For the record 2 May

02-05-2007

by Maxim Kelly

Mixed reaction to National Broadband Scheme | Revolting users topple Digg temporarily

The Wall Street Journal reports US firm Cablevision has accepted a buyout offer from its founding Dolan family that will pay shareholders USD36.26 per share. The deal, worth about USD10.6 billion, comes after the cable provider's board rejected two prior offers from chairman Charles Dolan and his family as inadequate.

Chambers Ireland welcomed the launch of the tendering process for the National Broadband Scheme by Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey on Wednesday. The incoming chair of the Chambers Ireland Digital Policy Council, Claire Cunningham, said service providers should aim to exceed the minimum requirements set out in the scheme. "The modernisation of the rural exchanges will open up the digital marketplace to more businesses across Ireland and enable the development of sustainable local economies."

Broadband lobby group Ireland Offline also welcomed the National Broadband Scheme tender, pointing out that the new plan means "people will be able to pay a fair price for a fair service in areas that so far have not been able to get broadband". However chairman Damien Mulley had concerns about the geographic areas earmarked for the scheme. "Even in areas where a broadband provider operates, it does not mean everyone in the area can get broadband. Many factors such as poor line quality and split lines mean that even people within the 4.5km DSL threshold cannot get broadband. The Department [of Communications] also thinks that if a wireless operator is in your area then you can get broadband. This is far from the case and many people will testify to failing broadband tests due to trees, houses and hills being in the way." He added that tender's success also depends on Eircom enabling more of its exchanges for broadband.

Visitors of the popular news sharing website Digg revolted, flooding the service with traffic that temporarily disabled it, after Digg attempted to remove information about how computer users could strip copy protection from high-definition DVDs. According to CBCNews, the issue began after Digg -- in response to a cease-and-desist letter from the body overseeing digital rights technology on HD-DVDs -- began removing references on its site to an encryption key used to lock up HD-DVDs.

Motorola has won the North American Windows Embedded CE Partner Excellence award in the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) category. The award is for hardware companies that embed Microsoft systems in its products.