IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 1 July
01-07-2009
by Sylvia Leatham
EU roaming charges slashed | Digicel seeks new funding
The Irish Times reports that a new Government website providing information on the EU will be established on a permanent basis and not solely as a vehicle for the second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, according to Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin. The website, www.eumatters.ie, has been launched as part of a wider public information programme about the EU and will cost EUR45,000, said Minister Martin. The project is a response to research conducted by Millward Brown in the wake of the first Lisbon referendum which showed that many people did not have sufficient knowledge about the EU institutions.
The paper also reports that efforts to resolve a dispute over payment for IT services for a number of hospitals and HSE offices have not been successful, a High Court judge was told on Tuesday. Last month, the HSE obtained temporary orders compelling the owner of Keogh Software to continue to provide support and maintenance for software used in what was described as patient-critical computer systems within the health service. The company claims the HSE is in breach of contract and owes the firm EUR85,000. Emily Egan, for the HSE, told the court the matter had been adjourned twice in the hope it could be resolved but it had not been possible to do so.
In other news from the courts, the paper reports that the Commercial Court has ruled that Vodafone is entitled to damages from a former head of corporate financial services, after he failed to defend claims of being involved in the fraudulent requisitioning of EUR2.3 million worth of services on behalf of the firm. Justice Peter Kelly granted an application by Vodafone for judgment against Niall Barron in default of his entering a defence. An assessment of damages due to Vodafone from Barron will be made following a hearing next December of the company's claims against other persons arising from the alleged fraud.
The paper also notes that charges for mobile roaming and texting while overseas are set to drop sharply from Wednesday. Under new EU regulations, the maximum subscribers will pay when making a call within the EU will be EUR0.52 a minute, while receiving a call will cost at most EUR0.23 a minute. The maximum cost for sending text messages will fall to EUR0.13 from the current level of EUR0.29 to EUR0.39. Receiving SMS will remain free.
The Irish Independent says that Denis O'Brien's Caribbean mobile operator Digicel has launched a fresh USD160 million fundraising round. O'Brien is also offering for sale a personal holding of loan notes in the firm worth USD90 million. The latest funding drive by Digicel will bring the total it has raised this year alone to almost USD500 million.
The paper also reports that Eircom Holdings, the parent company of Eircom, is to temporarily hold off on a payment of EUR120 million to shareholders until after it reviews an offer for the company from Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT). Eircom Holdings is not expected to make an announcement on the offer for a number of days.
The same paper notes that China has postponed the deadline for PC makers to include internet-filtering software in new products, as reported by ENN on Tuesday.
The paper also reports that Apple has said it removed a program from its iPhone store because the developer added pictures of topless women, violating the company's policy against "offensive content." "Apple will not distribute applications that contain inappropriate content," said Tom Neumayr, an Apple spokesman. "The developer of this application added inappropriate content directly from their server after the application had been approved and distributed, and after the developer had subsequently been asked to remove some offensive content." The USD2 program, called Hottest Girls, was created by Allen Leung.
The paper also notes that Global Gaming Factory X is to buy The Pirate Bay. Read more on this story on ENN.
The Irish Examiner says that shoppers thought they had landed a bargain when Littlewoods offered a home PC and monitor for EUR69 on its Irish website. The Compaq mini desktop was on sale on Littlewoods' British website for STG469. Littlewoods said the price displayed on the website was an error and that it would not be selling the computers for EUR69. It contacted the customers affected and said it would be offering them a refund. The Consumers' Association of Ireland said retailers are entitled to make mistakes and offer a refund to customers for the original price paid.
According to the Financial Times, Mozilla has released the latest version of its Firefox internet browser. The 3.5 version of Firefox has a capability of loading webpages more than twice as fast as its 3.0 predecessor, thanks to advances in the JavaScript scripting language. Mozilla's release comes in the same month as the launch of Apple's Safari 4, which, also running on JavaScript, had claimed the title of "world's fastest browser". "It really is Browser Wars 2," said Jeffrey Hammond, an analyst at Forrester Research.
The paper also says that Carphone Warehouse's acquisition of Tiscali's UK broadband business has been cleared by European regulators. The European Commission said the transaction would not damage competition. Carphone will now become the UK's second-largest broadband provider, with about 4.3 million customers, after agreeing to pay STG236 million for the UK assets of Italian telecoms company Tiscali.
The Wall Street Journal notes that Yahoo is to wind down its online video service Maven Networks, which it acquired last year for USD160 million. The move to close Maven comes less than one month after Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz said video was an exciting area for the company and that she was interested in acquiring more video technology. Yahoo said in a statement that video initiatives remain a top priority for the company but that it was "increasing investment in some areas while scaling back in others."
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