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TelcoNews.com – Telecom and VoIP Industry News

Internet ‘in running’ for Nobel Peace Prize - Thu, 11 Mar 2010
The internet is among a record 237 individuals and organisations nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The number of nominations surpasses last year’s record of 205 nominations. The internet’s nomination has been championed by the Italian version of Wired magazine for helping advance “dialogue, debate and consensus”. To read this BBC News report in full, see: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8560469.stm

Mobile that allows bosses to snoop on staff developed - Thu, 11 Mar 2010
Researchers have produced a mobile phone that could be a boon for prying bosses wanting to keep tabs on the movements of their staff. Japanese phone giant KDDI Corporation has developed technology that tracks even the tiniest movement of the user and beams the information back to HQ. To read this BBC News report in full, see: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8559683.stm

Forbes rich list topped by Mexican mobile phone titan Carlos Slim - Thu, 11 Mar 2010
The old order is under threat at the world’s billionaires club. Traditionally dominated by Americans and Europeans, the top ranks of the world’s richest people have been infiltrated by scores of ultra-rich entrepreneurs from the developing world - capped by the Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim. Today, Slim, the titan of mobile phones in Mexico, criticised [...]

German publisher in row with Apple over pin-ups in iPhone app - Wed, 10 Mar 2010
The International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP) is considering making a complaint to Apple over the computer firm’s request that German publisher Springer censor the naked girls on one of its iPhone apps. Springer-owned tabloid Bild’s “Shake the Bild Girl” app allows iPhone users to undress a model. Each time the user shakes the phone, [...]

Britain’s digital economy bill ‘threatens free speech’ - Wed, 10 Mar 2010
Plans to force internet providers to block sites carrying pirated music and films “threaten freedom of speech and the open internet”, the largest internet and telecom companies operating in the UK said. In a letter published in the Financial Times on Wednesday, Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Ebay, along with the UK’s largest internet service providers, object [...]

British ISPs ‘could make up to £200m from legal downloads’ - Tue, 09 Mar 2010
The UK music downloads market could generate up to £200m a year for internet service providers such as BSkyB and Virgin Media within three years, according to a new report. British music industry trade body the BPI estimates that the UK’s major ISPs - BT, Virgin Media, BSkyB, O2, Orange and TalkTalk - could make between [...]

France Télécom Needs ‘Radical Change’ After Suicides, Report Says - Tue, 09 Mar 2010
France Télécom’s new management must move quickly “to take charge and encourage radical change” if it is to put an end to a suicide crisis, according to a study commissioned by the company. The team of Stéphane Richard, who formally succeeded Didier Lombard as chief executive on March 1, has a “few weeks” to install a [...]

Internet access is ‘a fundamental right’: BBC World Service survey - Mon, 08 Mar 2010
Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests. The survey - of more than 27,000 adults across 26 countries - found strong support for net access on both sides of the digital divide. Countries such as Finland and Estonia [...]

Italy’s biggest telecoms firm faces an uncertain future - Sun, 07 Mar 2010
There could not be a better warning of the risks of getting involved with Italy’s national phone company: in late February Telecom Italia said an investigation into alleged large-scale tax fraud and money-laundering involving Sparkle, its wholesale voice and broadband unit, and a rival broadband firm, Fastweb, had forced it to delay the announcement of [...]

EU asks who will pay for high-speed Internet - Sun, 07 Mar 2010
The EU plans to revise rules governing access to the Internet and telephones throughout the bloc. Yesterday (2 March) the European Commission launched a consultation asking whether money for wider broadband coverage should come from the public purse or from industry coffers. In the consultation, the Commission will be asking whether Internet access should be a [...]