IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 11 December
11-12-2007
by Sylvia Leatham
Global tech spending growth to slow | Vodafone wins Qatar mobile licence
The Irish Times reports that the Government has agreed to back a bid to make Dublin the "European City of Science" in 2012, as noted by ENN on Monday.
The paper also notes that a Romanian couple involved in ATM card fraud has been given 21 days to leave the country or face three years imprisonment. A Garda sergeant said the couple electronically encoded Debenhams gift cards with details of bank cards "skimmed" at a restaurant where Constantina Stanciu worked under a false name and subsequently used the fraudulent cards to withdraw money from ATMs.
The Irish Independent says that Gardai investigating the murder of art gallery owner Sylvia Roche Kelly, who was found dead in a hotel bath in Limerick at the weekend, are investigating the theory she may have met her assailant on an internet dating site.
Separately, the paper says that people who arrange to meet strangers they have encountered on the internet have been urged to pay particular attention to their personal safety. The Rape Crisis Network of Ireland (RCNI) has urged people to implement common sense measures, especially when meeting a stranger. A spokeswoman urged people to take extra precautions, such as bringing a friend along with them on the first meeting.
The Financial Times reports that Texas Instruments indicated a stronger-than-expected end to the year for mobile handset makers as it raised the lower end of its revenue estimates for the fourth quarter. TI, which makes a range of chips for mobile phones, said it expected revenues of between USD3.5 billion and USD3.66 billion in the fourth quarter, compared to its earlier estimate of USD3.4 billion to USD3.68 billion.
The paper also reports that UK regulators look set to impose a stricter compensation regime on BT, under which it would have to automatically pay out to rivals that struggle to gain access to the telecom group's network. Ofcom, the telecoms watchdog, on Monday expressed concern at the performance of Openreach, the BT subsidiary that rents out capacity on the group's fixed-line network to rivals. Ofcom published a consultation paper setting out how it wants to improve Openreach's performance by requiring it to pay compensation to BT rivals when they encounter problems because of the subsidiary's shortcomings.
The same paper reports that Vodafone has won the right to become the second mobile phone operator in Qatar, one of the world's richest nations. A Vodafone-led consortium submitted the highest bid for the Qatar licence, seeing off interest from Verizon Communications of the US and Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates. Monday's licence win came as Vodafone predicted that its mobile businesses in emerging markets would contribute 33 percent to the group's adjusted earnings by 2011/2012, up from 22 percent in the first half of 2007/2008.
According to the Wall Street Journal, global technology spending growth, which had been reviving for the past few years, appears headed for a slowdown in 2008. In recent weeks, research firms such as IDC and Forrester Research have revised down their tech-spending growth forecasts for next year. The firms blame subprime-mortgage fears, the turmoil in the US financial sector and rising energy prices, among other factors, as reasons that chief information officers won't raise budgets much next year.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 