Mayor Sorensen told the Bismarck Tribune that they want to see North Dakota on the right side of the "digital divide." "We simply need to provide access to medical care, education and commerce in the rural areas of our State if people are going to continue to live there," he added.

Schafer said, "If we can build a business model that will work in the rural areas, it will provide a perfect opportunity to create a communications infrastructure that will enhance the lives of people living in all corners of the State."

Today, the independent telephone industry provides digital subscriber line (DSL) high-speed broadband service to 136 of North Dakota's 253 rural exchanges. Another 30 rural exchanges will be converted to DSL capable in the next 60 days. In addition, cooperatives and small commercial telephone companies are currently deploying MMDS, point- to-point radio and satellite transmission to bring high-speed data transmission to North Dakota's rural residents.

In a press release, the company announced a number of former North Dakotans, including Harry Pearce, chairman of Hughes Electronics; Michael Larson, chief investment adviser to Bill Gates; Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes Magazine; and Gregg Rohde, founder of e-Copernicus.com, would be advisers on their project.

Adelstein would serve out the term of Gloria Tristani, which expires in June 2003.

Senator Daschle's selection received praise from Verizon, AT&T, SBC, Qwest, the cellular association and the National Telephone Cooperative Association.

NTCA reacted enthusiastically to the announcement and said they had long advocated for a "commissioner with an intimate understanding of the telecommunications needs of rural communities and the importance of universal service, as well as someone who is willing to bring the concerns of rural America to the forefront of the regulatory agenda."

Senator Daschle, as the leading Democrat in the Senate, plays a key role in making recommendations to the White House for the nomination of individuals who are filling Democratic slots. The FCC has five Commissioners, two Republicans, two Democrats and the fifth seat to be held by the party in the White House.

As a result, subscribers can expect to see additional and increased fees on their telephone bills, the access money local companies receive from long distance carriers will decrease and universal service funds will become more easily obtained by competitors. The FCC rejected the MAG proposal that certain access charge reforms be optional, and that only carriers electing the MAG incentive plan be eligible for new, explicit universal service support.

The Commission did reduce access charges from 4.6 cents to 2.2 cents per minute and maintained the current rate of return at 11.25 percent. They also increased subscriber line charges for both residential and business lines, will phase out carrier common line charges, extended the deadline for selecting a disaggregation path and added new reporting requirements for incumbent local exchange carriers.

The subscriber line charge for residences and single-line businesses will increase from $3.50 to $5.00 on January 1st and to $6.00 on July 1, 2002. Multi-line business will see their slc's go to $9.20 on January 1, 2002.

The PSC determination makes the cellular company eligible for universal service funds. A Cellular One manager, RaeAnn Kelsch said, "We'll be able to go in and offer those rural residents a choice. They'll have telephone competition for the first time.

The PSC's order affects the territory of 11 telephone companies. Those with fewer than 5,000 customers are not affected.

In response, the Rural Telephone Company Group, a consortium of independent telephone companies in North Dakota appealed the PSC's decision. The independents contend the Commission erred when it found that designating the wireless carrier is "in the public interest," that the PSC failed to take certain RTCG evidence under consideration and that the Commission did not establish the correct burden of proof.

The FBI, which hopes to gain the same access to voice communications that it has gained with e-mail through use of its "Carnivore" technology, made the request in a 32 page document sent to telecom companies in early November. Industry officials are quoted saying the FBI wants direct access to voice communications and it would cost more than $1 billion to comply with the requirements.

The request encompasses both landline and wireless networks, but names of companies receiving the document have not been released.

The FBI is concerned about technological developments in networks and their ability to keep up with accompanying surveillance techniques.

Press reports say "packet switching" has changed the way telecom companies transmit phone calls, allowing a voice call to be broken down into numerous bits and reassembled at its destination. That makes surveillance and tapping such calls more difficult.

The FBI's request was made under the 1994 Communica- tions Assistance to Law Enforcement legislation, which requires phone companies to tweak their networks so authorities can conduct surveillance.

Dale Hatfield, a technology expert, was hired by the FCC to review claims by carriers, networks, equipment manufacturers and others as they work toward implementing location technology to pinpoint individuals who dial 911 from their wireless phone.

The hiring comes on the heels of a October 5th decision to postpone implementation of the new service when wireless providers told policymakers that vendors had not made the equipment necessary to offer the technology.

Counties in North Dakota have been collecting a 911 fee from each wireless customer in the State since August to fund the service.

Under the 1996 Telecommunications Act, ETC designations are typically made by State utility commissions, but Congress amended the Act in 1997 to allow the FCC to take jurisdiction under certain circumstances. Because State commissions do not have authority over tribal owned carriers the FCC exercised that power.

The new dial-up service with MSN costs $18.95 to $21.95 a month, several dollars a month more than Qwest.net customers have been paying. High-speed DSL through MSN is being offered at $39.95 to $49.95 a month, depending on the speed.

Ms. Legg was executive director and chief executive officer of the Center for Rural Development in Kentucky prior to her nomination.

Verizon is a joint venture of local exchange company Verizon and Britain's Vodafone Group. Sprint is the 4th largest U.S. wireless company.

Wireless companies have been jockeying hard to win over consumers by advertising and marketing extensively, and offering plans with thousands of minutes of air time for nights and weekends, according to Reuter's news service. There are about 123 million mobile telephone subscribers in the United States.

The states involved in the attorneys general inquiry are Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont and Wisconsin.

 Telemedicine Loans:
 $300 million
 Broadband Loans:
 $80 million

Conferees also set aside $49.4 million for grants, with the provision that $22.5 million by made available for the continuation of a pilot program for local dial-up Internet service in rural areas where it is not available.

The report cited an additional 100 million new Internet users in 2001, mostly from the South Pacific region, as the reason for the share of native English speakers online to decline to roughly 45 percent of the estimated total of 500 million Web users.

Within the United States, 59 percent of households have home Internet access, a 15 percent increase over last year.

The study highlights, according to Newsbytes magazine, an increasing desire among countries to regulate the Internet at the local and regional level, as nations grapple with the prospect of enforcing their sovereign laws across an international medium.

The authors cited the Chinese government, who is building a stand-alone Chinese Web that has been "purged of content and opinion deemed inappropriate or subversive", which creates a wall between the Internet in China and the rest of the world.

The report also recognize that governments are increasingly moving State functions to the Internet in the form of e- government programs. Canada, Singapore, the United States, Finland and United Kingdom continue to lead in providing government services online.

In terms of broadband deployment, South Korea and Canada have the highest number of broadband subscribers per capita, followed closely by the United States, Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium.

The company cited their recent digital upgrade of its wireless network, building of towers, antennas, base stations, switches and Federal Communications Commission licenses as the basis of their investment.

Based in Bellevue, Washington, Western Wireless owns and operates wireless cellular phone systems marketed under the Cellular One national brand name in 19 western States.

Nortel has scrambled in recent months to slash jobs, sell businesses and rid itself of product lines as demand for telecom switching gear and fiber-optics components has dwindled. Earlier this month, the company said it would replace its chief executive officer and cut another 20,000 jobs.

Nortel said that it expects to have about 45,000 employees after the latest round of job cuts, less than half the 94,500 employees it began the year with.

Jupiter Media Metrix predicted that 41 percent of homes in the United States that are online will subscribe to cable modem, DSL, satellite or fixed wireless connections by 2006. Only 9 percent of web households subscribed to such broadband services last year, according to Internet Week magazine.

Jupiter said increased marketing efforts by cable and DSL providers, coupled with growing awareness of broadband services, are helping overcome consumer resistance to broadband subscription fees.

Among these customers, churn rates are 33 to 50 percent less than non-bundled customers.

Cox started offering multiple services in 1997 in Orange County and Omaha. In those markets, some 40 percent of customers subscribe to two or more services, and 10 percent take all three services.

Earlier this year, Cox began offering a flexible statement plan, where bundled customers can choose to receive single or multiple bills.

The appointment to a newly created position places Daley second in command behind Edward Whitacre, Jr., chairman and chief executive at the company, which is based in San Antonio.

Daley's selection comes as SBC is fighting on several financial and regulatory fronts to enter new long distance and high-speed Internet markets, as well as improve profits.

The project snowballed from a spontaneous effort by staff during Employee Appreciation Day in September, to directors making personal contributions and culminated with the board making a corporate donation of $1 for every subscriber line.

"It's pretty neat when a small idea turns into something so big. If there's ever a time when people need to band together in a showing of support, it's definitely now," said Roxi Pfliiger, the company's business manager.

Implementing LNP would allow wireless customers to switch service providers, but still keep the same telephone number.

Verizon cited high costs and limited consumer benefits in filing its request with the FCC. The company did not, however, request forbearance from the separate requirement for "number pooling," which uses the same network architecture as LNP, according to State and Local Communications Report.

The State Coordination Group, a consortium of state utility commission staffers from California, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas said, "Granting the petition will establish a precedent for discriminatory policies between technologies--something that the wireless providers have begged the FCC to avoid when the discrimination was not in its favor."

The Rural Cellular Association supported Verizon's petition to the FCC. The organization said 20 percent of wireless subscribers changed their carrier during 2000, indicating that the market is competitive. It urged the FCC to grant another two-year extension so that small carriers' resources could be better spent on network build-out and marketing efforts.

The Association of Communications Enterprises vehemently disagreed. It pointed to a study done for Hong Kong telecom regulators, which showed that the need to change wireless phone numbers was the greatest constraint on switching wireless carriers.

January 10:
 Marketplace
 Civic Center
 Bismarck, N.D.

Feb. 10-14:
 NTCA Annual Meeting
 Anaheim, California

Feb. 26-28:
 Telephone AT&S Conference
 Radisson Inn
 Bismarck, N.D.

Mar. 17-19:
 NTCA Manager's Forum
 Tampa, Florida

Mar. 24-27:
 Minnesota Telephone Assoc.
 Annual Meeting
 Minneapolis, Minn.

April 3-4:
 NDTA Annual Meeting
 Radisson Inn
 Bismarck, N.D.

April 8-10:
 NTCA Legislative Conference
 Washington, D.C.

May 13-16:
 TOC
 Holiday Inn
 Fargo, N.D.