ROUNDUPS
For the record 30 April
30-04-2002
by Ralph Averbuch
Skynet gains telecoms licence to offer services in Ireland | WorldCom shares rise after CEO steps down
O2 Ireland has introduced a flat roaming tariff of EUR0.59 per minute from Tuesday. The tariff will apply to all inbound and outbound calls to fixed line and mobile numbers while roaming on the O2 network in the UK. The company said calls will be charged on a per-second basis, with no rounding up to full minutes.
According to a Performix Technologies study lack of long-term career options is the most common cause of staff churn within the contact centre industry. The survey of more than 800 contact centre managers throughout Ireland and the UK goes against the view that agents leave the industry due to either high levels of stress or poor pay. The research also found that the most effective strategies for retaining staff involved setting clear objectives, introducing a well-structured career path and encouraging diversity within roles.
Skynet said on Tuesday that it had received its telecommunications licence from the ODTR (Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation), allowing the company to offer voice, data and wireless connectivity services in Ireland. Until Tuesday the company operated as a reseller in the Irish market. On Skynet's best tariff, requiring large call volumes, local calls are EUR0.026 per minute, national calls are EUR0.029 per minute and mobile calls are EUR0.197 per minute.
A new Web site Whole World at Work has launched, claiming to help companies with "cultural diversity in their workplace." Aimed at helping integrate foreign nationals in the Irish workplace, the site looks to help employers understand the working life in that employee's home country, and in other countries competing for their skills.
According to Rococo Software the Bluetooth market in Asia is about to take off. Rococo made the claim after returning from meetings with key companies in Japan. The company's CEO, Sean O'Sullivan, said he had met with over 10 Japanese companies, "all of whom are seriously committed to implementing Bluetooth." Japan's lead in getting the technology to market is due to the high penetration of mobile data services in the country, making it a good market for early adopters of local services using Bluetooth wireless technologies.
Shares in WorldCom rose on Tuesday following the news that the company's chief executive and president Bernard Ebbers stepped down. The management changes at the troubled telco will see John Sidgmore, previously vice chairman of WorldCom, assuming the role of president and CEO effective immediately. Bert Roberts remains the company's chairman of the board. Ebbers' departure follows an SEC investigation into the company that focussed in part on large loans that WorldCom had made to Ebbers. WorldCom shares were trading up more than 12 percent in afternoon trading in New York
The Irish wireless software company WASP Technologies has introduced two new products, WASP FMA and WASP ATR, designed for the field marketing and asset tracking industries respectively and both aiming to cut down on company paperwork. The company said the field marketing application gives field staff fast access to updated, critical marketing information, while the second application helps companies better track valuable assets such as IT hardware. WASP said its solutions are tested over PSTN, GSM and GPRS networks.
Dublin-based Zamano said on Thuesday that it has been nominated for an Annual Global Mobile Award in the Best Mobile Internet Application category. The company was chosen for TxT Manager, a group messaging application currently live with O2 (formerly Digifone) in Ireland. The winners of the awards will be announced on 21 May at the 3G 2002 event in Amsterdam. The application lets customers create, organise and manage contacts and groups and send just one text message to all members of a group, Zamano said.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 