A round of vigorous lobbying appears to have paid off for AT&T. Regulations that could complicate its acquisition of MediaOne won't be voted on until next month at the earliest, the Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday.
The agency's cable television bureau had prepared a draft reform plan that would have eased the current ownership limits only modestly – possibly not enough for AT&T's acquisition of MediaOne to sail through.
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Dell first: An acquisition
High-speed for Germany
Consumers rate Alta Vista service- - - - - -
The plan would have maintained the current rule limiting a company to owning cable systems reaching 30 percent of the country. But it also would have begun counting satellite subscribers as part of the industry, thus lowering each cable company's market share.
Under the current counting method, the MediaOne deal would push AT&T (T) to more than 50 percent of the national audience, according to some consumer groups. Even under the FCC staff's draft reform plan, the company would reach about 42 percent of the national audience, still above the 30 percent cap.
Ownership reform was to be voted on at the FCC's meeting next Wednesday. Now officials say they'll consider the item on 8 October. But the agency could postpone the vote again, or alter provisions of the staff's draft proposal before approving the plan.
- Back to topDell's big deal: For the first time in its 15-year history, Dell is doing what other tech giants seem to be doing on a monthly basis: making an acquisition. The giant PC-maker said Wednesday it had agreed to buy network storage company ConvergeNet Technologies for about US$340 million in stock.
Dell (DELL) had shied away from acquisitions in the past, fearful of the costs and the difficulties sometimes faced in integrating companies. But about six months ago, Dell went shopping for a partner to accelerate its drive into the storage area and started talking to ConvergeNet, which already had the patents – or the patents pending – for the technologies that impressed Dell. It also had no unwieldy corporate infrastructure and only 120 employees.
Dell said the purchase of ConvergeNet, a maker of networked data storage systems, is part of its bid to become one of the top three suppliers of data storage in the world.
4. Back to topHigh-speed for Germany: An Israeli firm said Thursday it won a contract to bring broadband services to 84,000 Deutsche Telekom subscribers in Germany.
ECI Telecom didn't say how much the contract was worth, but sources suggested the amount could be in the tens of millions.
The new contract for the "Hi-Focus" systems follows Deutsche Telekom's implementation of its original ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) program a year ago. Hi-Focus enables several different transmission technologies within a single platform, broadening the variety of services that can be provided through the system.
4\. [Back to top](#top)__Alta Vista likes its chances:__ Alta Vista, which recently began offering free ad-supported Internet services, paid for a survey on how people feel about the concept. Not surprisingly, it said the survey showed strong demand.
International Communications Research of Media conducted the survey for Alta Vista, a unit of CMGI, and found that 2 out of every 5 consumers said they would take the free service. Just over half the respondents said such services sounded too "intrusive," but Alta Vista interpreted the results to mean there is a large, receptive market of potential subscribers out there.
"\[Normal speed\] Internet access is going to be totally free within two to four years," Rod Schrock, president of Alta Vista said. "People will only pay for high-bandwidth access."
Alta Vista says that in the first month it signed up nearly 300,000 users for its ad-sponsored service, putting it among the top 20 US Internet services.
*Reuters contributed to this report.*
