In The Papers 15 August

15-08-2008

by Sylvia Leatham

Eircom's new call charges under fire | EU reviews mobile roaming charges

The Irish Times reports that telecoms advisory firm MinuteBuyer claims that Eircom's introduction of call set-up charges will increase the cost of an average business phone call by 50 percent. MinuteBuyer says the average business call is of 2.19 minutes' duration. Before Eircom's introduction of a EUR0.0492 set-up charge on all calls, a local call of this length cost an Eircom customer EUR0.0935. From 1 September, when the new charges come into effect, the same call will cost EUR0.1427. "Eircom is, in effect, introducing a penal surcharge on businesses throughout the country," said Shaun Hayden, director of MinuteBuyer.

The paper also says that European regulators are ramping up pressure on mobile operators to change their billing practices, in a report that says customers are being overcharged when roaming. The minutes that mobile users are billed exceed the duration of calls they make outside their home country "by a significant margin", the European Regulators Group, which represents national telecommunications authorities, said in the report. By billing users on a per-minute basis, instead of the actual call duration, companies can charge about 24 percent more for calls made and 19 percent more for calls received. "These new figures[…] are a strong indication that the review of the roaming regulation also has to tackle the issue of per-second billing," said Martin Selmayr, a spokesman for the European Commission's telecommunications unit.

The paper also reports that a number of big internet companies have admitted using targeted-advertising technology without explicitly informing customers, according to letters released by the US House energy and commerce committee. Google said it has begun using internet tracking technology that enables it to more precisely follow web-surfing behaviour across affiliated sites, while Microsoft and Yahoo disclosed that they engage in some behavioural targeting. The revelations came in response to a government inquiry into how more than 30 internet companies might have gathered data to target customers. Some privacy advocates and politicians said the disclosures help build the case for an online-privacy law.

The paper also says that internet entrepreneur Eoin Costello has launched his latest venture, a web development service called Omniserve, months after selling his web hosting business, Novara. To date EUR150,000 has been invested in launching Omniserve, which claims to be able to build a website for a customer in 60 minutes, including getting it added to Google's search index. Omniserve aims to have 1,000 small businesses online in its first year of operation and to create 20 new jobs.

The same paper notes that software from Dublin-headquartered Havok is being used to develop Spore, a hotly anticipated computer game. Havok chief executive David O'Meara confirmed the firm's software is "a critical part" of the development of Spore by games publisher Electronic Arts.

The paper also says that Tesco's Irish stores could soon be stocking Dell laptops, under plans from the PC maker to expand its retail offering. Dell's chief marketing officer, Mark Jarvis, said the firm plans to partner with major supermarket chains in Ireland and internationally. Jarvis did not specify which Irish supermarkets the business was looking at but the firm already has links with Tesco's UK operation.

The paper also notes that the Moviestar.ie Irish Web Awards will be held in October. The awards, which aim to recognise community and standards on the web, are organised by Irish Blog Awards creator Damien Mulley.

The same paper notes that HP has shipped its millionth blade server, which it says solidifies its leadership in the fastest-growing segment of the computer server market.

The paper also says that Facebook is now the most popular social-networking website, according to research firm ComScore. Read more on this story on ENN.

The paper also notes that CityJet has created an in-house TV channel for its Irish staff, as reported by ENN.

In the ongoing screenscraping saga, the Irish Independent reports that Ryanair has vowed to continue cancelling bookings made through rival websites, despite the intervention of the National Consumer Agency (NCA), which wrote to the airline last week asking it to honour all such tickets. Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary confirmed it was now cancelling "between 400 and 450" tickets a day, and called on the NCA to join the airline in the battle against websites that unlawfully re-sell Ryanair's flights. "These are internet scam artists and no-one is doing anything about it," said O'Leary. A spokeswoman for the NCA said the agency still believes Ryanair's position is "grossly unfair" because it disadvantages passengers who bought tickets in good faith.

According to the Financial Times, the head of the company behind the Guitar Hero video game franchise has hit out at Warner Music after the label said higher royalties should be paid for use of its songs. In a sign of increasing tensions between the two companies, Robert Kotick, chief executive of Activision Blizzard, said Warner Music had failed to acknowledge the benefits to music sales from Guitar Hero. The game has sold close to 20 million units and generated USD1 billion in revenues but has also boosted sales of the artists it features. Warner Music chief executive Edgar Bronfman said last week that the amount being paid to the music industry from music-based games was "far too small".

The paper also says that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has reached a settlement with Apple's former top lawyer, in a sign the long-running options backdating scandal may be coming to an end. The US regulator said Nancy Heinen, one of two former top Apple executives accused of alleged improper manipulation of stock options grants, had agreed to pay USD2.2 million and accept a five-year ban on serving as an officer or director of a public company. Under the settlement, Heinen will neither admit nor deny wrongdoing.

The Wall Street Journal says that a small Indian construction company is demanding that Google disclose the name of a person who used its blogging service, in a case that could change the way the internet giant does business in India. Google's Indian subsidiary, Google India Private Ltd, is being sued in Bombay High Court by Gremach Infrastructure Equipments & Projects Ltd, for alleged defamation. Last September, Gremach bought a 75 percent stake in 11 coal-mining licences in Mozambique. This year, a blogger using the name "Toxic Writer" criticised the company on blogger.com, a site that allows individuals to create blogs without publicly revealing their identities.

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