The FCC is lifting a restriction that prevented AOL Time Warner from adding videoconferencing to its popular instant-messaging software. The Republican-dominated FCC voted 3-2 to approve the change, with the two Democrats dissenting, said an FCC official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
As a condition of the merger between AOL and Time Warner, the government limited AOL's (AOL) ability to include advanced services in its instant-message software to force it to allow customers of rival services, such as Microsoft Instant Messenger (MSFT) and Yahoo Messenger (YHOO), to send messages to AOL users. Although AOL said it would work to make its messaging service "interoperable" with rival platforms, company officials say they still have technical and security concerns.
AOL asked the FCC in April to lift the limits, noting that its market share among instant-message services had fallen from roughly 65 percent in early 2001 to 58.5 percent, which it said indicated it was no longer "dominant" in the category. Microsoft had 22.2 percent, and Yahoo had 18.3 percent, according to figures AOL supplied to the FCC.
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FCC junk fax ruling: Businesses and nonprofit groups opposed to an FCC rule requiring written permission before sending unsolicited faxes say they will use a 16-month delay to urge Congress to block the requirement.
The new FCC rule was to be in place next Monday. In the past month, the FCC received 12 petitions asking the commission to delay the new fax rules. The agency announced Tuesday that it had unanimously approved a 16-month delay, although a spokeswoman suggested this was unrelated to the petitions.
The new FCC rules would require organizations to get written approval from all fax recipients. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said this would burden businesses with unnecessary paperwork and prevent organizations from communicating with their members.
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Satellite costs less than cable: The average price of a satellite TV subscription this year fell below that of cable TV for the first time ever, according to a new study by J.D. Power and Associates.
The report shows that the difference between average prices for cable and satellite TV "narrowed significantly" over the last five years. Since 1998, the average monthly cost of satellite TV service is up 8 percent to $49; the cost of cable surged 41 percent to $50. Despite added cable services like digital TV, video-on-demand and high definition TV, satellite subscriptions grow steadily, taking customers away from cable.
"Digital cable hasn't turned out to be the solution the cable industry needed to stem the tide of migration to satellite providers," said a J.D. Power and Associates representative. Instead, cable companies should focus on improving customer service, the study suggests. The push to bundle services, or putting multiple services onto a single bill, could also help cable.
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FTC says anti-spam bills won't work: The Federal Trade Commission chairman said new anti-spam legislation being considered by Congress won't work, and pointed instead to improved technology as the best hope for eliminating unwanted e-mail.
The chairman told a communications industry conference that some of the legislation moving through the House and Senate "cannot do much to solve the spam problem."
It could, in fact, harm consumers by making it harder to prosecute offenders, he said. One bill, for example, would require authorities to prove a spammer had falsified identity in 10,000 different e-mails in order to bring felony charges.
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PCs just for gaming: Jumping into what is fast becoming a hot growth market in the personal computer business, Gateway (GTW) said it would release a computer designed specifically to play video games.
Gateway said the 700X Gaming PC would include the most powerful graphics processor from chip designer Nvidia (NVDA) and some of the top games from leading publisher Electronic Arts (ERTS). Other top components in the 700X include an Intel (INTC - news) Pentium 4 processor at 2.8 gigahertz, 512 megabytes of high-performance memory, a massive 160-gigabyte hard drive and a built-in DVD burner, as well as a 19-inch monitor.
Gateway and Nvidia said they would sponsor a series of in-store demonstrations of the new machine at Gateway locations around the country. Gateway said it will also offer a lower-end machine, the 500S, which will use a lesser Nvidia chip, a smaller hard drive, slower RAM and a smaller monitor, with no DVD burner.
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Compiled by Kari L. Dean. Reuters and AP contributed to this report.
