IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 28 July
28-07-2009
by Sylvia Leatham
Verizon cuts jobs | Ofcom braced for broadband backlash
The Irish Independent reports that the State Examinations Commission (SEC) may consider using the internet to deliver Leaving and Junior Cert papers to 4,000 exam centres. The SEC stressed that no decision had been made yet, but that an urgent review is planned for new ways to ensure the secure and timely delivery of examination papers to 800 exam centres around the country. The National Council for Technology in Education warned that using the internet for exam paper delivery would cause serious problems of logistics and confidentiality.
The paper also says that Colt Telecom posted a 3.6 percent decline in revenue in the second quarter, as reported by ENN.
The same paper notes that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has stopped using social network Facebook after being deluged by friend requests. The billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft chairman said managing his profile had become "way too much trouble". "I had 10,000 people wanting to be my friends," he told the audience at a conference in India. Gates also cautioned that despite the many benefits of the digital revolution, some technology could waste people's time if they weren't careful.
The paper also says that Kevin Heinz and Jill Peterson, a wedding couple filmed dancing down the aisle, have become an internet sensation after the video received 7 million YouTube hits. The video clip, posted a week ago, shows the pair dancing towards the altar, preceded by their ushers, bridesmaids and groomsmen. The YouTube clip can be viewed here.
The Wall Street Journal reports that US telco Verizon Communications saw a 21 percent decline in quarterly profit and said it would cut another 8,000 jobs. Verizon said the new job cuts, which include employees and contractors, will be focused on its landline division, where revenue fell 5.2 percent in the quarter. Overall, Verizon posted a profit of USD1.48 billion, or USD0.52 a share, for the second quarter, down from USD1.88 billion, or USD0.66 a share, a year earlier. Verizon has already cut 8,000 jobs over the past 12 months.
The paper also reports that Canon has said the sharp drop in consumer demand for electronic products sliced nearly nine-tenths off its net profit in the second quarter. The Japanese firm said net profit for the second quarter came in at JPY15.6 billion (USD164 million), down 86 percent from JPY107.8 billion in the year-earlier period. That figure was well below the JPY26.7 billion consensus estimate of analysts. Revenue fell 28 percent to JPY793.8 billion from JPY1.11 trillion a year earlier. Canon left its forecast for net profit for the year unchanged at JPY110 billion, nearly two-thirds below the JPY309.1 billion net profit it recorded for the year ended December 2008.
According to the Financial Times, Japanese electrical conglomerate Hitachi posted a first quarter net loss of JPY82.7 billion and said it saw only limited economic improvements. Hitachi said that first quarter sales were down by 25.6 percent on the year-ago period at JPY1,892 billion, and 22 percent down on the previous quarter, although that was due to seasonal factors. "The first quarter in the world economy saw progress in inventory adjustments, especially in electronic devices and components, but extremely low levels of consumption and production meant that the severe conditions continued," the company said.
The paper also says that the UK telecoms regulator is bracing itself for a backlash from broadband providers. On Tuesday, Ofcom releases the first comprehensive survey of actual broadband speeds supplied by Britain's nine leading internet service providers. Ofcom found AOL and Tiscali -- both owned by Carphone Warehouse -- were supplying the slowest broadband download speeds to consumers who had purchased packages billed as "up to" 8 megabits per second. Questions were also raised about the performance of BT and Orange.
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