Cisco Government Affairs E-Update

Volume 2, Issue 39

8 November 2002

Brought to you by Cisco Government Affairs Online: http://www.cisco.com/gov

This Week@Cisco in Government Affairs

Cisco's E-Update keeps you up to date on the major policy news of the week. Focusing on broadband, education and e-government areas, but covering high-tech and telecom in general, the E-Update is a great source of information for state, federal and international policymakers. To subscribe, send a message with “subscribe” in the subject line to “Subscribe-eUpdate@cisco.com

If you have high-tech public policy news or announcements that you think other e-update subscribers would be interested in, please send them to jearnhar@cisco.com.

This Week@WASHINGTON, DC

COMPANIES EXPECT SHIFT WILL EASE ECONOMY'S WOES - Business-friendly Republicans retake Congress. The Federal Reserve cuts short-term interest rates by half a percentage point. And the Securities and Exchange Commission will get a new chairman who may be better able to rebuild investor confidence.  Is this enough to dispel the corporate-boardroom gloom that is restraining investment spending and hiring?  http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1036624068441673148,00.html (Paid subscription required)

SHIFT OF POWER TO REPUBLICANS COULD SPUR TELECOM DEREGULATION – This weeks elections that solidified Republican control of the U.S. House and returned control of the U.S. Senate to the G.O.P. is being viewed as a positive development for FCC Chairman Michael Powell’s deregulation agenda and potentially for the myriad deregulations bills currently languishing in the Senate Commerce Committee, notably Tauzin-Dingell and Breaux-Nickles.  http://telephonyonline.com/ar/telecom_shift_power_republicans/index.htm

GOP SENATE PROMISES TECH POLICY SHIFT - Republicans Realign Senate Tech Priorities - The resurgence of a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate heralds pro-business changes in several key technology policy battles in Congress, including online piracy, cybersecurity, broadband deregulation and Internet privacy, tech experts said.  Technology leaders also said legislation to create a Department of Homeland Security -- which contains a series of online security initiatives -- will be the top goal of a Republican Senate. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23863-2002Nov7.html

SILICON VALLEY SEES GAINS IN REPUBLICAN VICTORY - While both parties like to be seen as friends to technology, Silicon Valley expects to fare even better under the Republican majority in Congress.  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/11/07/BU191453.DTL

IN SEARCH OF BROAD TECHNOLOGICAL COMPATIBILITY - Regulators will look into ways of sharing airwaves to be used in many wireless devices - Cell phones, remote controls, wireless radios -- can't they all just get along?  Federal regulators believe so, and they are expected today to launch a sweeping examination of the government's management of the nation's valuable airwaves, a move that could pave the way for cheaper and more innovative wireless devices.  http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-airwave7nov07,0,4234589.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dbusiness

DREAMING OF A DIGITAL DEMOCRACY - Americans are trekking to the polls to cast their votes by touching a screen or punching a card. In an Internet-dominated society, some wonder why voting has yet to move online.  Experts estimate this transition is 10 to 15 years away. Before the digital ballot box brings the precinct to you, some issues must be resolved. Yet many jurisdictions are taking small steps toward wiring the voting booth.  http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/pcworld/20021106/tc_pcworld/106734

ELECT TO SURF EARLY, AND OFTEN - More than 60 percent of candidates in the mid-term US election have created an official campaign Web site to communicate with potential voters and campaign workers, according to a study by PoliticalWeb.info. But for many candidates, their sites are still little more than online brochures.  Sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the PoliticalWeb.info survey found that only 60 percent of the sites tried to recruit volunteers online, and 44 percent allowed visitors to sign up for a campaign email newsletter. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55496-2002Nov2.html

WI-FI GOES TO WASHINGTON - As bad as the crisis in the telecommunications industry may be, things may be about to get worse. That’s because Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) Internet access—which is significantly cheaper than its DSL and cable modem alternatives and can be faster—is threatening the business models of cellular carriers, phone gear makers, and providers of high-speed DSL and cable data services. http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_abstract.asp?ar=1236&L2=22&L3=78&srid=17&gp=0 (Free registration required)

HOMELAND SECURITY CIO WANTS 'NETWORK OF NETWORKS' - Calling for help from the private sector, Steve Cooper, special assistant to the President and CIO in the White Houses' Office of Homeland Security, called for a "network of networks" of federal, state, and local governments and certain private sector industries to be developed as a national enterprise architecture (NEA).  http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/11/06/021106hncooper.xml

SPEECH: Remarks by Bruce P. Mehlman, Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy, 
United States Department of Commerce Technology Administration, “Developing Digital Content & Rights Management” - http://www.ta.doc.gov/Speeches/BPM_021023_DevDRM.htm

Q&A: WILLIAM KENNARD: Ex-FCC chief Kennard assesses telecom's future - http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/4439615.htm

COMPTEL: ILECS’ ‘DEFICIENT’ LOOP PROVISIONING MAKES UNE-P A NECESSITY - The Competitive Telecommunications Association (CompTel) and the PACE Coalition (Promoting Active Competition Everywhere) jointly have sent a letter to the FCC that urges the commission to avoid eliminating local switching from the unbundled network element platform (UNE-P), because incumbent carriers purposely and systematically restrict competitive carrier access to the local loop.  http://telephonyonline.com/ar/telecom_comptel_ilecs_deficient/index.htm

DOD APPROVES MEDICAL SYSTEM - After a successful pilot project in four Defense Department hospitals, the Pentagon this week approved the rollout of a system that enables physicians to obtain and update a patient's complete medical record at any military health care facility worldwide.  http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/1104/web-dod-11-07-02.asp

COMMENTARY BY SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN: “U.S. needs policies that encourage tech investment” –: As our economy struggles to climb out of the valley of stagnation it has fallen into, it's time for those of us in Washington to fix one of our most important but least discussed economic problems: declining business investment, especially in high technology.  http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/4456934.htm

TRADEMARK OFFICE TO EXPAND TELEWORK PROGRAM FOR ATTORNEYS - The Patent and Trademark Office plans to expand its telecommuting program for trademark examining attorneys, estimating the move will save the agency about $1 million annually.  “We want to move the entire work-at-home workforce to the hoteling concept so that we can really reduce the amount of office space we need to have,” said Deborah Cohn, group director of the Trademark law offices. The term “hoteling” refers to the reservations employees must make to use office space.  http://207.27.3.29/dailyfed/1102/110702t1.htm

This Week@EMEA

FRANCE ON WLAN - L’Autorité de régulation des télécommunications vient d’adopter les décisions permettant l’utilisation de bornes de réseaux radioélectriques (RLAN, appelés plus communément réseaux Wifi), pour la fourniture au public de services Internet haut débit, en particulier dans les lieux de passage ("hotspots").  http://www.art-telecom.fr/communiques/communiques/index-d.htm

NET PROTESTS MOUNT IN IRELAND - Consumers are fed up with paying per minute for net services in Ireland and urgent action needs to be taken if the so-called Celtic Tiger is to stay competitive, say critics.  Both IrelandOffline, a campaign group lobbying for unmetered net access, and telecom operators desperate to introduce new services to their customers, want to see radical changes soon.   The government is backing the campaign with Dermot Ahern, Minister for Communications in Ireland, calling for flat-rate internet access to be introduced in the Irish Republic as a matter of priority.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2377447.stm

BT SIGNS BROADBAND COMPACT WITH MICROSOFT - Britain's dominant fixed-line telecoms operator BT Group Plc. said it had signed a formal strategic alliance with U.S. software giant Microsoft to develop more high-speed Internet services.  http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20021106/tc_nm/telecoms_bt_microsoft_dc_4

SPEECH - Prof. Mario Monti European Commissioner for Competition Policy, “Merger control in the European Union : A radical reform” - European Commission/IBA Conference on EU Merger Control Brussels, 7 November 2002.  http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=SPEECH/02/545|0|RAPID&lg=EN

SPEECH - Mr Erkki Liikanen Member of the European Commission, responsible for Enterprise and the Information Society "The race to productivity and knowledge: Where does Europe stand?" IST 2002 Conference Copenhagen, 4 November 2002. http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=SPEECH/02/536|0|RAPID&lg=EN

This Week@Asia/Pac

S. KOREA UNVEILS MASS BROADBAND PLANS - Aiming to enhance its position as the world's most wired country, South Korea unveiled plans on Wednesday for telecom companies to invest 13.3 trillion won ($10.9 billion) in high-speed broadband networks by 2005.  South Korea, which is well beyond the rest of the world in broadband

take-up, boasts that more than one fifth of the population currently has access to high-speed Internet services.  http://asia.cnn.com/2002/TECH/11/06/skorea.broadband.reut/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2408923.stm
Korean Government Release: http://www.korea.net/

CHINA TELECOM TO BE PUSHED FROM THE NEST - China's ruling Communist Party reportedly is trying to recruit more entrepreneurs as members. Clearly, the party could use them, for it has not quite grasped how this capitalism thing works. Case in point: the China Telecom initial offering, which Beijing seems determined to bring out right in the middle of a telecom bear market.  The Chinese have excellent reasons for taking China Telecom public. The problem is that investors have a different agenda, and they are unenthusiastic about this issue.  http://www.forbes.com/2002/11/04/cx_ml_1104chinatelecom.html

CHINESE PROVINCE LAUNCHES ID REQUIREMENT FOR NET CAFE USERS - The Chinese

government has mandated that Internet cafe users purchase access cards that identify them to authorities. The move is the second rulemaking in a month aimed at curbing use of the Internet as a forum for free speech. Last month, all minors were banned from Internet cafes, which are seen by the government as detrimental to the nation's youth. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2002-11-05-china-crackdown_x.htm

This Week@Americas/International

FEW SMALL CANADIAN FIRMS USE NET FULLY: Study finds one-quarter of business owners have no future plans to buy Web services  - Half of Canada's small and medium-sized businesses have yet to put the Internet to work in any meaningful way, says a study to be released today.  Moreover, about one in four small and medium-sized business owners said they have no intention of buying Internet services or applications for the foreseeable future.  "That's alarming to us," said Pierre-Paul Allard, president of Cisco Systems Canada Co. of Toronto. "I hope this will be a call to action for them. They have to ask themselves if they're missing opportunities for growth."  By contrast, a similar study done in the United States in 2001 found that more than 60 per cent of U.S. small and medium-sized businesses had incorporated the Internet into their business
functions.  http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate?current_row=2&tf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.html&cf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.cfg&configFileLoc=tgam/config&encoded_keywords=cisco+systems&option=&start_row=2&start_row_offset1=&num_rows=1&search_results_start=1&query=cisco+systems
THE STUDY: http://www.netimpactstudy.com/ca/

This Week@US States

N.Y., N.Y., IT'S A WIRELESS TOWN - A recent study performed by wireless network operator OpenAir Communications revealed that Manhattan is an island ready for wireless Internet. According to OpenAir vice president Marcos Lara, nearly 13,000 Wi-Fi access points exist in New York, suggesting that the near future could bring "a day in which anyone can stand on any street corner... and receive Internet access wirelessly." http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56197,00.html

STATE COMMISSIONERS WORK TO STAVE OFF FEDERAL PREEMPTION - Public utility commissioners from 12 states met with FCC Commissioners Kevin Martin and Kathleen Abernathy recently to demonstrate that the unbundled network element platform (UNE-P) is an effective – and necessary – entry tool for competitive carriers that doesn’t harm incumbents, that local competition is taking root and that the states must continue to have a meaningful role in the implementing the Telecom Act.  http://telephonyonline.com/ar/telecom_state_commissioners_work/index.htm

OTHER TECH STORIES OF THE WEEK

U.N. LEADER LAYS DOWN A CHALLENGE ON DIGITAL DIVIDE - By Kofi Annan - COMMENTARY—“The new information and communications technologies are among the driving forces of globalization. They are bringing people together, and bringing decision makers unprecedented new tools for development. At the same time, however, the gap between information "haves" and "have-nots" is widening, and there is a real danger that the world's poor will be excluded from the emerging knowledge-based global economy.” http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-964556.html

THE NEW PUSH FOR E-GOVERNMENT - Technological innovation in government has long been an oxymoron. Bureaucrats hate change -- and the very concept of streamlining. But what happens when the immovable object meets an irresistible force called the Internet? The cheap computing, fast connectivity, and easy-to-use interfaces that characterize the Web are just too powerful to ignore as tools for making government more efficient. Among other things, they allow citizens to take over tasks -- such as deciding what types of benefits or grants they should apply for -- that once were the domain of clerks. Give government agencies the ability to easily share data and communicate, moreover, and they'll enjoy the same productivity gains that the Net has produced for businesses. http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2002/tc20021029_2415.htm

MOVIES COMING ONLINE - Hollywood and independent Web sites are bracing to bring more movies to the Web in the belief that kids in college dorms and others with high-speed Internet connections will get comfortable with watching -- and paying for -- movies on their PCs.  Movielink, a joint venture with Sony, Warner Bros., Universal, MGM and Paramount studios, will launch in coming weeks what's being billed as an extensive library of recent and older titles. CinemaNow -- which since 1999 has been showing independent films, mostly for a few dollars -- added major films from Warner and Universal in September. Users are given a limited amount of time to watch the films, then the files disappear from their hard drives. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20021106/en_usatoday/4596012

BILL GATES VIEWS WHAT HE'S SOWN IN LIBRARIES - Multi-billionaire Bill Gates is wrapping up a five-year philanthropic effort to provide computers and Internet access to underserved and poor libraries across the United States, particularly in rural areas. After a visit to one of the libraries where computers were donated, Mr. Gates noted that many people were taking advantage the donated technologies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/06/national/06GATE.html (Free registration required)

SBC TO TEST INTERNET SECURITY - SBC Communications Inc., one of the nation's largest Internet service providers, plans to create a laboratory to tests methods of defeating viruses and attacks on Web sites.  The decision to create the research center, to be announced Monday, was endorsed by a top official of a government Internet security board.  http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=528&ncid=528&e=3&u=/ap/20021103/ap_on_hi_te/sbc_internet_security

FACTS & STATS

WIRELESS NET MARKET SET FOR STEADY GROWTH - Instat/MDR forecasts that the number of worldwide wireless Internet subscribers will rise from 74 million at the end of 2001 to more than 320 million by the end of 2006.  http://www.nua.com/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358513&rel=true

KOREANS EMBRACE MOBILE INTERNET - One-third of mobile phone subscribers in Korea have used their handsets to log onto the Internet, reports MobileCommerce World.   http://www.nua.com/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358499&rel=true

MOBILE INTERNET USAGE KICKS OFF IN UK - Mobile phone subscribers in the UK downloaded 340 million Web pages to Internet-enabled devices during September, according to the Mobile Data Association (MDA).  http://www.nua.com/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358508&rel=true

ECOMMERCE REVENUES ON THE RISE IN BRAZIL - Brazilian ecommerce revenues will reach BRL1 billion (USD255 million) in 2002, reports Business News Americas.   http://www.nua.com/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358500&rel=true

THIRD QUARTER B2C SALES ON A HIGH IN US - New figures from Comscore Media Metrix indicates that consumer ecommerce in the US reached a record USD17.9 billion in the third quarter.   http://www.nua.com/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358511&rel=true

MORE THAN 600 MILLION PEOPLE HAVE NET ACCESS - The global online population has grown to over 600 million for the first time.  http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358518&rel=true

COLOMBIANS FAILS TO GET ONLINE - Colombia is lagging behind other countries in South America in terms of Internet take-up, reports El Tiempo.  http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358512&rel=true

NON-ENGLISH SPEAKERS DOMINANT ONLINE - According to Global Reach's latest statistics on the use of language online, only 36.5 percent of the global online population are native English speakers.  http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358509&rel=true

BROADBAND PROVES POPULAR IN CHILE - The number of broadband connections in Chile rose by 40 percent during the second quarter of 2002, reports Business News Americas.  http://www.nua.com/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358514&rel=true

CISCO GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS@2002

Cisco’s top policy focuses for 2002 are the areas of Education, Broadband Deployment and eGovernment.  To read or listen to our thoughts on these issues, please visit our Government Affairs home page or our visit our multimedia section. http://www.cisco.com/gov/multimedia/index.html

E-UPDATE ARCHIVE

To view past issues of Cisco’s Government Affairs E-Update, visit our E-Update Archive page. http://www.cisco.com/gov/archive/eupdates/index.html

DISCLAIMER

Positions in articles and papers from outside sources are in no way endorsed by Cisco Systems' Office of Worldwide Government Affairs.  We offer articles on topics of interest to our audience to further the debate on the issues that are important to high-tech.  To view our positions on the policy matters that we care about, please visit our Government Affairs homepage. – http://www.cisco.com/gov

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