Daily Digest 10 September

10-09-2008

by Deirdre McArdle

Dublin gets major jobs boost | Mobile broadband figures soar

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), formerly known as Riverdeep, has announced it is to establish its global e-learning research and development centre in the greater Dublin area, creating 450 high-value jobs over the next five years. The global educational publishing firm is investing EUR350 million in the project. HMH has said the jobs could appeal to "seasoned technology professionals, engineering and technology graduates, highly creative thinkers and innovators in the e-learning space". The majority of the jobs will require third or fourth level qualifications as well as project management and operational skills. Enterprise Ireland has provided support for the development. "The e-learning industry is a key sector of focus for Enterprise Ireland. It has demonstrated significant growth and scale in Ireland with many of the leading Irish e-learning companies exporting to the UK, US and Asia accounting for exports of around EUR250 million per annum," said Frank Ryan, CEO of Enterprise Ireland. Tanaiste Mary Hanafin, who made the announcement, has said HMH's decision validates the Government's strategy of investing in the development of a knowledge economy.

Over 220,000 people are signed up for mobile broadband services, according to ComReg's latest quarterly report for the period up to the end of June 2008. Over the past year this represents a growth rate of just under 400 percent. Total broadband subscriptions came to 1,054,920, up 51 percent on last year's tally. DSL still accounts for the bulk of broadband subscribers at 611,594, with cable broadband subscriptions coming in at 91,462 and wireless at 120,301. ComReg has said that mobile broadband is fast becoming the driving force behind broadband growth in Ireland. During the quarter Eircom's broadband market share fell slightly to just under 40 percent of all retail broadband subscriptions. DSL provided by alternative operators using either bitstream or LLU also dropped slightly and now represents 18 percent of all broadband subscriptions. The remaining 42 percent share of subscriptions was held by operators on alternative broadband platforms such as cable, fixed wireless, fibre, satellite and mobile broadband.

Magnet Networks caused a bit of a stir on Tuesday with the launch of free PC TV and 'turbo boost' broadband services. The TV service, which is platform neutral, means consumers can watch full-screen TV on their computers. The initial free offering includes RTE1, RTE 2, TV3, TG4 and Bubble Hits with more channels planned on a subscription basis in the future, according to Mark Kellett, MD of Magnet Networks. Kellet explained to ENN that the service aims to show consumers just what can be done with broadband speeds of 10Mbps, or more. "With our uncontended 10Mbps a typical household could have four kids each watching TV on their PCs or laptops, while their parents browsed the net or downloaded the latest iPod update." The free TV offer is available in broadband packages, which also include a turbo boost option. Turbo boost will allow users with a 10Mbps connection to boost their speeds to the maximum line speed – in many cases this will be 24Mbps – for four hours. This service is free until 2009, when Magnet will begin charging per boost. While no charge has been set as yet, Kellett said it could be in the region of EUR0.99 per boost. Magnet Force 10 (10 Mbps) and Magnet Force Max (24 Mbps) are the two packages unveiled on Tuesday; they are available for EUR29.99 and EUR39.99, respectively. This price does not include line rental.

Independent directors at Andor Technology, a Belfast-based digital camera maker, have withdrawn their support for an offer from the firm's management team, Thorndale. Last week, following a better-than-expected trading update, the directors said they were reconsidering the offer of STG0.73 per share from Thorndale. They have now said they don't think the offer is "fair" or "reasonable". The directors have said they are continuing talks with Carraig Capital, a firm linked to Eugene Murtagh, founder of Kingspan. Carraig has offered STG0.76 per share for Andor.

Google has announced it is to archive newspaper headlines from around the world. The majority of newspapers store archives of past issues in vaults and on microfiche film rolls. Google said it plans to use its current print digitising tools to speed up the process of putting papers online. While the project will initially focus on major news headlines Google aims to have all newspaper content indexed alongside regular news content, which means users will be able to pull up archived newspaper articles alongside other Google news items.