IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 23 May
23-05-2007
by Sylvia Leatham
European Parliament expected to approve mobile roaming cap | Swisscom to cut jobs
The Irish Times reports that online retailer Buy4Now boosted its net profit by 33 percent in the 12 months to the end of March 2007, as noted by ENN on Tuesday.
The Irish Independent says that shares in CNG Travel soared as much as 65 percent in London on Tuesday as the market reacted to a STG9.15 million management buyout offer for the travel company. Read more on this story on ENN.
The paper also reports that the European Parliament is expected to vote on Wednesday in favour of a proposal to cap mobile roaming charges, cutting costs for travellers who use their phones abroad. A deal reached last week set the retail roaming cap at EUR0.49 per minute for making a call when abroad and EUR0.24 per minute for receiving one, plus VAT. The measure, which is also all but certain to be backed by EU ministers at a meeting next month, is opposed by mobile phone operators, who have likened it to a Communist-style planned economy regulation and have said it may increase the cost of local calls to make up for the loss of revenue from roaming.
The same paper says that social networking and blogging should become part of the second-level school curriculum, according to a third-level educationalist. Students need to know about all aspects of modern communications, including how to stay safe on the internet, said Dr James Greenslade, director of information, communications and technology at Tipperary Institute.
The Financial Times says that Google's ambition to maximise the personal information it holds on users is so great that the search engine envisages a day when it can tell people what jobs to take and how they might spend their days off. Eric Schmidt, Google chief executive, said gathering more personal data was a key way for Google to expand. Asked how Google might look in five years' time, Schmidt said: "We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalisation. The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as 'What shall I do tomorrow?' and 'What job shall I take?'"
The Wall Street Journal notes that Swisscom has said it will eliminate jobs and restructure its business to cut costs and meet customers' needs after its EUR3 billion takeover of Italian broadband operator Fastweb. Switzerland's dominant telecoms firm said it will arrange its business along customer segments, rather than technologies such as mobile or fixed-line networks, to better address the convergence of telecommunication technologies and customers' needs. The company said it plans to cut 3 percent to 5 percent of its Swiss workforce, or as many as 800 employees, annually -- in line with cuts made over the past several years.
The paper also says that China has confirmed it will back down from a campaign to require citizens to register their real names before they can start blogging, after sharp protests from industry players caused the government to rethink the policy. The government tried to require bloggers to register their true identities in order to curb, or at least reduce, the amount of pornography, anti-government views and other posts that officials deemed threatening to social order. A new announcement by the Internet Society of China, a government-affiliated think tank, said it will now advocate voluntary -- rather than mandatory -- real-name registration.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 