SLOW ZONE ON THE I-HIGHWAY

The post-mortems for the recently deceased telecommunications deregulation bill indicate the convergence of the cable and phone industries will proceed, although at a slower pace. The legislation, S. 1822, would have allowed major players in the telecom and cable business to compete in each other's territories, and would have sped up the development of the i-highway. But Senator Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) was forced to pull the plug after Republican Robert Dole of Kansas broke a tenuous congressional consensus and came out against the bill. The legislation had significant goodies for consumers, says TIME Washington Correspondent Suneel Rattan. "They've tried deregulation in the U.K. and they've had lower prices and better and more kinds of services," says Rattan. Deregulation here seems inevitable, with several court decision pending on the issue. "It's just going to take longer," Rattan says.