A regularly updated column of IT related briefs.
Batelco to lower Bahrain broadband rates
MANAMA - Bahrain's Batelco has said it would slash its broadband rates for business customers nearly in half at the first of this year. The company said in a statement late December that the move, "entails reductions of up to 43 percent on Broadband Business Packages while Broadband Business usage rates have been slashed by an impressive 50 percent". In addition, Batelco planned to launch a broadband service tailored for small businesses with a single computer user.
China's mobile subscribers skyrocket
BEIJING - The number of mobile phone subscribers in China reached 388 million by the end of November, state media said on December, as usage continued to grow in the largest mobile phone market in the world. That means some 29 percent, or nearly one-third, of China's 1.3 billion population are using a mobile phone. The number of new mobile phone subscribers in China has been growing by an average 4.84 million per month during the first 11 months.
Samung eyes NAND flash chip deal with Sony
SEOUL - The world's largest memory chip maker Samsung Electronics said on December 26 it is considering supplying NAND flash chips to Japan's Sony and other global electronics firms. Global demand is growing for such chips, which are widely used in music players, digital cameras and mobile phones because they can retain data even after power is switched off. Samsung, which supplies more than half the world's NAND flash chips, is battling Japanese and US rivals in the competitive and fast growing global market.
EU watchdog clears Oracle-Siebel Systems merger
BRUSSELS - The EU's competition watchdog approved on December 22 the buyout of Siebel Systems by business software giant Oracle, removing the last legal obstacle to their merger. The European Commission said that it had studied the operation and found no reason to conclude that the $5.85-billion merger would impede "effective competition" in Europe or any substantial part of it. The two companies said last month that they had received the green light from the US Department of Justice for their alliance, a bid by Oracle to gain an edge in its rivalry with Germany's SAP.
The deal would give Oracle, the world's second-largest software group after Microsoft but behind SAP in business management applications, a strong base in an area of software known as customer-relationship management. It would also bring Oracle a step closer to SAP in the field of enterprise software, which covers accounting, inventory management and customer management.
EU threatens Microsoft with daily fine
BRUSSELS - A standoff between the EU antitrust watchdog and Microsoft heated up on December 22 when the European Commission threatened to slap a daily fine of up to €2 million ($2.4 million) on the US software giant for failing to comply with a ruling. The European Union's executive, which polices cross-border competition issues in the EU, had given Microsoft until December 15 to disclose key information that would allow interoperability with some of its software "on reasonable terms". It said that the software giant would now have five weeks to implement the measures if it wished to avoid the fine.
"I have given Microsoft every opportunity to comply with its obligations," said competition commissioner Neelie Kroes in a statement. "However, I have been left with no alternative other than to proceed via the formal route to ensure Microsoft's compliance," she added. The EU competition watchdog has called on Microsoft to market a version of its Windows operating system without bundling it to its software Media Player and to divulge information about its operating system needed by manufacturers of competing products. Although Microsoft insists that it is cooperating, the dispute continues to drag on.
KDDI, Qualcomm team up on mobile phones
TOKYO - KDDI, Japan's second-largest telecommunications firm, said on December 22 that it will team up with US wireless company Qualcomm with the aim of launching a television broadcast service in Japan for mobile phones. The joint venture will be established on December 27. KDDI will hold an 80 percent stake with the balance owned by the Japanese unit of Qualcomm.
MTN group may seek Egypt mobile license
CAIRO - A consortium led by South Africa's MTN Group may seek a license to begin mobile-phone operations in Egypt. Egyptian media reported on December 21 night that the group was considering a formal bid for what would be the third mobile license to be issued by Egyptian authorities. MTN is one of Africa's largest mobile telecom operators with operations all over the continent as well as in Iran.
Hitler paintings sold on Austrian eBay
VIENNA - Original watercolor paintings by Adolf Hitler are going for a few thousand euros (dollars) on the Austrian page of the auction Website eBay, press reports said on December 21. A painting titled Muenchen, (Munich) bearing the signature of the former Nazi dictator and described by the seller as a "rarity", was put up for auction on December 19 at an asking price of €2,100 ($2,495) on eBay.at. Another watercolor by Hitler, titled Bad Gastein, received at least 25 bids before selling for more than €4,500 on December 20, according to the daily Der Standard.
Austrian-born Hitler famously had ambitions to become an artist and was turned down by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, before leading the Nazi Party to power in Germany in 1933. His production of paintings and sketches was prolific but experts see little artistic merit in them and major auction-houses shy away from them because of their author's bloodstained career.
18 Websites illegally selling Tamiflu
LONDON - A total of 18 Websites across the world have been identified as illegal sellers of products claiming to be the sought-after anti-flu drug Tamiflu, a British government health agency spokesman said on December 21. Seven of those Websites were based in the United States, three of them were in Britain and two were in Canada, according to a spokesman for the Medicines and Healthcare products Agency (MHRA).
Tamiflu, made by Swiss company Roche Pharmaceuticals, is considered the most effective treatment available to counter the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed almost 70 people in Asia since 2003. Health watchdogs fear that soaring demand for Tamiflu will prompt people worried by bird flu to attempt to buy it online - a practice fraught with risks for purchasers.
Company 'allowed' terrorists to hack mobiles
YORK, Ontario - Terror groups have "cloned" mobile phones of Canada's Rogers Wireless executives and subscribers to make thousands of overseas calls, a law professor has charged. Following a month-long trip to Israel by Osgoode Hall Law School professor Susan Drummond, Rogers Wireless billed her $12,237.60. The calls charged to her phone were to countries abroad including Pakistan, Libya, Syria, India and Russia, the Globe and Mail reported.
Rogers Wireless insisted that Drummond had to foot the entire bill. Drummond subsequently determined that the phones of senior Rogers executives were repeatedly "cloned" by terrorist groups, including some linked to Hizbullah, that made thousands of overseas calls, and that the company knew it. Drummond is taking Rogers Wireless to court, alleging that the company can easily spot a fraud-in-progress, yet "lets the meter run" to avoid potential bad publicity and inconvenience.
Users shout down eBay idea of selling pets online
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA - Howls of thousands of online users caused eBay to back off the idea of allowing pets to be sold on the major US Internet auction Website, a company spokesman confirmed on December 20. "The feedback we got was immediate and pretty clear: absolutely not," said eBay spokesman Hani Durzy.
EBay floated the notion on its online discussion boards on December 16 and received thousands of replies during the weekend. People feared that changing eBay policy to allow sales of creatures other than fish and snails would invite abusive animal breeders such as "puppy farms" into the pack of online buyers and sellers at the site, according to eBay. EBay then proposed limiting online pet postings to animal shelters, but users argued that it would be too difficult to cull the illegal breeders from legitimate shelters. EBay scuttled the pet-peddling proposal on December 19.
Thirteen percent of Serbians use Internet
BELGRADE - Some 13 percent of Serbia's population of 7.6 million regularly uses the Internet, although half of its households have a personal computer, a survey presented on December 20 showed. The joint survey by Serbian Telecom and nongovernmental group Center For Free Elections found that the estimated number of Internet users - less than 1 million people - is twice as high as in the previous 2001 survey. According to the data compiled from 3,120 people, some 52 percent of Internet users in Serbia were younger than 25, while only 4 percent of those aged over 50 browsed the Web.
US online sales up for holiday season
WASHINGTON - US online retail sales showed strong gains for the 2005 holiday season, according to two surveys released as the period for Internet purchases drew to a close. Shoppers spent $18.6 billion through December 9, up 16 percent from the same period in 2004, according to a survey of 1,000 shoppers by Goldman Sachs with Nielsen/NetRatings and Harris Interactive. A separate survey released on December 18 by comScore Networks showed a 23 percent gain in the period through December 16, to $15.86 billion. ComScore said that the survey suggests that overall online spending for the holiday season will top $19 billion.
"Apparel and consumer electronics are consistently among the most popular gifts purchased during the holidays, resulting in the largest share of online revenue," said Heather Dougherty, senior retail analyst, Nielsen/NetRatings. "Additionally, sales in the computer hardware category have been fueled by aggressive discounting on items, such as PCs and laptops."
Wikipedia plans to stem 'abuse'
LONDON - Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, is to introduce a fixed version to counter potential abuse of its live content, founder Jimmy Wales told the Financial Times on December 19. "What we are doing in the long run is pursuing a model of having stable versions and live versions," Wales told the British business daily. "The stable version will have been reviewed so we can say we have some confidence in that; it would be an integrated part of the Website."
For Wikipedia's detractors, the fact that anyone can change the information renders it unreliable. Wikipedia came under criticism when a spoof biography was posted on its site this year purporting to be that of John Siegenthaler, a retired journalist who was an aide in the 1960s to attorney general Robert Kennedy. The joke entry said: "For a brief time, he was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both John, and his brother, Bobby. Nothing was ever proven." Founded in 2001, Wikipedia is an "open source" of information that asks its users to write, edit and update entries.
India's Wipro acquires Austria's NewLogic
BANGALORE, India - India's third largest software exporter Wipro Ltd. said on December 19 that it had acquired an Austria-based semiconductor design services firm in an all-cash deal worth $56 million. Ramesh Emani, president of product engineering solutions at Wipro Technologies, the company's global business arm, said that Austria's NewLogic had become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wipro. "Wipro gains about 150 specialists through the acquisition, a foothold into the European markets and over 20 clients of NewLogic," Emani told reporters in Bangalore. Wipro has 40 global software development centers in 35 nations.
Global telecom growth expected 2006
NEW YORK, NY, USA - Worldwide telecom-industry growth is expected in 2006, a new industry study reported on December 16. Global telecommunications industry revenue will reach $1.2 trillion by the close of 2006, with continued strong growth in wireless communications leading the way, said a new market analysis report from Insight Research.
According to the study, wireless revenue will approach almost 49 percent of all telecommunications services revenue by the close of 2006 and will grow to 55.6 percent of all telecommunications industry revenue by 2010. By the beginning of 2006 more than 1.8 billion subscribers worldwide will be depending on mobile wireless telephones. Also, the study said that worldwide telecommunications services revenue is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 5.9 percent from 2005 through 2010, which reflects the level of sustainable growth enjoyed by the telecom segment prior to the technology bubble of the late 1990s.
Q3 world broadband up 10 percent
DUBLIN, Ireland - World broadband growth in the third quarter reached nearly 10 percent, a new marketing report said this week. The Irish analysis firm Research and Markets pegged the number of broadband subscribers worldwide at nearly 188 million, up about 15.6 million from the second quarter. The highest nominal growth rates in subscribers came in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, where some 5.5 million new users signed up in each region. The Americas and the Middle East-Africa region posted lesser increases. Europe showed the lowest relative quarterly gain.
Vietnam 'detaining' three Internet users
HANOI - Three Internet users in southern Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City were arrested in October, according to global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RWB). Truong Quoc Tuan, the mother of one of the detainees said that the three were accused of inciting the population to "overthrow the government", citing an official document. Other unnamed sources told RWB that the real reason for their arrest was their participation in a chat room about democracy on the Pal Talk (paltalk.com) Website. A police spokesman in the city's Phu Nhan district, where the three live, said on December 19 that he had not heard about the detention. The foreign ministry was not immediately available for comment.
Earlier this year the Paris-based organization condemned a government directive aimed at stepping up surveillance of Internet use, saying that the owners of Vietnam's 5,000 cybercafes would be turned into police auxiliaries. A government official had said that the directive was intended to check "reactionary and hostile forces" from abusing the Internet.
British Internet café group bans baseball caps
LONDON - Baseball caps are being banned in easyGroup's British Internet cafes due to their association with "deviant behavior", the group told a December 18 newspaper. The easyInternetcafe chain, owned by easyJet airline founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, said that they made regular customers feel uncomfortable, The Sunday Times reported.
The weekly said that despite being popular among celebrities, "baseball caps have become part of the uniform of so-called 'chavs', working-class youths often associated with anti-social behavior". James Rothnie, easyGroup director of corporate affairs said that, "Since deviant behavior can be associated with the wearing of baseball caps, we are politely asking those people who enter our premises not to wear caps," adding, "This policy is designed to combat anti-social behavior such as theft."
Softbank, Yahoo Japan launch Web movie venture
TOKYO - Japanese Internet group Softbank and Yahoo Japan said on December 19 that they had set up a Web portal to broadcast movies and television shows, aiming to link up content providers to broadband service customers. TV Bank will begin with 100,000 motion pictures - including movies, television programs and news broadcasts - that can be downloaded by subscribers. The service relies on Japan's advanced Internet infrastructure including prevalent broadband access. The joint venture starts with capital of about 1.51 billion yen ($13 million). Softbank holds 60 percent and Yahoo the rest in the new venture.
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