Telecommunications Industry

At the crack of dawn Friday, hundreds of surfers dialed a Huntington Beach company trying to get a line on the gnarliest swells and raddest rides from San Francisco to San Diego. Could this be the latest wave in telecommunications? Pacific Bell hopes so. And so does Surfline Inc., the firm that this week became the first to provide information over Pacific Bell's new "900" telephone service.

For the second time in two years, the powerful telecommunications industry has blocked a consumer-oriented bill that would have barred companies from charging land-line customers for unlisted numbers. On Tuesday, state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) put on hold for this year a bill that would have eliminated monthly unlisted-number fees.

Rep. Tom Osborne looked bullish on WorldCom Inc. and all of its telecommunications businesses last year. The Nebraska Republican held shares worth at least $500,000 in the company's WorldCom Group, which sells data services--his single largest stock holding, according to disclosure statements. He also owned at least $15,000 in the company's MCI Group, which sells long-distance service. Osborne sold his stock last week, spokeswoman Kelly Sokol said. He didn't want to talk about it.

Several new smart phones are on the horizon with the aim of unseating the current two-in-one leaders. The Samsung I300 will be available through Sprint PCS this month, and it's expected to cost about $500. Although made by a firm big in phones, it looks like a hand-held with its large vertical screen and no keypad for the phone function. It uses the Palm operating system and has a stunning color screen that will be a joy if it doesn't suck too much juice from the battery.

The long-awaited congressional vote on a mammoth telecommunications bill will end, at least for the moment, a long and bitter fight among some of America's most powerful--and generous--special interests. Billions of dollars are at stake as senators and House members overhaul the rules governing competition in the telephone, television and related businesses. For years now, companies ranging from giant AT&T to Delaware's Diamond State Telephone Co.

Wireless telephone companies including Verizon Wireless Services Inc. and Cingular Wireless will announce voluntary customer-rights standards for the industry in advance of plans by California regulators to impose such rules. The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Assn., an industry trade group that represents the wireless companies, will unveil its guidelines Tuesday in Washington.

After tilting at powerful record labels and Microsoft Corp., MP3.com founder Michael Robertson is challenging the telecommunications industry with a venture that offers unlimited free phone calls. SIPphone Inc. of San Diego, which Robertson announced Wednesday, has begun selling specialized telephones that transmit calls through a user's high-speed Internet connection. The catch is, the devices can call only other Internet-based phones in the company's directory and toll-free numbers.

In yet another instance of telecommunications industry infighting, WorldCom Inc. and SBC Communications Inc. are squabbling over who has the right to provide local phone service to California prison inmates. SBC's Pacific Bell, in a Bankruptcy Court filing Thursday, charged that WorldCom's MCI unit illegally disconnected Pacific Bell pay phones in several California juvenile facilities and then hooked its own local lines into the phones.

WorldCom Inc.'s archrivals have set their sights on the fallen telecommunications giant, potentially undermining its financial health as it struggles to emerge from the largest bankruptcy filing of all time. This group of competitors -- which includes Pacific Bell parent SBC Communications Inc. and the other Baby Bell local phone companies -- is lobbying federal regulators for new rules that would require the nation's No.