TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Reform Bill Nears Completion: Conference chairman Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) and House leader Thomas J. Bliley (R-Va.) issued a joint letter saying they plan to resolve all “remaining outstanding issues” at a House-Senate conference committee meeting Tuesday. It will be only the second meeting of the conference committee, which is striving to produce a single telecommunications bill from differing House and Senate versions. The bill, rewriting the 1934 U.S. communications law, would allow regional phone companies to enter the $70-billion-a-year long-distance market and AT&T; Corp. and other long-distance companies to offer local phone and cable TV services. The measure is also likely to lift rate controls on all but the smallest cable TV companies about three years after it becomes law, staff members working on the bill say. And media companies will be able to control TV and radio stations reaching more U.S. homes.