McLeod USA announced plans to offer $450 million of its senior notes due 2009 and said it expected to meet or exceed market expectations for 4th quarter and year-end. Company will host conference call today (Jan. 4) to discuss offering and expectations.

AT&T announced Tues. it had secured $25 billion syndicated bank credit line to provide liquidity against comparable level of short-term borrowing. It said it had no current plans to borrow against facility that’s to serve “principally as a backup source of liquidity.” Company in Oct. had announced plan to arrange credit line when it revealed its restructuring project. AT&T said it had more than enough offers -- 39 banks were willing to lend total of $40 billion. The 364-day credit line was arranged by Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman, Sachs.

GlobalNet CEO Robert Donahue told shareholders Tues. he was concerned that company’s stock was so low and he didn’t know why. “Our company has a market capitalization of less than half our projected revenues for calendar year 2000” and there’s no reason for it, he said in letter to shareholders. GlobalNet’s revenues have risen to $54.4 million for 9 months ending Sept. 30 from $792,000 in 1997 and it projected continued increase to $441 million in 2002, he said. Company provides international voice, data and Internet services over IP network.

AT&T Broadband said Tues. it would increase cable rates average of 4.8% across nation this year, starting next month. AT&T said biggest portion of cable customers, 63%, would see 4.3% price increase on its main analog package, known as Standard Cable. Another 11% of subscribers whose channel lineups have expanded by 3 channels or more will see increases averaging 6.55%. Company said some of its systems will boost equipment and installation prices, starting in Feb. AT&T blamed rate boosts on its higher technical upgrade and customer service costs, citing 10% increase in programming fees, especially for sports programming. Consumers Union blasted move and called for reopening of Telecom Act to place new lid on cable rates or promote more competition. “It’s becoming more and more difficult to just accept the industry blaming programming costs every time it jacks up cable rates,” group said. “AT&T’s rate increase is the latest example of how the deregulation of cable television isn’t working.”

FCC was poised at our deadline to release proposed frequencies that carriers could use for new 3rd-generation (3G) services. Agency source said Commission already had approved notice of proposed rulemaking but hadn’t released it. White House had asked FCC to make proposal by end of year. Item is expected to look at several potential bands including 2 in 1700-MHz and 2400-MHz that NTIA also is looking at as part of President Clinton’s 3G initiative. Clinton urged FCC and NTIA to work with wireless industry to select frequencies as quickly as possible so U.S. wouldn’t lose its edge.

Ohio Gov. Bob Taft (R) appointed Cleveland transit executive Clarence Rogers to PUC seat of Craig Glazer, who resigned; if confirmed, Rogers’ terms would end in 2006… Changes at Global Crossing: Co-COO David Walsh promoted to COO and co-COO Gary Cohen named COO, Global Crossing Solutions; Wally Dawson, CEO, Atlantic Crossing, appointed exec. vp-Global Network; Wim Huisman, CEO, Europe, retires, Carl Grivner, COO, N. America, assumes his duties; James Demitrieus, ex-pres., IXnet, named COO, N. America. Promoted to exec. vps: Daniel Cohrs, CFO; James Gorton, gen. counsel; John Comparin, human resources; Joseph Perrone, finance… Stephen Knup, ex-Coopers & Lybrand, named pres.-COO, Superior TeleCom… John DuBois, ex-Redback Networks, appointed CEO, Nx Networks… Nextel’s Richard Lefave elected to Mi8 board.

FCC told Congress in report Tues. it wouldn’t make recommendations on specific measures to facilitate provision of local signals to subscribers in rural markets by direct-to-home (DTH) satellite and multichannel video programming operators because licensing process hadn’t been completed and it would be premature to make recommendations before licensing. Under requirement of Rural Local Broadcast Signal Act, Commission must inform Congress of ways its licensing and authorizations have helped provide local signals to satellite TV subscribers in remote areas.

Satellite Bcstg. & Communications Assn. (SBCA) finished 1999 $127,000 in red after donations dipped and expenses rose slightly, according to 1999 Form 990 tax returns. Total revenue was $5.1 million, down from $5.3 million in 1999, but expenses edged up to $5.3 million from $5.28 million. Membership dues dipped to $2.1 million from $2.2 million, but still were over $1.6 million in 1998. Revenue from annual convention was $1.87 million, Sky Trends $350,000, Sky Forum $325,000. Pres. Charles Hewitt received $422,311 in salary plus $50,000 in benefits.

CompTel said it was considering legislative campaign to urge structural separation on Bell companies in return for broadband LATA freedom. “This is not a wild-eyed theory,” CompTel Pres. Russell Frisby said at Tues. news briefing. Think of it as “return to the MFJ era,” he said, referring to Modified Final Judgment that laid ground rules for 1984 AT&T divestiture. Frisby said trade association hadn’t decided whether to recommend separation idea to Congress but idea would be to follow what Pa. PUC had required of Verizon -- separation of retail and wholesale operations. In return, Bells’ retail units would receive permission to offer data services across LATA lines without gaining Sec. 271 approval from FCC, Frisby said: “My sense is there are some people on the Hill who would be interested.”

FCC is considering proposed rulemaking that would regulate interactive TV (ITV) services carried by all cable operators, knowledgeable sources confirmed Tues. Proposed regulations would be likely to ban all cable systems offering interactive services from blocking ITV triggers from rival content providers, similar to ITV conditions that FTC recently imposed on AOL’s pending purchase of Time Warner (TW). But sources said FCC rules could go further than FTC merger conditions, prohibiting cable operators from favoring their own content by caching it on local servers or sending it at higher data speeds than content from unaffiliated providers. “I'm sure they're talking about all sorts of things,” said source who declined to be identified.