatives include authentication of digitalme
membercards by VeriSign, as well as integration of the companies'
directories. This will enable customers to conduct secure transactions and
communications. The companies also plan to integrate Novell's NDS with
VeriSign's OnSite managed certificate services.
	 Oracle's Business OnLine application hosting service will team with BT and
Bell Canada to provide outsourced applications in the UK and Canada. The
company also signed deals with 10 systems integrators to help in marketing
the outsourced apps to small and mid-sized businesses. Further clarifying
Oracle's app hosting plans, chief Larry Ellison stated that the company
would offer only a limited portion of its software to other ASPs.
	 PSINet formed an agreement to provide wholesale Internet connectivity to
NetZero. NetZero will use PSINet's IP-optimized network to provide dial-up
access to its subscribers throughout the United States.
	 Lucent Technologies and Sonera will come together to develop e-commerce
services over mobile networks. The two companies will use public key
infrastructure (PKI) as the security platform for their services.
	 MCI WorldCom's acquisition of Sprint will most likely cast shadows on the
future of Global One, the international joint venture between France
Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, and Sprint. Sprint owns 50 percent of the
venture, but MCI WorldCom is involved in another international partnership.
Already, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom are on shaky ground with each
other after DT's failed takeover attempt of Telecom Italia. A decision
concerning Global One's future is expected to be made later this year.
	 Sprint and Deloitte Consulting will offer a package of services and
products for international e-business services. The package is tailored for
large and medium-sized companies. The alliance would be an Application
Service Provider, which would provide e-commerce, enterprise resource
planning, customer management, and data warehousing.
	 Teleglobe joined forces with a number of Asian telecommunications carriers
as an initial partner in the APCN-2 submarine fiber-optic cable system,
which will link China, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan. The
cable system may eventually be expanded into additional parts of Asia, and
it also may hook into other cable systems. The partners of the deal, which
include KDD, China Telecom, and Cable & Wireless HKT, expect the system to
begin operation in 2002.
	 Trend Micro inked an agreement with UUNET, the Internet services division
of MCI WorldCom. UUNET will now offer virus scanning for its Lotus
Notes-hosted customers via Trend Micro's ScanMail. Trend Micro will also
offer UUNET's subscribers with product and virus updates as well as
technical support.
	 Vodafone-AirTouch plans to sell its 17.24 percent equity interest in
	 German cellular operator, E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH, to France Telecom. The
two companies agreed to a cash consideration net of debt of DM3.42bn. The
transaction is dependent upon regulatory and stockholder approval.

Broadband Networking 
	 Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs constructed a 10G-bps Ethernet multiplexer
that is compatible with DWDM transport. The multiplexer expands the
capabilities of the GigaChannel Ethernet multiplexer introduced by Lucent
earlier this year. It combines up to eight independent gigabit Ethernet
signals into a single 10G-bps signal stream. This allows switches, routers,
and servers to connect at 10G bps in native Ethernet format without the need
for protocol conversion.
	 Nortel Networks agreed to deploy open optical networking solutions
throughout the US for Cable & Wireless (C&W), in a deal valued at $150
million. The network will include Nortel's OPTera LH optical systems, which
can achieve 1.6 terabits per second on a single fiber using DWDM to carry
streams of light at different wavelengths and enabling greater capacity on
backbone networks. C&W is investing $3 billion internationally to create a
network that will fully integrate Internet, data, voice, and messaging
communication in one network on a global scale. 
	 SBC Communications introduced a $6 billion initiative, named Project
Pronto, designed to transform to company into the largest single provider of
advanced broadband services in America. Since the completion of its
acquisition of Ameritech earlier this month, SBC serves about one-third of
the nation's access lines. By 2002, SBC plans to provide 80 percent of its
Ameritech, Pacific Bell, Southwestern Bell, Nevada Bell, and SNET customers
with DSL services, with an ultimate goal to make broadband services
available to all of its customers. Making good on an announcement released
earlier this year to deploy DSL service in more than 500 central offices,
DSL service will be available to customers in Texas, California, Nevada,
Missouri, and Arkansas by November. The DSL enables regular copper-phone
lines to carry much more data at far greater speeds. SBC, however, will dig
up old copper cables and install fiber-optic lines everywhere they introduce
the service because DSL cannot travel more than a few miles without fading
on copper lines.

Carriers and Carrier Services 
	 AT&T cut the rate of long distance phone calls to Canada to $0.07 per
minute. To receive the rate, customers must pay a monthly fee of $3. For the
same service, MCI WorldCom charges $0.10 per minute, with a $0.05 per minute
bonus on Sunday. Those rates include a $3 fee. Sprint also offers a rate of
$0.10 per minute, but charges a $5.95 per month fee.
	 Cable & Wireless began offering IP VPN and managed firewall services.
	 These services allow customers to extend their intranets securely. The
service is available in three packages, with speeds from 56K bps to DS3.
Nokia provides its integrated DSU/CSU, Internet Appliance, to the service
to help ensure security. While currently only available in the US, the
company expects a worldwide roll-out next year. Also, the company announced
enhancements to its Web hosting services. The new version of the service
operates at OC-12 connectivity and comes with a variety of support,
management, monitoring, and security features. 
	  In other news, C&W began offering DSL service within the US. The service,
available for a monthly fee, operates at speeds up to 1040K bps. The company
plans to make the service available to 30 metropolitan areas by the middle
of 2000.
	 Global Crossing plans to build 10 mega data centers or Global Centers. The
centers will be located in various places around the world. First, the
company will build the full redundant facilities in London, Paris,
Amsterdam, and Frankfurt. Those centers should be operational by mid-2000.
Besides upgrading existing centers in the US, the company will construct the
centers in Asia/Pacific region as well as in South America.
	 Both Global TeleSystems and FLAG Telecom will increase the capacity of the
FLAG Atlantic-1 cable system, which connects London, New York, and Paris, to
2.4T bps. This is almost a doubling of its existing capacity. Once the
upgrade is completed, the cable will be able to handle 200 hours of digital
video per second, 2 trillion bits of data traffic per second, and 30 million
voice channels.

Electronic Commerce 
	 CheckFree Holdings reported that it will launch version three of its
CheckFree E-Bill software to enhance communication and personalize the
electronic billing process. The company stated that several of CheckFree's
client companies are implementing the new version and will go live within
the next few months. The software will allow companies to market to
different segments.
	 CommerceNet released the eCo Interoperability Framework Specification,
which builds a bridge between disparate, proprietary electronic commerce
solutions, which, in most cases, lets businesses interoperate online without
manual intervention. eCo provides a common, interoperable framework within
which the diverse environments of eCommerce can be represented.
	 Gemplus launched personalized smart cards utilizing the MULTOS
high-security, multi-application operating system. The smart cards allow
consumers to use an Automated Teller Machine to download electronic cash
from their bank accounts onto the cards, or through an optional loading
device connected to a telephone. Le Mouvement des caisses Desjardins
(Caisses Desjardins), Quebec's largest financial institution, began
distribution of Gemplus-manufactured and personalized cards for use in the
Mondex electronic cash program in the Sherbrooke region of Quebec.
Faulkner Information Service
Flash Account
flash@faulkner.com
114 Cooper Center
Pennsauken, N.J. 08109
(609) 662 2070
http://www.faulkner.com



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