NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 29 March
29-03-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Ireland Offline slams Eircom's 8Mb broadband | Dediserve secures EUR1m investment
Eircom's entry-level broadband products have been upgraded from 1Mb to "up to 8Mb". Existing customers on 1Mb, 3Mb and 7Mb will be upgraded for free. The company's so-called "next generation broadband" 8Mb consumer packages start at EUR24.99 including VAT, while business packages start at EUR20.65 ex VAT. Initially available in Dublin, the upgraded broadband packages will be rolled out to all major urban areas including Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford by the end of the year. Eircom also said it has dropped the price of excess usage charges from EUR10.24 per Gigabyte to EUR2 per Gigabyte. "To ensure no excessive broadband bills are received there will be a monthly bill limit for broadband usage of EUR50 per month," the company said in a statement. Details are at www.eircom.net/ngb.
Reacting to this news, Ireland Offline slammed Eircom's new broadband offer as "window dressing" resulting in a "200 percent increase" on the average user's bill. See the press release on IrelandOffline.org.
Recruitment website IrishJobs.ie's 2010 Salary Survey shows salaries for permanent IT roles are down, around 15 percent. Contractor pay rates are also down, around 27 percent. A chief technology officer who could command up EUR130,000 in 2008 can expect up to EUR120,000 in 2010. An engineering development manager's salary has dropped from EUR100,000 in 2008 to EUR85,000 in 2010. A technical writer/editor could earn up to EUR55,000 in 2008 but this dropped to EUR50,000 in 2009 and to EUR45,000 in 2010. See more results from the survey at IrishJobs.ie.
IT outsourcing is not just for large firms, according to Irish-owned managed services company Hibernia Evros Technology. Download the report, 'IT Outsourcing – Size Doesn't Matter. How SMEs Can Realise the True Power of Technology', from www.hetg.ie.
Ryanair is searching for a new in-flight phone service provider after OnAir terminated its contract after just over a year. Ryanair said it was pleased with the performance of the OnAir system and had notified OnAir of its wish to roll the service out across the entire Ryanair fleet. OnAir said it was unwilling to commit to this expansion at this time, however, and exercised its right to terminate the agreement at the end of the 13-month period. Ryanair will now invite other in-flight communications providers to tender for the contract.
The National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) and EBS Building Society have launched a financial education website, www.makingcents.ie. In a statement, the two organisations said the main aim of the site was to bring together all the financial literacy resources developed by NALA and EBS so that they are more easily accessible by the general public. The site is also accessible for people with literacy difficulties.
Irish virtual hosting provider Dediserve has secured a EUR1 million cash investment, which it says it will use this year for local and European acquisitions, opening sites in additional data centres and increasing staff numbers. The funding, which came from a private investment group, will be used to finance these plans as well as to market the company's virtual server products and further develop its software platform. Dediserve is planning to open up sites in data centres in the US, UK and Dublin in the second quarter of this year. Aidan McCarron, founder and managing director of Dediserve, is a former general manager of Register365.
Finally, TechCrunch reports that, according to sources, Facebook wants to add a 'Like' button to the entire web. The new feature will enable online publishers to add a Facebook 'Like' feature button to any piece of content on their site, thus allowing readers to share that piece of content with their Facebook contacts.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 