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17
July 2009 |
African countries could boost their economies by increasing high-speed Internet access and affordability, according to a report by the World Bank.
For every 10 percentage-points of increase in high speed Internet connection, the authors found that economic growth rises 1.3 percentage points.
"In this report there's a lot of evidence that where you have broadband, you have innovation, you have lower transaction costs, and you have higher trade and exports," said the report's editor Christine Qiang.
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15
July 2009 |
Three Eastern and Southern African countries are to receive more than US$150 million from the World Bank for the third phase of a Regional Communication Infrastructure program.
The bank's executive board of directors has approved an International Development Association (IDA) credit to extend access to affordable communications services in Mozambique, Tanzania and Malawi, which never benefited from the first and the second phases of the program. The IDA is a financing arm of the World Bank, responsible f... |
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15
July 2009 |
Ireland's largest internet service provider Eircom is blaming hackers for its second bout of recent downtime.
Eircom customers could not get online for much of yesterday evening, although the firm said full access was restored from 11.15pm.
Just the week before many Eircom subscribers were sent to the wrong websites thanks to problems with domain name servers.
Yesterday's problems were due to unusually heavy traffic, which sounds like a DDoS attack to us.
The company told us the problems were "r... |
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15
July 2009 |
Businesses downloaded more than twice as much data over their broadband connections in December 2008 than for the same month in the previous year, according to analyst Paul Budde.
The annual ‘Australia broadband market overview and statistics' report found business broadband usage increased from six million gigabytes downloaded in December 2007 to over fifteen million gigabytes downloaded in December 2008.
Over the same period household usage grew by 24 per cent to 66 million gigabytes.
Budde attri... |
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15
July 2009 |
The mobile broadband provider Vodafone has been installing the latest advanced technology in Greece.
The high speed packet access (HSPA+) has an estimated top speed of 21.6 Mbps for downloads and 5.7 Mbps for uploads.
This is as huge difference to the UK where, according to broadband communications firm Epitiro, the average mobile broadband speed is just 1 Mbps.
The new service will only serve certain parts of Athens.
However, it is expected to spread out as the company continues its planned exp... |
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15
July 2009 |
U.K. cable operator Virgin Media Inc. is celebrating the near completion of its Docsis 3.0 deployment with a triple-whammy of announcements: It's chopping prices for its new 50-Mbit/s wideband service; offering a free Virgin-branded netbook computer to customers who take certain bundles; and kicking off tests of faster upstream capabilities.
Starting Sept. 1, Virgin will reduce the cost of its 50-Mbit/s (downstream) service to £28 per month, when bundled with a phone line, or £38 per month when purchased... |
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14
July 2009 |
MXit’s registered international user base has passed the 14 million mark and is set to soar even further as the mobile social networking and instant messaging giant consolidates its expansion in various markets across the globe.
Herman Heunis, founder and CEO of MXit says “MXit operates in an extremely dynamic market that sets innovation at the very core of its business. We believe that growth and continued success pivots upon the ability to read our users, anticipate global trends and understand exactly... |
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14
July 2009 |
THE East African Marine Systems Cable (TEAMS) secretariat has refuted claims that the cable landing ceremony in Mombasa presided over by President Mwai Kibaki was a hoax.
Safaricom’s CEO, Michael Joseph, who is also the Chairman of the TEAMS board of directors said the physical laying of the cable between Mombasa and Fujairah is complete.
Joseph said the function attended by President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga in Mombasa on June 12th 2009 was the shore end landing of the cable which is th... |
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7
July 2009 |
Internet and some phone service was cut off in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province, after members of the Uighur minority group clashed with Han Chinese in the city on Sunday.
The rioting, officially the most deadly violence in China in decades, gave release to simmering tension between the culturally distinct ethnic groups and to Uighur discontent with Chinese rule.
Over 1,000 people were injured, and China has arrested more than 1,400 people suspected of involvement, according to the official Xi... |
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7
July 2009 |
An undersea telecommunications cable linking Kenya with 21 nations was expected to be operational by next July, said Chris Wood, the chief executive of the West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC).
The $260 million (R2.1 billion) East Africa Submarine Cable System will be the third fibreoptic cable connecting the country to the outside world.
The link, with the capacity to carry 1.4 terabytes of data a second, might slash prices by as much as 80 percent and make connection speeds as much as five times... |
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7
July 2009 |
Demand for high bandwidth broadband will drive the number of worldwide households with the high-speed technology to more than 640 million by 2013, according to a report released Tuesday by Parks Associates.
The analyst firm said that the number of broadband households worldwide grew by over 18% in 2008 to exceed 400 million.
The Asia-Pacific market will pace global broadband deployment, the market research firm said, adding that the region will account for more than 49% of the worldwide total market s... |
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6
July 2009 |
Leave BT Broadband without applying for a Mac code and transferring to another provider and you will now be charged £25 – that's the finding of a PC Pro reader from Edinburgh who contacted the magazine after finding the fee had been raised from £18.11 to £25 in June with very little in the way of advertising.
Applicable even if customers have worked through their minimum contract period BT's new terms and conditions now state: “When you end your broadband service and do not request a migration authorisat... |
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6
July 2009 |
Ofcom would be scrapped and regulators stripped of policy-making responsibilities by a Tory government, David Cameron said today.
Singled out for criticism in a speech proposing cutbacks to the myriad of quangos administering various policy areas, the communications regulator's successor should only have technical responsibilities such as awarding licences, Cameron said. Policy decisions would be taken by ministers, rather than an "unaccountable bureaucracy".
"With a Conservative Government, Ofcom as ... |
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4
July 2009 |
BT, seeking to slash costs in the face of Britain's worst recession in years, is offering employees a year at home in return for a 75-percent pay cut, the telecoms operator said Saturday.
Staff have also been offered a one-off payment of 1,000 pounds if they agree to go part-time, a BT spokesman said.
In addition, parents are being given the option of no longer having to work during school holidays in return for less pay.
"Being one of the largest employers in the United Kingdom, I think this is an... |
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4
July 2009 |
The Italian city of Venice has launched what is believed to be the most extensive, wireless internet system anywhere in Europe.
Ten thousand kilometres of cables have been laid, establishing wi-fi hotspots just about everywhere in the city.
The authorities spent around $15m (£9m) building the system.
It is fast - between 20 and 100 megabits per second - and for those who live there it is free. Tourists will need to pay about $7 a day.
Known for its ancient museums, art galleries and canals, Veni... |
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