Weekly Digest
Weekly Digest Issue No. 426
31-07-2008
by Sylvia Leatham
BT unveils 24Mbps broadband | O2 Ireland gains customers, loses revenue | Vodafone gets new chief and more shares | Cuil kid eyes Google gang | Microsoft reorganises as exec leaves | EMC creates Irish jobs | Carlow tops eBay.ie spending poll
BT Ireland unveils 24Mbps broadband
Telecoms and broadband provider BT Ireland has launched a product that it says can deliver "up to" 24Mbps broadband speed. The new ADSL2+ product, which will be available to around 330,000 homes and businesses, costs EUR42.50 (including VAT) per month for consumers or EUR40 (ex VAT) for businesses. Customers who signed up for BT's 8Mbps service, which was launched in January, will automatically be upgraded to 24Mbps. The high-speed service is available immediately in certain areas of Dublin, Kildare and Limerick, with plans to bring the service to parts of Cork, Wicklow and other areas of Dublin by the end of September 2008. There is "unlimited usage" for this new service, subject to terms and conditions and a fair usage policy, BT said. The move follows the recent launch of high-speed broadband products by Magnet, Digiweb and UPC.
O2 Ireland gains customers, loses revenue
O2 Ireland reported a decline of nearly 5 percent in revenues for the second quarter ending 30 June, despite adding an extra 25,000 customers to grow its overall base to 1.688 million. Average monthly revenue per user fell slightly to EUR43.20, mainly as a result of a drop from EUR75.50 to EUR73.80 for post-pay customers. The company, which is owned by Telefonica, claimed the decline was mainly down to "the extra value" customers were receiving from some of its plans. Interestingly, this was the same reason rival Vodafone gave for a drop in its blended ARPU numbers for Q2. (See below.) A big increase in SMS usage, up 33.6 percent to 540 million text messages, was a result of its "new value-led price plans", O2 said. However, data declined as a share of overall revenues from 26.8 percent to 25.8 percent. Chief Financial Officer Paul Whelan claimed that with more than 60,000 customers, O2 Broadband had helped to achieve "significant growth in non-SMS data revenues", along with the use of the iPhone. He believed O2 had performed well in a "highly competitive and difficult economic landscape".
Vodafone gets new chief and more shares
It's been a busy week for Vodafone, as the mobile giant installed a new chief executive and proposed a share buyback, after releasing a weaker-than-expected trading update. Incoming CEO Vittorio Colao marked his first day at the helm by vowing to make the mobile operator more efficient and to cater to clients' needs, possibly by adjusting prices or introducing "less fancy handsets" in some markets. On the same day, shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of the firm's proposed STG1 billion share buyback. Vodafone initiated the plan because, it said, its shares were "significantly" undervalued after they took a 14 percent hit the week before. The shares plunged after Vodafone scaled back its sales forecast for the year, warning of slowing revenue growth. Meanwhile, Vodafone Ireland released its key performance indicators, posting a 2.7 percent rise in overall customer numbers for the second quarter. The operator continued to see a decline in revenue-per-user figures, however, with blended ARPU decreasing 8.1 percent from Q2 2007 to EUR41.70 for the period. Vodafone said the drop was a result of the better value it was offering customers.
Cuil kid eyes Google gang
The search engine market got a little stirred up this week with the launch of purported 'Google killer' Cuil. The Silicon Valley start-up claims to have an index three times the size of its Goliath rival, at 120 billion web pages. The company, whose name is pronounced 'cool' and derives from the Gaelic word for knowledge, counts among its founders search veterans such as Louth man Tom Costello, who developed search engines at Stanford University and IBM, and his wife Anna Patterson, the architect of Google's largest search index, TeraGoogle. Cuil says it has devised technology that makes its index require a fraction of the storage and processing power used by Google's vast server farms. The new search engine also differs from Google in that it ranks pages by their content rather than their popularity. This aspect means the Cuilers may win brownie points from privacy advocates, as their engine does not track users' search habits. Three days after launch, it was reported that Cuil was already accounting for 1 in every 1,000 internet searches, according to Irish-based web traffic analyst firm StatCounter. Still, internet search guru Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of the blog SearchEngineLand, said that while Cuil was interesting, it would have a real challenge on its hands to change the entrenched search habits of users.
Microsoft reorganises as exec leaves
Microsoft continues to face turbulent times, with the announcement of a major reorganisation and the unexpected departure of the executive who led the company's failed bid for Yahoo. Microsoft veteran Kevin Johnson has quit the software group for a position as CEO of Juniper Networks. The Redmond behemoth has decided to rearrange Johnson's Platform and Services division, splitting it into two. One division will oversee the Windows operating system and related Windows Live online services, and the other will control online services. Meanwhile, at Microsoft's annual analyst meeting, CEO Steve Ballmer warned that the company would remain in "investment mode" until it could make a bigger foray into search and online advertising. "We're going to have to ante up in a significant way even to be in this game," Ballmer said. In one search-related move, Ballmer announced at the meeting that Microsoft had reached an agreement with Facebook to link up its internet search service with the social networking website. The deal gives Microsoft the exclusive right to offer web search and search ads to US Facebook users.
EMC creates Irish jobs
EMC confirmed last week it will create up to 50 new engineering positions at its campus in Ovens, Co Cork, and will invest EUR20 million in software R&D over the next five years. The investment will strengthen the company's ties to Cork, where it already employs 1,600 people, and is a win for Ireland's ongoing efforts to become and be seen as a knowledge economy. "Investment in Research Development & Innovation is at the centre of the Government's policy for economic growth and this is excellent news from a highly innovative company," said Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheal Martin, in a statement. He said that EMC continues to be a key reference site for IDA in its efforts to sell Ireland as an investment location for IT companies.
Carlow tops eBay.ie spending poll
Carlow residents spend more on eBay.ie than residents of any other Irish county, according to figures released by the online auction giant. eBay.ie's 2008 tally of purchases on eBay.ie by county -- which the shopping site has chosen to dub the "eBay.ie All Ireland 2008 championship" -- analyses purchases on the site during the year. The top spenders by county were Carlow, followed by Wicklow and Waterford. The analysis also revealed spending habits: Carlow residents bought more items in the categories of motorcycles, auto-parts and DVDs/films/TV than any other county; Wicklow bought the most gourmet food and antique items; and Offaly bought the most music and travel products of any county, although Offaly's total purchases were the lowest in Ireland overall. eBay.ie declined to reveal revenue figures.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 