Telephone Industry

Accentuate the positive. While many companies are criticized for nervously concentrating on quarterly earnings and stock prices, the U.S. telephone industry appears to have its act together. Telephone companies nationally and locally are welcoming pricing reforms, like the one enacted last week by the Federal Communications Commission, which gave American Telephone & Telegraph permission to set its own prices for long-distance service.

Trudy and Nick Marotta have a set of TV viewing choices at home that few Americans can match now but that may be available to most families within a decade. "With a push of a button, we can choose from thousands of things to watch on TV," Trudy Marotta said, from movies and sports to cartoons and public broadcasting specials. "I like it because we can determine what we want to watch and when. And we haven't been to the video store in months."

Preliminary results from research funded by the cellular telephone industry suggest there may be a correlation between cell phone use and cancer, according to the director of the program. The study found possible connections both in biological tests and statistical analysis of cell phone users. The findings are at odds with many previous studies, which found no such link.

In a step toward opening up the local phone business to greater competition, the Federal Communications Commission on Friday signaled its intent to adopt national standards that would curb the traditional role of states in regulating telephone service. In a 99-page document seeking public comment on its proposals, the agency sided with long-distance carriers, who favor specific rules covering the network resources a local phone carrier must make available to rivals.

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration official told Congress on Tuesday that the agency will soon issue its first advisory on cellular phones amid continuing concerns that the devices emit unsafe levels of radiation. In the agency's first public comment since a lawsuit alleged that a Florida woman's fatal brain cancer was caused by her portable phone, an FDA official said the advisory will caution consumers against excessive use of cellular phones and unnecessary exposure to the devices' antennas.

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission strongly urged telephone industry representatives on Tuesday to establish a formal means for assisting each other in quickly restoring telephone service during inadvertent disruptions. FCC Chairman Alfred C. Sikes told members of the FCC's Network Reliability Council that "a mutual aid and restoration" pact among telephone service providers "needs your careful consideration and concrete results."

Foreshadowing the long-anticipated entry of local telephone companies into the long-distance telephone business, US West Inc. on Wednesday won the Justice Department's endorsement of a plan to offer long-distance service to some customers outside its region over its cable TV networks. If approved by a federal judge, the waiver sought by Englewood, Colo.

Almost eight months after some telephone officials warned that skyrocketing Internet traffic threatened to overwhelm the phone network, a new study has found that "networks remain in a stable state and continue to provide a high level of reliability." The study--by a Washington-based phone industry standards group called the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions--did not specifically focus on the impact of the Internet.

Fearing that a new technology capable of pinpointing the exact location of cell phone users could leave them vulnerable to aggressive marketers or criminals, consumer groups are urging regulators to impose stricter privacy rules. "There's a whole lot more value to information if I'm an advertiser or a bad guy, and I not only know what Web sites you are visiting but where you are as well," said Don Bromley, a security expert at Fiderus, a consulting firm based in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

Small-business owners across America are being courted by big and small telephone service and equipment companies hungry for business in these highly competitive times. It seems that every week business owners are offered new, discounted long-distance calling plans or astonishingly low prices for cellular and other types of telephone equipment. With the price wars raging, now is a great time to re-evaluate your telephone needs to see if there is money to be saved.