Communications and microwave technology: The communications giants vie for interconnect turf; fiber optics go on-line; teletext is tested

Communications continues to be a field where new trends are as much a creature of politics as technology. In recent months, giant corporations like AT&T, Xerox, IBM, and RCA have all announced extensive — and overlapping — plans to meet tomorrow's business communications and data processing needs. Official information about some of these plans is sketchy, and must be gleaned or inferred, for the moment, from lengthy petitions for rule-making submitted to the Federal Communications Commission. Of particular interest are documents describing AT&T's proposed Advanced Communications Service, RCA's plans for a third geostationary Satcom satellite, and Xerox's request to set up a nationwide broadband digital network to be called the Xerox Telecommunications Network.