****CELLULAR PHONE CANCER WORRIES WILL NOT GO AWAY
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 19 (NB) -- At a major press
conference on Friday, representatives of the cellular phone industry
said that there is no cancer risk associated with the use of hand-
held cellular radio telephones, but they could not cite a single
study that specifically supports claims for the safety of hand-held
cellular phones.

A law suit brought six months ago charged that a cellular phone had
contributed to the death of an executive by promoting brain cancer
and, ever since then, the industry has been trying to convince the
public that their devices are perfectly safe.

At last week's press briefing the industry retracted its earlier
contention that "thousands" of studies showed the safety of hand-
held cellular telephones, instead citing about 100 studies, but when
asked which of those scientific studies were specifically concerned
with the use of hand-held cellular telephones, cellular industry
representatives were unable to point to a single study that
explicitly looked at how these relatively new products are actually
used.

Although still contending that there is no safety question, the
industry has boosted safety-related research funding from less than
$1 million per year to about $15- to $25-million. Louis Slesin,
editor of Microwave News, said on Monday's CNN Business Day program
that the study group funded to evaluate the effects of cellular
phone radio frequency emissions on users is overweighted with
industry advisors and includes no impartial industry critics.

Unable to cite actual statistical studies of cellular phone users to
prove safety, the industry instead had to be content with the
statement that an extensive study of the literature had been unable
to uncover any solid evidence that cellular phone radio waves
actually caused pre-cancerous changes in the body's cells.

Dr. George Carlo, Chairman of the Health & Environmental Science
Group, studying health dangers of cellular phones on behalf of the
Cellular Industry Association, said that no studies they have seen
show any mechanism whereby cellular phone emissions could cause
cancer.

This is a very different thing from proving that they are actually
safe. What it actually means is that they don't know, and in point
of fact, such a statement may mean little or nothing either way. It
doesn't mean that the phones are safe, or that they aren't.

Concerns surrounding cellular phone safety center on possible damage
to human cells caused by the relatively intense electromagnetic
fields generated by the tiny antennas which hand-held phones place
so close to the human head, not the general presence of radio
frequency waves in the environment or even the fields generated by
car phones which use external antennas and therefore cause a much
weaker field at passenger's bodies.

The concerns about the phones' possible contribution to brain cancer
or eye damage (a subject not addressed at all by the industry) are
also unsupported by convincing scientific evidence, but that only
means that no one actually knows whether or not they are safe and
some users and potential users think that "better safe than sorry"
is a good policy when it comes to any chance of getting cancer.

Actual statistical health studies of hand-held cellular phone users
won't begin until next year at the earliest.

There is some statistical evidence that ham (amateur) radio
operators, people who routinely expose themselves to intense radio
frequency electromagnetic fields, are more prone to certain kinds of
cancer.

The sort of portable telephones used by many home owners who plug a
base station into their regular telephone lines and carry a wireless
phone around the house or yard are not involved in the controversy
both because of the much weaker signal strength and the different
frequencies used.

(John McCormick/19930719)


DIGITAL CELLULAR STANDARD APPROVED BY TIA
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 19 (NB) -- San Diego, California-
based Qualcomm, says that the Telecommunications Industry
Association (TIA) has adopted its code division multiple access
(CDMA) digital cellular technology as the basis for an interim
standard known as IS-95.

Competition between different proposed digital cellular standards
have blocked industry moves to improve present cellular service
quality and expand new services.

The June 28 issue of Telephony said that the battle between
supporters of the more advanced CDMA digital cellular technology and
the older time division multiple access (TDMA), which has been
accepted only by McCaw Cellular and SW Bell, was slowing acceptance
of TDMA generally.

Nynex is testing TDMA in New York and a wireless CDMA system at its
headquarters while BellSouth is currently testing E-TDMA (extended-
time division multiple access) from Hughes Network Systems.

Specifically, the Qualcomm CDMA-CAI or Digital Cellular Common Air
Interface (CAI) Specification was used by the TIA's TR45.5
engineering subcommittee as the basis upon which it built the IS- 95
standard.

The adoption of a CDMA as an industry standard, three and a half
years after it was demonstrated by Qualcomm, may allow both service
suppliers and cellular phone manufacturers to move forward with
development of the next generation of products and services, but
this recent action does not block vendors and service providers from
offering competing systems.

(John McCormick/19930719/Press Contact: Thomas Crawford, Qualcomm
Inc., 619-597-5715)


AT&T HIKES LONG DISTANCE CHARGES; BLAMES 800 PORTABILITY
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 19 (NB) -- AT&T has released its
new rate structure for long distance and it looks like business
subscribers will be paying nearly four percent more for calls, while
the average user will experience less than a one percent rise in
costs.

Long distance rates for home, business, and Calling Card users
vary, but AT&T states that the rates for most business services
will increase by 3.9 percent. This includes 800-service (toll free)
as well as domestic and international long-distance charges.
Newsbytes notes that there will also be some changes to certain
installation and recurring charges.

The company blames the increases on new equipment costs related
to 800 number portability and inflation.

Some day and evening direct-dialed consumer domestic long-
distance call rates will increase by less than one percent while
some evening rates will actually decrease.

Rates on direct-dialed non-business international calls from the
United States to 56 countries would, under the newly announced
rates, increase an average of 3.8 percent, while charges on calls
back to the United States from 27 countries using AT&T USADirect
Service will increase an average of 15 percent.

According to AT&T, base Calling Card and operated-assisted call
rates will increase by an average of 3 percent.

The rate changes announced today are only proposed changes until
the FCC approves or denies the new tariff schedule but are
expected to take effect on August 1st.

(John McCormick/19930719/Press Contact: Mark Siegel, AT&T
Consumer Services, 908-221-8413 or Mike Granieri, AT&T Business
Communications Services, 908-221-7611)


MERCURY SLASHES CALL CHARGES TO MEET BT
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1993 JUL 19 (NB) -- After a year of steady erosion
of its pricing advantage over British Telecom (BT), Mercury has
responded with a series of price cuts on international telephone
calls on its 2200 and 2300 services, all of which are designed to
encourage subscribers to use the service more.

While BT has concentrated on enhancing its frequent caller plans,
which involve the use of cover charges, Mercury has opted for
straight price cuts. Most interestingly of all, Mercury has
introduced a long call discount scheme for calls to the US.

From the beginning of August, any Mercury subscriber calling the US
will find the cost of the call dropping by a hefty 25 percent for
time spent after the first 15 minutes. According to Christine
Holgate, Mercury's manager of consumer marketing, this means that,
for a 20 minute call to the US at off-peak times, the cost is UKP 6-
69 -- a saving of 44.8 pence on the charges previously.

This 25 percent long call discount on US calls is being introduced
on a trial basis, with the trial running until the end of October
this year. If the scheme is a success, then Mercury will consider
implementing it on several international routes.

The international call charge rates, meanwhile, have been cut by
between 3.51 and 15.05 percent. Calls to many inland destinations,
notably mobile phones and specialist pager services, have also been
reduced. Some charges, such as to Vodafone's messaging and operator
services, have been increased, although Mercury claims it is still
cheaper than BT for such calls.

Despite a recent shuffle in Mercury's tariff bands, to bring the
company's rate chart into line with BT, Newsbytes notes it is
becoming increasingly difficult to work out what savings, if any, a
Mercury call has over BT.

The good news is that Mercury has abandoned its mandatory
requirement for subscribers to its Frequent Calling Program (FCP) to
have a variable amount direct debit (VADD) payment system linked to
their bank account. VADDs allow the billing company to debit the
customer's bank account automatically, once the bill has been sent
out.

This change coincides with the August 1 price changes, Newsbytes
notes, which also increase the FCP discounts on international calls.
Where a standard call to the US costs 42.7 pence per minute during
office hours, the same call on the FCP scheme costs 36.3 pence.

Subscribing to the FCP scheme costs an extra UKP 20 a year, billed
quarterly, over and above the UKP 10 a year that Mercury charges for
its standard subscription.

Mercury's 2200 and 2300 telephone charges are designed for users of
BT's network. Like MCI and Sprint in the US, only long distance and
international calls are routed through the Mercury network, with
local calls continuing to b routed via the BT network.

Subscribers to Mercury 2200 and 2300 continue to use BT as their
"local loop" service provider, and pay rental on their BT line as
usual -- Mercury merely uses the BT line to allow its subscribers to
access its network indirectly.

(Steve Gold/19930719/Press & Public Contact: Mercury Communications
- Tel: 0500-500-914 [toll free in UK] otherwise 071-528-2000)


DIGITAL MOBILE PHONES COME UNDER FIRE
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1993 JUL 19 (NB) -- Digital mobile phones,
specifically, the Groupe Speciale Mobile (GSM) variety, have come
under fire from several quarters in recent months owing to the radio
frequency (RF) interference they radiate. The problem has affected
hearing aid users particularly badly, with many users reporting loud
buzzing noises -- sometimes causing pain and discomfort -- when they
are within a few metres of a GSM phone in use.

Now an international auditory conference, held in Sydney last week,
has confirmed what many in the mobile telecoms industry knew
already, that GSM phones cause interference and, perhaps worse, it
is not possible to stop this interference. Some sources had claimed
that, with the latest hearing aids, all GSM interference could be
removed.

The problem lies, Newsbytes notes, with the pulsed RF nature of GSM.
Digital data is superimposed on a 900 megahertz (MHz) signal and
pulsed to an from the nearest GSM base station. It is these pulses
that cause the interference.

Such is the groundswell of public opinion in Australia about GSM --
fanned by frequent articles in the press -- that the organisers of
the International Conference on Hearing Rehabilitation (ICHR) issued
a statement outlining their findings.

"Hearing aid users standing within a few metres of someone using the
new phones will be subject to a loud buzzing noise in their hearing
aids," said the statement.

The statement is designed to reinforce the results of a report on
GSM phone interference from the Australian Government. The report,
issued last Wednesday, found that GSM phones can cause interference
with hearing aids as far away as 10 metres, although Newsbytes'
basic research on the subject has discovered that problems only tend
to occur within two to three metres.

The Australian Government report, which was conducted by the
National Acoustics Laboratory, concluded that GSM phones, because of
their more powerful nature than conventional analog phones, can
start to cause interference as far away as 35 metres. Even the
latest hearing aids, the report notes, are disabled by GSM phones
operating within 1.5 metres of the hearing aid user.

During a visit to Cellnet last week, one of the UK's two cellular
phone operators, and which is currently testing its GSM network for
launch later this year, company officials confirmed the hearing aid
problems. Officials claimed that the problem could be solved using
the latest hearing aid technology.

Australian Government officials, backed by the National Acoustic
Laboratory, remain ambivalent about this possible development. The
root cause of the problem is the way in which hearing aids operate.
Short of a radical change in the way that aids work, with attendant
problems with compatible equipment, such as TVs and phones, the
prospect of interference-free hearing aids looks very distant.

(Steve Gold/19930719)


INTERVOICE IN LARGE VOICE MAIL SYSTEM SALE
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 21 (NB) -- Dallas, Texas-based
InterVoice has reported that it has received a $0.5 million-plus
order for its 144-line RobotOperator System to be installed at a
large public utility company. The InterVoice voice-mail system
will be used to provide 24-hour answers to callers' usual
questions about rates and billing problems.

Intecom, a division of French Matra SA, a multimedia systems
developer which has been a business partner of InterVoice for
the past year, will buy the system from InterVoice, add its own
value-added modifications, and make the installation.

Intervoice has installed more than 3,000 voice response,
electronic-mail, and fax systems in nearly 40 countries.

Voice-response and fax-back systems customer help systems,
usually operating in response to signals sent from touch-tone
telephones, are gaining a larger market share as companies
strive to improve productivity and improve customer service,
while cutting costs by reducing staff.

Muriel Siebert, the first woman to gain a seat on the New York
Stock Exchange, told today's CNN Business Morning viewers that
companies such as hers look at the potential for new employment
taxes coming out of President Clinton's budget package and look
for ways to automate as much as possible to insulate themselves
from health-care and other employee-related costs.

This sort of business concern, along with the difficulty in
hiring qualified workers, should lead to even more interest in
fax-back and voice-response systems.

(John McCormick/19930721/Press Contact: Dorothy Botnick,
InterVoice, 214-454-8771)


MITEL NAMES NEW CHAIRMAN, REPORTS QUARTERLY PROFIT
KANATA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1993 JUL 21 (NB) -- Mitel Corp., has
named a new chairman. Gordon S. Byrn, president of the company
that last June bought a 51 percent interest in the
telecommunications equipment maker, takes over from Anthony
F. Griffiths.

Byrn is president of Schroders and Partners Ltd., the Canadian
affiliate of Schroder Ventures, and vice-chairman, North America
and Far East for Schroder Ventures. Last June, Schroder bought a
51 percent stake in Mitel for about C$40 million from British
Telecommunications PLC, which had been seeking to sell the
shares for some time. At the time Byrn and one other Schroder
representative joined the Mitel board.

Griffiths, who has been Mitel's chairman since 1987 and was
president and chief executive for two years before that, did not
stand for re-election to the board, the company said. Griffiths
served a second stint as president through most of 1992, after
John Jarvis left that post, but was replaced as president by
Dr. John Millard in January of this year.

Mitel also reported a profit of C$3 million in its first quarter,
ended June 25. The profit compares with a loss of C$7 million in
the same period last year and is Mitel's third consecutive
quarterly profit after a string of losses. Revenues were C$107.4
million, up 13 percent from C$95 million in the first quarter of
last fiscal year.

(Grant Buckler/19930721/Press Contact: Bonnie Perrigard, Mitel,
613-592-2122 ext. 1125)


 ****NORTHERN TELECOM EXPECTS 1993 LOSS, JOB CUTS
MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1993 JUL 21 (NB) -- Northern
Telecom Ltd., has reported a second-quarter loss and admitted that
it expects an annual loss in 1993. The company also said it will
cut manufacturing capacity and let go about nine percent of its
global work force, or 5,200 employees worldwide.

The loss will be largely due to a provision for the cost-cutting
measures, which Northern said will cost it about US$282 million.
The company will take a special charge for that in 1993, and has
also made a provision of US$158 million after tax for work on its
software for central-office switching equipment. Third, Northern
is taking a US$500 million write-down on goodwill related to STC
PLC, the British telecom firm it bought in 1991.

The company said its restructuring will mean consolidating
manufacturing plants, including the closure of some operations,
and cutting its 60,000 work force by about 5,200. The plan is
expected to be complete by the end of 1994. Northern did not
comment on the plan's possible impact on its 1994 results.

The software provision is to cover the cost of completing
modularization of Northern's central office switching
architecture "to correct operating issues and enhance performance
capabilities," said Jean Monty, president and chief executive, in
a prepared statement. This is also due to be complete in 1994.

Northern said it is writing down goodwill associated with STC
because of continuing weakness in the European economy and
concern that growth in European sales and earnings will be slower
in the short term.

Northern also said it has agreed to sell the STC Submarine
Systems division to Alcatel Cable of France for UKP600 million.
The unit had revenues of about UKP225 million in 1992, company
officials said.

In the second quarter of 1993, Northern lost US$1.03 billion on
revenues of US$1.87 billion. This compares with net earnings of
US$69.1 million on revenues of US$1.95 billion in the second
quarter of last year.

Northern had warned at the end of June that it expected the
quarterly loss, its first in five years.

The loss follows a disappointing though profitable first quarter,
which ironically came on the heels of record revenues and
earnings for Northern in 1992. In the year ended December 31,
Northern's revenues were US$8.41 billion and net earnings
increased eight percent to US$536 million.

Northern "has provided us with quite a few surprises in the last
five consecutive quarters," said Frederick Larkin, an investment
analyst who follows the company for Warburg Inc., in Toronto. He
said institutional investors are becoming wary of Northern's
stock.

However, Larkin added that while the immediate news is bad, he
believes Northern is taking the right steps. The cost-cutting
measures will keep the company competitive, he said. Just how
soon Northern's fortunes rebound will depend largely on its
ability to boost sales of central office gear.

Larkin said he is not yet ready to speculate on Northern's
financial prospects in 1994.

(Grant Buckler/19930721/Press Contact: Tom Tropea, Northern
Telecom, 416-566-3178; Gary Brandt, Northern Telecom,
416-566-3098)


UK - BT CUTS PRICING ON INTERNATIONAL ISDN CALLS
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1993 JUL 21 (NB) -- British Telecommunications
(BT) has announced it is cutting the cost of international Integrated
Services Digital Network (ISDN) calls from the UK. The price cuts
take effect from September 29 onwards.

One of the criticisms of BT's ISDN service to date has been that
international calls are charged at higher rates than ordinary phone
calls. This is in contrast to inland calls, which are billed at the
same rate, regardless of whether they are voice or ISDN data.

BT has always claimed that foreign telecoms companies charge it for
access to their ISDN services, hence the disparity in charging
system. From September onwards, however, many international ISDN
call charges fall. BT claims that this is due to foreign telecoms
companies cutting their charges to BT, so it is passing these
savings along.

A spokesman for BT cited the example of a company using three
ISDN-2 connections (six 64,000 bits-per-second channels) for
high-quality videoconferencing links between London and New York.
Under the new tariff arrangements, they will pay UKP735 for two
hours of videoconferencing, rather than UKP1,008 under the old
charging system. This is a 27 percent call cost reduction.

In a more practical example, BT claims that the price of
transmitting 100 pages by fax over an ISDN-2 links to France,
which takes five minutes, will fall from UKP4.25 to UKP3.80,
a 10.5 percent reduction.

BT currently has 20 ISDN international routes to 18 different
countries. They are: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, (for KDD & ITJ), the
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Sweden,
Switzerland, Spain, and the US (for AT&T & MCI).

(Steve Gold/19930721)


UK - BT ENHANCES TELEMEDICINE TECHNOLOGY
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1993 JUL 21 (NB) -- British Telecommunications
(BT) has revealed that it is commercializing several new methods of
transmitting medical data and expertise over the public switched
telephone network (PSTN) and Integrated Services Digital Network
(ISDN) services.

Known as telemedicine, the technology builds on the success that
some hospitals have had with using remote-control heart monitoring
equipment installed in the homes of patients. If a problem occurs,
the heart monitoring machine can be used in the home and data
transmitted over the phone line using a modem.

BT officials claim that the application of similar technology can be
made in many more areas of medicine, as well as in other unrelated
areas, such as completing remote diagnostics on computers at a
distance.

"In fact our primary interest is not to sell hardware, that is to
some extent a separate issue," explained Mike Matthews, section
manager of the BT's advanced media unit at the company's research
and development headquarters in Martlesham, Norfolk. "Our primary
interest is to act as a catalyst in making people think about how
they can use advanced networks."

At a conference held in London recently, Matthews and other
BT seniors demonstrated several applications of the technology,
including Camnet (short for "camera over network") and an endoscope
imaging system being developed with the science laboratories at
Sheffield University. The endoscope system allows images from the
inside of a human digestive tract to be transmitted over a phone-
modem or ISDN link for viewing by doctors at major medical centers.

Camnet involves the use of a camera attached to the head of a medic
at a remote site. Images from the camera are transmitted over the
phone-modem or ISDN link for interpretation at a medical center.
Like the endoscope project, Camnet allows staff at hospitals to
spend less time travelling to patients and more time actually
treating them.

(Steve Gold/19930721)


SPECTRUM INTROS CELLULAR FAX/MODEM FOR NEC PHONES
MANHASSET, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 21 (NB) -- Spectrum
Information Technologies has introduced a new version of the
company's AXCELL fax/modem link for NEC portable handheld
cellular telephones. NEC will market the product as the INT 4000
Data Interface and Spectrum will also sell it under the trade
name AXCELL.

The AXCELL hardware is compatible with NEC's current full line of
portable handheld cellular phones, including the new P100 series
and the P400/600 and P200/300 versions of portable cellular
phones.

AT&T, Ericsson GE, Fujitsu Network Transmission Systems,  and
Audiovox all sell private label versions of Spectrum's AXCELL.
The new data interface will ship this fall and should have a list
price of around $400.

With the ever increasing use of cellular telephone technology it
is only natural that portable computer users will want to link
their fax and data capabilities to their cellular telephones so
they have full communications capabilities while on the road.

When outside the ability to link through a cellular phone means
that there is no need to carry a special, and not very dependable,
acoustic coupler system that allows linking to handsets in phone
booths. Business travelers sitting in hotel rooms may find
that it is actually less expensive to use the added-cost cellular
connection rather than pay the service charges some hotels levy
on people who place calls from their room phone.

(John McCormick/19930721/Press Contact: Don Kessler, Spectrum
Information Technologies, 516/627-8992 or Kathy L. Bachand,
investor relations, 800/233-2119, ext. 308)