In the papers 20 March
20-03-2008
by Sylvia Leatham

Government's ICT in schools plan is inadequate, says report | Tech markets in decline

The Irish Times reports that the Government's EUR252 million plan for computers in schools is insufficient and will leave Irish schools lagging behind their EU counterparts, according to a confidential report commissioned by Minister for Education Mary Hanafin. A draft of the report questions whether the money to be invested under the National Development Plan will be enough to close the gap on other countries. While this will enable schools to update existing facilities, the report says "We suggest that this sum is inadequate to fund progress beyond the merely functional levels of ICT. Further investment will be required to bring our schools to an EU average level."

The same paper notes that IBM has chosen Dublin as the location for what it claims is the first cloud computing centre in Europe. Read the full story on ENN.

The paper also says that positive sentiment in European stock markets following the cut in US interest rates didn't last for long on Wednesday, as rumours of funding problems at major financial institutions prompted sellers to come back into the market. Tension on the Dublin stock market remained high, with the fallout from the financial sector's credit chaos exacerbated by a profit warning from UK airline Easyjet, which sent Ryanair's share price tumbling 8 percent. The Iseq index of Irish shares closed down 1 percent.

The Financial Times reports that Deutsche Telekom has reaffirmed its 2008 core profit forecast, after investors were spooked by the release of performance guidance for its troubled fixed-line phone business. Shares in the German telecoms firm plummeted 13 percent to EUR9.92 in morning trading on Wednesday, taking them to a five-year low. The stock rallied after industry analysts sent notes to clients questioning the logic of such a ferocious correction, but the shares still closed almost 7 percent lower at EUR10.57.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that the tech-heavy Nasdaq market plunged on Wednesday as investors cashed in on gains from the previous session's dramatic run-up. The Nasdaq shed 58.30 points, or 2.6 percent, to close at 2209.96. Enthusiasm for the Federal Reserve's latest 75-basis point interest rate cut had driven the Nasdaq up 4.2 percent in the previous session, its largest point gain in almost six years. Morgan Stanley's high-tech index fell 15.58 points to 513.33 and the Nasdaq 100 Index of non-financial stocks shed 45.46 points to 1715.59.

The paper also says a US federal appeals court has turned down Qualcomm's request to hold off the imposition of an injunction against sales of some of the company's mobile phone chips, while Qualcomm pursues an appeal of a patent suit won by rival Broadcom. Without providing details, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that Qualcomm had not met its burden of proof to win a stay pending appeal of the injunction, which was ordered by a federal judge on 31 December. The appeals court also denied a motion for Sprint Nextel to intervene in the case. The company is among the mobile operators potentially affected by the injunction.

The paper also notes that Silicon Valley entrepreneur Rod Beckstrom has been chosen to run the new National Cyber Security Center, a key component of a secretive government effort to secure vulnerable government and private computer networks, according to sources. Created by a classified presidential order in January, the centre will be housed at the Department of Homeland Security and Beckstrom will report directly to Secretary Michael Chertoff, the sources said.