In the Papers 1 October

01-10-2008

by Deirdre McArdle

Broadband is 'the key' to Ireland's economic future | Movie studios cry foul as RealDVD copy tool

The Irish Times reports that in the first week of its launch the barrier-free tolling system at Dublin's M50 failed to operate for about 20,000 vehicles a day. The failure rate has dropped since then, but still stands at about 10,000 vehicles a day, or 10 percent of all West-Link traffic. According to the Department of Transport, the failure rate results from the system failing to read tags or misreading them, failures in reading number plates and human error in matching photos of number plates with registered tag holders. A National Roads Authority spokesman told the paper: "We are eliminating the errors all the time."

The same paper says that US medical devices company Cook Medical is to invest EUR25 million in a manufacturing and services facility in Limerick that will create 200 jobs over the next five years, as reported by ENN.

According to the same paper Communications Minister Eamon Ryan has said broadband is the 'key' to Ireland's economic future. The minister made the comments at a public forum on next generation broadband which he convened at Dublin Castle on Tuesday. "This network we are going to build is our sales system to the rest of the world and is the guarantor of our economy for the next 50 years," the Minister told the forum.

The Irish Independent writes transport spokesman for Fine Gael, Fergus O'Dowd has called EU plans to roll out digital body scanners at Irish airports within two years "Orwellian". The millimetre wave imaging scanners are to be used to provide a "virtual strip search" of travellers under "defined conditions", a draft European Commission regulation states. The regulation, which would be binding on all EU countries, including Ireland, could be passed into law by the end of April 2010.

The paper also says that a network of child pornography websites has been shut down after an Irish internet user alerted the authorities to the abusive material. The net user's report to Hotline.ie resulted in the illegal images of children being traced to Australia. The authorities in Australia were contacted and the hosting site moved to stop access to the offending websites.

According to the same paper, a new hotline to tip off Gardai about drug dealing in the community was launched on Tuesday. The first phase of a nationwide rollout of the 'Dial to stop drug dealing' campaign will cover parts of Dublin and Kildare. It follows a pilot project run by the local drugs taskforce in Blanchardstown in west Dublin. Assistant Garda Commissioner Al McHugh said the freephone number 1800 220 220 was used to pass on vital information.

The paper also reports that Shannon Development is pressing ahead with expansions for its technology parks in Tipperary and Kerry. Work on a new 2230 sq m two-storey office building at Tipperary Technology Park in Thurles is scheduled to get under way before the end of the year. Planning permission has been secured. The state agency is also proceeding with a new high-tech building at Kerry Technology Park in Tralee.

The Examiner writes that the management bodies of all Irish primary schools came together on Tuesday to make a joint appeal to the Government for a substantial increase in funding for the sector in the 14 October Budget. The area of IT has been highlighted by the group as already suffering from a lack of proper facilities and equipment. It is estimated that the average funding requirement of each primary school in the country is between EUR25,000 and EUR30,000.

The Financial Times reports that shares in Apple fell nearly 20 percent on Monday to USD1.13. This represents the steepest drop in Apple share price since January this year. The paper suggests the drop was a result of concerns about the financial crisis spreading to the consumer technology sector.

The paper also reports that a group of 17 of the world's largest IT and telecommunications companies have put up USD1 billion to support a marketing campaign to promote Mobile Broadband as a "ready to run" service. The advertising budget is to be used online and offline during 2008 to turn the term Mobile Broadband into as well-known a brand as Intel's "Intel Inside" campaign from the 1990s.

The same paper reports that Sprint Nextel, the third-largest mobile player in the US, on Monday launched its next-generation 4G wireless broadband service in Baltimore, Maryland. Based on WiMax technology, the service's launch is the first stage in a nationwide rollout, aimed at delivering low-cost wireless broadband internet access at speeds in line with fixed cable and DSL lines.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook users will have the option to view free video from media giants like Time Warner, CBS and Comcast, following new distribution deals agreed with software maker Slide. Slide, which specialises in social networking software, is due to take a cut of advertisements on the back of its new Slide video service, dubbed "FunSpace Channels." Details of the revenue share were not revealed. Slide was founded in 2005 by Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal.

The paper also reports that Hollywood movie studios have asked a federal court in California for a restraining order to prevent RealNetworks from selling its RealDVD software, claiming the tool illegally bypasses copy-protection measures. RealNetworks, which filed its own suit on Tuesday against the studios, says its software is aimed at protecting consumers' "fair use rights" to make copies of DVDs they already own. RealNetworks began selling the utility on Tuesday for USD30, and says in its defence that the software doesn't break the copy-protection system, but duplicates it, along with the rest of the DVD's content, onto the user's own computer.

The same paper says that US telecoms powerhouse AT&T has reorganised its management team and organised the enterprise into four new divisions: consumer, business, infrastructure and diversified businesses. Ralph de la Vega, current head of the wireless division, has been named to oversee all consumer operations at the company. The moves are being seen as a way to help AT&T better compete against rival Verizon; both firms are striving to bring television, broadband and mobile services closer together for customers, and offer compelling content across "three screens."