NL International Briefs

British government loses big on e-governmentThe British government overspent its budget for electronic government by £1.5 billion (about $3.5 billion) in 1997, due to cost overruns or cancelled projects. The total has risen by £500 million ($1.1 billion) since July 2001. Bankrupt Asia Global Crossing now Asia NetcomAsia Global Crossing has emerged from bankruptcy and will now be known as Asia Netcom. The carrier, controlled by China Netcom, expects sales to increase by 40% this year from revenues of US$115 million. Oftel investigates Internet and satellite deal in BritainBritish telecom regulator Oftel is investigating British Telecom and BSkyB for anti-competitive behaviour. Competitor NTL complained that the two firms have launched a joint Internet and satellite TV marketing campaign that distorts the marketplace. Dutch telephony market not transparentThe Dutch telecommunications regulator OPTA has released a study that finds that the telephony market in the Netherlands is not transparent. Consumers are not provided with enough information to make informed decisions on prices, services and quality of service. KPN fined for violating unbundling rules in HollandKPN Telecom was fined EUR 375,000 (about $590,000) for violating local telecom law and European regulations on unbundling. Dutch regulator OPTA found the telco gave preference to its Internet division over competitors when it came to access to the KPN network. Deutsche Telekom posts record loss in FY 2002Deutsche Telekom posted a loss of EUR 24.6 billion (about $38.6 billion) in FY 2002, despite cutting its debt. The loss is the largest in German corporate history. Deutsche Telekom has 3.4 million high-speed customersDeutsche Telekom reports it has 3.4 million customers using its two high-speed services, one using 768/128 kbps and the other using 1504/192 kbps. The telco says it can open up DSL service to another five million consumers thanks to technological advances. European Commission investigates Italian telecomThe European Commission is investigating Italian carrier Wind, which is co-owned by France Télécom and Italian energy group Enel. The EC is looking into allegations Wind received illegal state aid of EUR 1.3 billion (about $2B ) from the Italian government. Cisco purchases IP software vendor SignalWorksCisco Systems Inc. has bought SignalWorks Inc. of Mountain View CA, a developer of IP telephony software. The deal involves US$13.5 million of Cisco common stock in exchange for all shares in SignalWorks. Australian ADSL market becoming heavily competitivePacific Internet, the subsidiary of Pacific Internet (Singapore) operating in Australia, has launched a new ADSL service permitting business clients to swap data between Pacific accounts with no download limits. Two other Australian ISPs, Dodo Internet and Aardvark Internet, have responded with new campaigns aimed at the residential market. Long Beach deploys fibre-optic network through gas pipelinesLong Beach Energy has completed the installation of a fibre-optic network in its natural gas pipeline. The company is using a fibre-in-gas technology from Sempra Fiber Links. Call for broadband initiative in AustriaThe ISPA, the Austrian federation of ISPs, is calling on the government to provide increased broadband access. The group wants authorities to reduce the Value Added Tax on Internet access and to open up the 5 GHz wireless frequencies for better access.

NL International Briefs

News | March 24, 2003

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