Lai treated poorly in cancer article
Dear Editor:
I must say I am very concerned with your article entitled “Scientist faults claim on cell phones and memory loss.”
I understand you spoke to Henry Lai last week and you never did ask him about the information in Bill Guy’s letter to CTIA. Is your magazine Pro?
You should have let Henry have a right to reply to such an attack.
You know that any data which links damaging effects to mobile phones is always going to be vigorously attacked by the cellular industry. It also still goes to show that the WTR will always be under the direct control of the cellular industry if it has anything to do with Bill (Guy) or George (Carlo).
Bill actually phoned Henry last week and asked him to retract his statements regarding memory loss and Henry refused because he believes that this is not flawed and that any data showing effects will always be deemed so.
I would have thought from your organization you would have been professional enough to at least listen to what Henry has to say about this latest attack by the industry instead of just publishing it.
Joseph Pirzada
Director
Microshield Industries, Australia
AT&T still blocked from local market
Dear Editor:
Nineteen months ago the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 became law with the promise of opening the last remaining part of the telephone monopoly: local service. AT&T Corp. has promised to keep you updated on this important business and consumer issue, so I’m writing to let you know where things stand.
Quite frankly, AT&T isn’t where we had hoped to be by this time. For most consumers and businesses in
U S West Inc. territory, there is still no real choice for local telephone service. A few companies, including AT&T, offer local service in a few areas. We expected a steep climb to be able to offer local service, yet we underestimated the slipperiness of the slope. We have witnessed, firsthand, the power of an unwilling monopoly supplier, U S West, to frustrate competition.
Despite the challenges, AT&T remains committed to entering the local telephone service market. We’ve worked hard to reach network interconnection agreements with U S West, but while we went to the negotiations table, they went to court. We hired engineers, they hired lawyers. AT&T is not yet a “customer” in their vocabulary.
We will continue our efforts to pry open U S West’s monopoly, so that we can provide you with a local service choice with AT&T quality. Competition in the local telephone exchange-real, sustainable, broad-based choice-will bring competitive prices, innovative products and services and new technology to consumers. That’s what happened in the long distance and the telephone equipment markets when they became competitive. However, for local telephone service competition to develop, the states must stay the course set by the new federal law. We must finish the job. And AT&T is committed to doing our part.
Thomas C. Pelto
Law & Government Affairs Vice
President, AT&T
