FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY

Although the 8th Circuit Court ruled last year that incumbent carriers were not required to do so, Bell Atlantic last week said it would recombine unbundled network elements for competitors for up to six years in New York state. The move is part of a plan Bell Atlantic officials hope will position the company to offer long-distance in that state by January 1999.

The plan, which has received conditional approval from the New York Public Service Commission, calls for the carrier to recombine UNEs for competitive local exchange carrier customers for up to six years in rural areas and up to four years in urban areas-except where at least two CLECs have collocated in Bell Atlantic central offices. For business customers, CLECs will pay an extra $6 in urban areas and an extra $2 in rural areas for rebundling. There will be no rebundling charge for residential customers.

Internet TV on the way The slow trickle leading to Internet/TV convergence could become a flood by the end of the year if announcements from last week's National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas are any indication.

Leading the charge could be heavyweights Microsoft and Intel, which agreed to align their Internet TV efforts. One of the first tangible results of the alliance will be Microsoft's support for Intel's Intercast streaming video technology in Web TV for Windows.

MediaOne launches telephony in L.A. Cable telephony, relegated to the technological scrap heap by many cable operators, will take another small step back to life this week when MediaOne announces plans to provide competitive residential telephone service in Los Angeles.

Building off its MediaOne Express cable modem service and using ADC Telecommunications' Homeworx platform, the company initially is targeting 35,000 homes in the Culver City, Calif., area. That territory will expand to 254,000 homes by year-end, said Barbara Hockert, vice president of telephony for MediaOne's western region.

Technology bridges Level 3 with CLEC Level 3 Communications last week agreed to acquire Xcom Technologies, a Cambridge, Mass.-based competitive local exchange carrier and software developer.

The stock-for-stock deal, pending regulatory approval, will exchange 2.6 million shares of Level 3 for all of Xcom's common stock. Based on recent Level 3 closing prices, the merger will be worth about $165 million.

Management platform goes deeper AT&T Solutions has added Web access features to its Global Enterprise Management System platform, which enables the carrier to monitor customer network components down to the LAN level.

The additions, which will provide remote Web access to the system's trouble ticketing, service report and network health report features, will make it easier for customers to view the condition of the networks monitored by this managed service.

Corsair picks up Subscriber Computing In a move complying with its strategy to add customers and product lines, Corsair will acquire Subscriber Computing Inc.

"It's an exciting growth opportunity into an adjacent product category," said Mary Ann Byrnes, president and CEO of Corsair.

Cabletron penetrates ATM networks Cabletron Systems' new management software solution provides single-platform management of multivendor asynchronous transfer mode networks.

Part of Cabletron's Spectrum product line, the Spectrum ATM Services Manager helps carriers meet service level agreements using a combination of administration, usage-based accounting and billing, quality-of-service prioritization and end-to-end connection management.

GTE focuses on the future Although GTE's recently announced restructuring will cause a dip in its 1998 earnings, the company is moving in the right direction, said several telecom analysts last week. The overhaul should not strongly affect the telecom industry on the whole but may provide a model for local carriers entering the long-distance market, they said.

GTE said it would generate $2 billion to $3 billion in cash for strategic initiatives by repositioning and selling "non-strategic" operations, and it plans to reduce annual costs by more than $500 million through employee reductions and improved efficiencies. This means several under-performing local operations will be sold, Airfone will be repositioned and, as a result of relocation and consolidation, 1500 positions will be eliminated.

Copper Mountain gets graphic Simplified remote monitoring of digital subscriber line access multiplexers is the goal of a new graphical management system from Copper Mountain Networks announced last week. The CopperView Element Management System is a group of services that allows DSL deployers to view, configure and monitor their central office DSLAMs from the desktop. The system also lets carriers supply symmetrical DSL at various speeds without hardware upgrades.

Through menu-driven software, CopperView EMS gives users a graphic, detailed view of the DSLAM as it looks in the CO. Operators can click on DSLAM icons and view ports, modules and circuits alone or in groups. The software allows operators to read performance statistics up to every two seconds and use the toolbar to configure systems, provision circuits and view traps and alarms. The system's CopperThrottle feature enables a carrier to upgrade a user to a higher DSL speed by clicking on a virtual sliding switch.

SDSL takes its turn in spotlight A pair of companies elbowed their way into the already crowded digital subscriber line market last week. American Multiplexer Corp. introduced DigiCop, a symmetrical DSL product aimed at residential consumers. WaiLAN Communications Inc. also announced an SDSL product line, but its Agate 250CO and 250CP modems are designed to replace current T-1 provisioning equipment transparently.

DigiCop is similar in features and pricing goals to splitterless DSL solutions and allows inbound and outbound calls during on-line sessions. American Multiplexer expects carriers to sell the service for about $30 a month.

Time Warner offers minority interest In an attempt to let shareholders value its disparate businesses more accurately, Time Warner last week filed registration papers to spin off a portion of its competitive local exchange carrier into a separate, publicly held company.

The move, which was made with partners U S West Media Group and Advance/Newhouse, will separate Time Warner Telecom Inc. from the company's core cable and entertainment businesses. A registration statement, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said Time Warner will spin off a "minority share" of the business.

Enter the long-distance FreeWay If the question for long-distance carriers is how low can you go in price, BroadPoint Communications says all the way to zero. Last week the Maryland-based carrier introduced FreeWay, a long-distance service that is free if callers listen to targeted advertisements.

The service is currently offered only in Pittsburgh.