GORE PUSHES FOR GLOBAL INFONET

Setting the stage for telecommunications talks at next week's G-7 meeting in Brussels, Vice President Al Gore unveiled the U.S. proposal for a global info superhighway. The long-awaited U.S. plan forsees a privately-funded, market-driven "Global Information Infrastructure" with uniform security and access policies. Gore will push for telecommunications reforms to permit competition among telephone and cable television companies and open the network to all firms and individuals, regardless of income. TIME technology editor Philip Elmer-Dewitt says it is ironic that Gore wants other nations to deregulate "before we've gotten our house in order." Internet expert David Farber, a University of Pennsylvania professor, told TIME Daily that a Congressional proposal to make network operators liable for illegal information such as pornography that is transmitted through their wires has made some foreign firms reluctant to get involved with U.S. networks.