GERMANY ANTICIPATES END OF TELECOM MONOPOLY

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

GERMANY ANTICIPATES END OF TELECOM MONOPOLY
        Germany's top telecommunications regulator expects the U.S. to
require Germany and France to end their national telephone monopolies as a
condition for joining Sprint in a mega-carrier alliance. "We are creating a
European AT&T," says the regulator. (Investor's Business Daily 6/17/94 A5).
 Telecommunications Policy Review notes that if the Sprint deal goes
through, the U.S. will effectively have ceded 26% of its "information
superhighway" to control by foreign-based firms, which have benefited from
federal subsidies to make their purchases. (Telecommunications Policy
Review 6/12/94 p.9)


BELL ATLANTIC SLOWDOWN ON SUPERHIGHWAY, SPEEDUP ON SUPERSIDEWALK
        Bell Atlantic's initial venture onto the information superhighway
will for the most part concentrate on garden-variety cable TV, rather than
glitzy interactive services. The company will roll out video services in
six major markets, but only one half of one market in the Washington, DC
area will have immediate access to movies-on-demand and home shopping.
(Wall Street Journal 6/17/94 B10).  Meanwhile, Bell Atlantic will begin
testing its "information supersidewalk" service called "PCS Now."  "Our
goal is to put wireless offerings into the hands of more than 35% of the
population by 2004," says the president of Bell Atlantic Mobile.
(Investor's Business Daily 6/17/94 A5)