NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 1 September
01-09-2008
by Deirdre McArdle
Silicon Valley leaders coming to Dublin | Alternative operators drive super-speed broadband
The Irish Technology Leadership Group has announced an initiative that will see Silicon Valley CEOs and venture capitalists, as well as industry and community leaders, come to Ireland in November to work with Irish technology start-ups. The visiting team will include John Hartnett, senior vice president of Palm; John Gilmore, chief operating officer of Sling Media; Rory McInerney, vice president at Intel; and Barry O'Sullivan, senior vice president at Cisco. They will be staging a series of workshops and networking events for a selection of technology start-ups at Trinity College Dublin, from 18 to 19 November. "The programme has been designed to bring very promising Irish technology start-ups into close contact with some of Silicon Valley's most successful business leaders, entrepreneurs and financiers," said ITLG chairman John Hartnett. More details of the visit will be revealed towards the end of September.
Statistics released on Monday by the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA) have revealed that across Europe alternative operators, not incumbents, are driving the rollout of super broadband speeds (defined as speeds above 10Mbps). In Sweden, where one in 10 people subscribe to a super-fast connection, 70 percent of the high-speed services were provided by competitors, compared with just 20 percent by the incumbent. ECTA said the results are similar for all other countries surveyed. According to ECTA, as of the first quarter, Ireland super speed broadband had yet to take off in Ireland. This is understandable as the bulk of the broadband services offering over 10Mbps were only unveiled during the summer months. These services have predominantly been offered by UPC, Smart and Magnet Networks.
In related news, broadband provider Smart Telecom has detailed its latest offering: a 24 Mbps, uncontended broadband service for residential and business customers. Smart said its existing 15Mbps customers will be automatically upgraded to this 'LineMax' service, free of charge, over the coming weeks. An uncontended service means users do not have to share their bandwidth with other users in their area; this usually signifies faster broadband speeds even at peak time. LineMax is based on Smart's next generation network.
Independent directors at Andor Technology have said they are currently 'considering their position' on a recent decision to recommend a takeover by a management-led group. The management group, called Thorndale, said last month it had reached agreement with Andor's independent directors on the deal at a price of STG0.73 per share. This latest announcement by the directors of the Belfast-based high-end digital camera maker comes as the group said its results for the financial year to the end of September would be better than expected after a strong second half. The company said revenues for the full year would be at least EUR24.5 million, while pre-tax profits would be around EUR2 million.
A job posting has revealed Microsoft's plans to launch a virtual store for its Windows Mobile applications. The Microsoft ad was for a senior product manager for "Skymarket", which was described as a marketplace service for Windows Mobile. The ad says that the successful candidate will need to have the skills to "make the Windows Mobile marketplace 'the place to be' for developers wishing to distribute and monetize their Windows Mobile applications". This follows on from Friday's announcement by Google that it is to launch Android Market, where users will be able to buy, download and install content for the upcoming Android devices. Google's initiative also followed the successful launch of the Apple App Store for the iPhone in July.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 