Convergence Watch

Sprint, Tele-Communications Inc., Comcast Corp. and Cox Cable are joining forces to offer consumers interactive cable television as well as local, long distance and wireless telephony. Teleport Communications Group, an alternative access carrier majority-owned by the three cable companies, will provide local access for long distance calls routed by Sprint. The partners will also bid jointly for PCS licenses.

- Teleport Communication Group, the nation's largest alternative access carrier, also plans to offer Chicago residents local phone service over cable giant TCI's lines using Motorola technology.

- Bell Atlantic, NYNEX, US West and Airtouch Communications, a Pacific Telesis cellular spin-off, will join forces to bid on personal communications services licenses to be auctioned off by the FCC in December. They plan on using the PCS licenses to create a wireless national voice and data network - a seamless one, of course.

Washington Technology's new column, Convergence Watch, provides a bi-monthly, brief update concerning activities within the telecommunications industry that may eventually lead to the convergence of long-distance, wireless and local telephone service providers, along with cable television and content authors, into the monolithic service providers of the future.