The company hopes to prevent programmers from migrating to the Java alliance, which is supported by Sun, IBM, Oracle and Netscape. That trend will put pressure on the remaining Big Three to team up with technical partners in order to continue to compete with the Top Two. The FCC will probably end up offering four options to wireless bidders who are complaining that they can't raise the cash to pay for the licenses and build out their networks at the same time. The decision reverses an earlier statement by outgoing Chairman Reed Hundt that they would leave the problem for the four new commissioners expected to be confirmed by the Senate early next month to settle. Still to be resolved is whether any discount will apply to the license prices, in an effort to better reflect their market value.
Experts say lawsuits are likely no matter what the government does.
Anyone who wants to argue that should first visit Belarus, or even just chat with the veterans in a telephone, cable TV, or electric utility company who are struggling to make it in a competitive marketplace after decades of regulatory protectionism. They do things over a computer network that they wouldn't do if the person was standing next to them. Twelve people out of 100 were likely to recall seeing a Web ad after viewing it just once, vs. only 10 people who were likely to remember a TV commercial after one viewing. The June survey polled 17,000 respondents who frequented 12 Web sites. What this research demonstrates is that the real ad is at the banner level.