IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 9 June
09-06-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Mobile roaming charges set to fall | BT strike looms larger
The Irish Times reports that hundreds of telephone and broadband users in County Clare were without service on Tuesday after "fairly significant" damage was caused to a new fibre-optic cable. Eircom said it was not possible to say when a full service would resume and that engineers were still assessing the situation. The company said the "fibre break" occurred on the outskirts of Ennis on Tuesday morning, but it was not just Eircom customers who were affected.
The Irish Examiner reports that the Health Insurance Authority has said its website, www.hia.ie, is the only place that has details of all the health plans available in the Irish market, including those normally only marketed to large group schemes. HIA chief executive Liam Sloyan said most consumers could save hundreds of euro without significantly reducing their cover by switching plans. "I think that there is a lot of competition in the market but not everybody is benefiting from it because there are many of these plans that people don't know about and, indeed, details of many of them are difficult to find on the insurers' websites," he said, noting that there are more than 200 health insurance products on the market.
The paper also says that four mobile operators have lost their case against a reduction in roaming charges at the European Court of Justice. Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile and Orange wanted legislation that forced them to slash mobile roaming charges by up to 70 percent overturned, claiming the Commission exceeded its power. The court ruled against them, but did find they were within their rights to insist on a gradual decrease in charges for roaming within the EU. Roaming costs are to be reduced on 1 July, to EUR0.39 for making a call when abroad and EUR0.15 for receiving a call, before VAT.
According to the Financial Times, Hynix Semiconductor's creditors plan to approach investors this month to sell a stake in the South Korean chipmaker. The creditors could offer loans to potential bidders after three previous attempts to find a strategic buyer failed. State-run Korea Finance, the chipmaker's largest shareholder with a 5.5 percent stake, said creditors aimed to sell their 20 percent share, worth about KRW3,120 billion (USD2.5 billion) by current market value, by the end of 2010. Korea Finance said that to help overcome financing concerns, creditors would offer a credit line to a buyer to reduce their investment burden.
The same paper notes that UK telco BT's hopes of avoiding a national strike shrank on Tuesday night after trade union leaders rejected an improved pay offer. The Communication Workers Union expressed disappointment at a sweetened pay offer and said it would proceed with plans for a strike ballot. Under the improved offer, BT stuck to a previous proposal for a 2 percent pay rise this year for blue-collar staff, but indicated a 3 percent increase for next year. The CWU has been seeking a 5 percent pay rise this year. Industrial action could happen within one month.
The paper also says that social networking sites are now more popular among UK internet users than search engines, a study has found. Experian Hitwise, which gathers browsing information from 8 million people in the UK, said social networks accounted for 11.88 percent of internet visits in May, overtaking search at 11.33 percent of visits. "Social content is growing at a very fast rate, much faster than search," said Robin Goad, research director at Hitwise UK. Hitwise counts YouTube as a social network in its study, but some analysts say it would be better classed as a search engine. Mobile web traffic was not included in the study.
The Wall Street Journal says that Microsoft plans to offer as much as USD1.25 billion in three-year convertible senior notes to qualified institutional investors. Before 15 March 2013, the notes would be convertible, only in certain circumstances, into cash and possibly cash and/or stock. After that date, the notes will be convertible at any time. Microsoft said it will use the proceeds to repay short-term debt.
The paper also reports that IBM is to open a research laboratory in Brazil. The lab, which will help IBM to develop technology systems around natural resource development and large-scale events, is IBM's ninth research lab and the first in South America. It's also the first new IBM research lab in 12 years.
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Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 