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(ALM) Der zweite Bericht der Kommission zur Ermittlung der Konzentration im Medienbereich (KEK) über die Entwicklung der Konzentration und über Maßnahmen zur Sicherung der Meinungsvielfalt im privaten Rundfunk mit dem Titel "Sicherung der Meinungsvielfalt in Zeiten des Umbruchs" wurde der Öffentlichkeit vorgestellt. Dieser Bericht steht alle drei Jahre zur Veröffentlichung an.
(Observer) The BBC must prove it can be trusted to provide impartial and factually accurate news coverage or else face fundamental changes in the way it is regulated, the Culture Secretary said. In an interview with The Observer, Tessa Jowell said she wanted a 'root-and-branch' debate about the BBC's future ahead of the renewal of its charter in 2006. Although she made it clear that the review was not sparked by the Hutton inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly, she said the findings of the investigation and the BBC's role in the affair would be taken into account.
(RAPID) European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti announced the appointment of Juan Riviere y Marti to the newly created function of Consumer Liaison Officer within the Commission's Competition Directorate General.
(RAPID) Mario Monti European Commissioner for Competition Policy, ECTA Conference Brussels, Conrad Hotel, 10 December 2003.
(RAPID) The Commission has decided that the ad hoc public financial assistance paid between 1988 and 1994 by the French Government to the French public television stations France 2 and France 3 was limited to compensation for the costs associated with the fulfilment of their public service obligations. The Commission's competition department have also set out its preliminary position on how to introduce public broadcaster financing that is transparent and proposed sufficient safeguards so that public financing does not exceed the cost of public service activities.
(Guardian) The BBC has 'broken a catalogue of promises', spending £100m a year on its internet services instead of an agreed £21m budget, the government has been told. Major commercial rivals including News International, the Telegraph, the Mail group and the Guardian have called on the government to make 12 key changes to the BBC's internet operations, protesting that the corporation's internet service is out of regulatory control.
(Washington Post) In a case that has both fascinated and revolted Germans, a 42-year-old computer technician went on trial for the cannibalistic killing of a Berlin man who allegedly volunteered to be consumed after the two met in an Internet chat room and exchanged e-mails about gruesome fantasies. Armin Meiwes, from a small town in the state of Hesse, is charged with murder for sexual satisfaction in the killing of Bernd Juergen Brandes, 43, a microchip engineer from Berlin. Meiwes has acknowledged carrying out the killing but said it was with the victim's consent and not for sexual satisfaction.
(Thisislancashire) A North West Labour Euro MP Arlene McCarthy met with experts on internet paedophilia from across Europe. The meeting was set up to share the findings of the EU-funded Victim Identification Project.
(BBC) Police are considering launching a computer hard drive amnesty as part of a crackdown on internet sex offenders. The scheme, which would operate in a similar way to a gun amnesty, would aim to prevent child abuse by getting people who have images of children to volunteer for counselling. People concerned about images they have accessed on the internet would be able to hand in their computer hard drives to police, to be destroyed or wiped clean. They would then be assessed by a psychiatrist and if, after appropriate treatment, were judged to be no risk to children, would be given a caution. The men would still be placed on the sex offenders register, but would be spared the humiliation of a court appearance and a formal prosecution.
(pte) Ab dem 14. Dezember 2003 dürfen kostenpflichtige Dialer nur noch über die Rufnummerngasse 0900 9 betrieben werden. Darauf hat die Regulierungsbehörde für Telekommunikation und Post (Reg TP) hingewiesen. Wenn der Verbraucher sicher ist, dass er keine kostenpflichtigen Dialer anwählen möchte, kann er die entsprechende Rufnummerngasse sperren lassen.
(E-Belarus.org) KGB should exert control over Internet, because international terrorism and organized crime more and more often use WWW. "We are trying to provide all the possibilities, and legal - first of all, in order to be able to control Internet," said Mr. Leonid Erin, chief of Belarusian KGB. Mr. Erin emphasizes that he understands criticism of this position, especially in connection with human rights violation. But he insists that prior to that are state interests and secret services activities. see Interfax article (in Russian).
(First Monday) by William J. McIver, Jr., William F. Birdsall, and Merrilee Rasmussen. The development of the Internet challenges traditional conceptions of information rights. The discourse surrounding these rights and the Internet typically deals with each right in isolation and attempt to adapt long established understandings of each right to the new technological environment. We contend there is a need to address information rights within a comprehensive human rights framework, specifically, a right to communicate. This paper examines the development of a right to communicate and how it can be defined and implemented.
(Guardian) After a year of intense preparation, the challenge for Ofcom is to look outwards, rather than inwards - to raise its profile and start communicating in plain English rather than Ofcom-speak. Viewers and listeners are stubbornly interested in programmes, choice, content, the cost of the licence fee and BSkyB's monthly charges, and a growing number expect to be able to complain when offended. Yet Ofcom's content and standards staff number 60, while there are 212 in competition and markets and 114 in strategy and market development. This is because Ofcom was designed primarily as an economic regulator.
(Digital TV) Pornographie soll nach einem Entscheid der Landesmedienanstalten als so genannter 'Mediendienst' auch hierzulande im Fernsehen möglich werden. DIGITAL FERNSEHEN sprach dazu mit Prof. Kurt-Ulrich Mayer, Präsident des Medienrates der Sächsischen Landesanstalt für privaten Rundfunk und neue Medien (SLM) und Mitglied der Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (KJM).
(BBC) Most top UK websites are breaking new rules which require them to do more to protect web users' privacy. WebAbacus research found 98% do not give enough information about the text files which track user movements, or provide a single-click opt-out option.
(IHT) One issue that could not get resolved at the UN's World Summit on the Information Society this week was whether governments should create a 'digital solidarity fund' to help poor areas of the world connect to communications networks. But officials of the World Bank said that investments in telecommunications companies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean were reaping annual rates of return in excess of 25 percent. The returns are even higher - about 40 percent to 50 percent - when license fees, taxes and other charges are excluded.
(BBC) The internet has spread its tentacles throughout the world, reaching communities all over the globe. But it is quite another thing to help local people figure out what to do with the technology once they get it. For some development activists who attended the UN World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva, the question was not going online, but about the content on the web.
(Publictechnology.net) ITU Secretary-General and Secretary-General of the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society Yoshio Utsumi appealed to world leaders to share the bounty of powerful information and communication technologies (ICT) with the most impoverished economies, and to shape their use for a better world, at the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society.
(Harvard Law School) by John Palfrey, Clifford Chen, Sam Hwang, and Noah Eisenkraft of Berkman Center for Internet & Society. This study considers to what extent the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has achieved its stated goal of a "representative" and "open" decision-making process. Review of postings by members of the Internet user community to ICANN's e-mail lists and public online forums showed that public commentary for or against a given proposal before the Board does not correlate strongly to an outcome either for or against that proposal. The data suggest that the Board has been more likely to rely heavily upon staff recommendations and upon the input of the Supporting Organizations. see also The Virtues of Deliberative Policymaking: A Response to "Public Participation in ICANN" by Andrew McLaughlin (also of the Berkman Center).
(vnu.net) The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ordered a Cambridge-based company to stop sending emails implying that it is accredited to offer .eu domain names. .EU Registry Services claimed it was the operator of the .eu suffix, which is actually the responsibility of a non-profit organisation, the European Registry of Internet Domain Names (Eurid).
(AP) The European Court of Justice gave countries the right to ban sales of prescription drugs by Internet pharmacies because of safety concerns, but said the restrictions could not apply to sales of over-the-counter medications. The decision is a partial victory for German pharmacists who wanted to stop a Dutch pharmacist from selling prescription drugs from his store to German patients via his Web site, www.0800DocMorris.com. But noting that Germany is dropping its ban next year anyway, the Dutch firm claimed victory as well. Judgment Case C-322/01 Deutscher Apothekerverband eV. ECJ Press Release.
(Reuters) More than 170 countries approved an ambitious call to extend the Internet and the benefits of information technology to the poorest corners of the world, but dodged some of the difficulties of doing so. In particular, they put off a decision on whether to set up a special fund to finance the necessary infrastructure, for which African countries had lobbied hard. Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action. see also UN summit pledges net for all (BBC), UN summit fails to bridge digital divide (Associated Press) and Mission accomplished for Switzerland (NZZ).
(AFP) Le Comité de liaison des industries culturelles (CLIC) s'est déclaré opposé à un amendement de l'assemblée dans le projet de loi sur l'économie numérique visant à donner une 'nouvelle définition de la communication publique en ligne'."
(AFP) Le dossier de la régulation de l'internet, effleuré à Genève lors de la première phase du Sommet mondial sur la société de l'information (SMSI), reviendra sur la table des négociations pour la deuxième phase du SMSI, en novembre 2005, à Tunis. Faute de consensus lors des réunions préparatoires à la réunion de Genève, qui le SMSI a reporté à plus tard une décision sur l'éventuel transfert à un organe de l'Onu de la régulation de l'internet, auquel s'opposent fermement les Etats-Unis. voir aussi Allocution du Premier Ministre, M. Jean-Pierre Raffarin. Interventions de la ministre deleguée à la recherche et aux nouvelles technologies, Mme Claudie Haignère, Internet et le developpement humain lors de la table ronde organisee par le ministere de la jeunesse, de l'education nationale et de la recherche, et lors de la table ronde officielle créer des opportunités numériques.
(IP3) WSIS is hard to understand. The 2003 Geneva meeting of the UN World Summit on the Information Society has brought thousands of people to Geneva to articulate a collective vision about the benefits and potentials of information in society and the policies needed to realize them. Even immediate participants have difficulty understanding what has been achieved. With so many recommendations, which ones will lead to concrete political action and social change? What is important and why?
(InfoWorld) Don't screw up a running system. This isn't advice from a computer expert but a message delivered by European Commission technology commissioner Erkki Liikanen at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva. "The Internet has been a wonderful story," he said at a news conference. "It is very important that we guarantee stability." Like the U.S., the EU favors upholding the status quo on the thorny issue of "Internet governance" - namely, to stick with the most-recognized Net governing body, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), until that organization can be improved or even replaced. "Internet governance" has emerged as one of the key issues in the Net summit, which aims to help bridge the digital divide between poor and rich countries. The term, however, has evolved from its early technical focus on names, numbers and protocols to include policy issues. see EU - Statement by Mr Liikanen at the World Summit on Information Society (RAPID). Mr Erkki Liikanen, Member of the European Commission, responsible for Enterprise and the Information Society. First Plenary Session World Summit on Information Society, Geneva, 10 December 2003 and World Summit to set out a strategic vision for a global information society (RAPID).
(Heise) von Monika Ermert. Die Integration der Zivilgesellschaft, die Einigung über Menschenrechtsfragen und die Tatsache, dass der Gipfel erst einmal stattgefunden hat - dies bezeichnete Rezzo Schlauch als wichtigste Erfolge des ersten Weltgipfels der Informationsgesellschaft (WSIS). Schlauch, parlamentarischer Staatsekreträr im Bundeswirtschaftsministerium, war kurzfristig für seinen Minister Wolfgang Clement als deutscher Regierungsvertreter auf dem Weltgipfel eingesprungen. Fragen, ob Deutschland sich eher zurückhaltend an den Gipfelvorbereitungen beteiligt habe, verneinte er bei seiner Kurzvisite am kleinen und ganz in die Ecke gerückten deutschen Gemeinschaftsstand auf der dem Gipfel angeschlossenen ICT4D-Messe. siehe auch WSIS: Zoff um Internet-Zugang für den Weltgipfel der Informationsgesellschaft und Nach Mitternacht ging es nur noch ums Geld (Telepolis) von Wolfgang Kleinwächter.
(Yahoo! FR) L´opérateur historique a obtenu du gouvernement la diminution de ses tarifs de gros ADSL. Sa filiale Wanadoo est la première à en bénéficier et peut ainsi diminuer le prix de ses offres grand public. Mais les concurrents Free et LDCom ont déjà répliqué.
(New York Times) Virginia has announced the indictments of two people on criminal charges involving unsolicited e-mail, the first case to be brought under an antispam law that took effect in June. Virginia is one of the few states with laws providing criminal penalties for sending unsolicited bulk e-mail, or spam. Each has been charged with four felony counts, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $2,500 fine or both. The law allows such penalties only if the spam has fake return addresses, which prevent recipients from contacting the sender and asking to be removed from lists. Prosecutors said that from July 11 to Aug. 9, more than 100,000 AOL subscribers clicked a "report spam" button to complain about messages supposedly sent by the two men.
(CDT) The U.S. House of Representatives passed by unanimous consent the CAN-SPAM Act. The Senate had passed identical language, so the legislation will be sent to the President, who is expected to sign it. The final version of the bill makes no distinction between solicited and unsolicited messages. It does not prohibit unsolicited email. Rather, it prohibits certain deceptive practices and requires every commercial email message to provide an opt-out option and meet certain disclosure rules. The CAN-SPAM Act imposes criminal sanctions for use of materially false or misleading header information in commercial email messages, with fines or imprisonment. The civil provisions also prohibit false or misleading header information as well as deceptive subject lines that are likely to mislead a recipient. In addition, the civil provisions require that commercial email disclose certain specified information and provide recipients an opportunity to decline to receive any additional messages. One troublesome aspect of the bill is a labeling requirement for all messages containing sexually explicit material. The law requires the Federal Trade Commission to specify marks or notices that will facilitate filtering of sexually oriented material, thereby inserting, in a small way, a federal agency into the design of an Internet technology.
(Heise) Das Landgericht Leipzig hat ein vorinstanzliches Urteil des Amtsgericht Leipzig bestätigt, wonach der Betreiber eines Erotik-Subdomain-Service für unerwünschte Werbe-E-Mails haftet, in denen für die auf den Subdomains abgelegten Seiten geworben wird.
(pte) Das deutsche Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (BfS) http://www.bfs.de weist in einer neuen Broschüre Mobilfunk: Wie funktioniert das eigentlich darauf hin, dass drei Viertel der in Deutschland erhältlichen Mobiltelefone für Jugendliche nicht zu empfehlen sind. Der so genannte SAR-Wert, der die Leistung angibt, die beim Telefonieren vom Kopf absorbiert wird, liegt bei diesen Geräten über dem empfohlenen Grenzwert von 0,6 Watt pro Kilogramm.
(ZDNet UK) The future of mobile services is bright and increasingly wireless, according to e-commerce minister Stephen Timms, who is confident of future success for both third-generation mobile networks and Wi-Fi. A growing public appetite for innovative mobile services and fast connectivity on the move is set to drive the take-up of third-generation (3G) phones.
(National Institute on Media and the Family) This MediaWise Video Game Report Card is the eighth issued by the National Institute on Media and the Family, an independent, non-partisan, non-sectarian, non-profit organization. The Report Card provides a snapshot of the interactive gaming industry with a focus on issues related to child welfare.
(Telepolis) Cafetisch-Liebhaber können aufatmen. Endlich ist er weg, der hauseigene 'Wortfilter' von eBay.de. Dieser Unsicherheitsfaktor, der nicht zuletzt Cafetisch-Liebhaber und Jude-Law-Verehrerinnen zur Verzweiflung brachte. Mal fanden sie bei eBay.de, wonach sie suchten, mal nicht. Und das obwohl bei eBay angeblich alles zu haben ist. Schuld war nicht unbedingt die Marktlage, sondern vielmehr der 'Wortfilter', der sämtliche Auktionen nach verdächtigen Begriffen durchforstete. Tauchte auch nur ein verbotenes Wort - wie zum Beispiel 'Fetisch' (versteckt in 'Cafetisch') oder 'Jude' (versteckt in 'Jude Law') - in Text oder Titel auf, war die Auktion gleichsam unsichtbar. Weil sie via Stichwortsuche nicht zu finden war.
(Pressemitteilung) Jugendgefährdende Angebote, wie z.B. die einfache Pornographie, sind grundsätzlich unzulässig und dürfen nur im Ausnahmefall im Internet angeboten werden. Dabei muss sichergestellt sein, dass der Zugang nur für Erwachsene innerhalb so genannter "geschlossener Benutzergruppen" möglich ist. Die KJM hat in diesem Bereich nach intensiven Gesprächen und zahlreichen Nachbesserungen drei weitere Unternehmenskonzepte bewertet. Die von der KJM aufgestellten Eckwerte zu den Anforderungen an geschlossene Benutzergruppen - Volljährigkeitsprüfung durch persönlichen Kontakt sowie Authentifizierung bei jedem Nutzungsvorgang, um den Zugriff durch Minderjährige zu verhindern - werden bei den Konzepten des Zentralen Kreditausschusses (ZKA), der Altersverifikationssysteme von T-Online International AG und von Arcor Online GmbH auf unterschiedliche Weise erfüllt.
(Guardian) NatWest was forced to shut down its online bank after a fake website was set up and emails were sent to consumers asking for account details and Pin numbers. The internet banking operation was shut for security reasons. NatWest was unable to give details of how many customers were affected by the fraudsters but insisted that none had lost money as a result of the cyber attack.
(Press Release) In an address at the World Summit for Information Society, Erkki Liikanen, European Commissioner responsible for Enterprise and Information society, unveiled the European coregulation network initiated by the French organization, Le Forum des droits sur l'internet, in partnership with organizations from 6 European countries. see Press Release Press kit.
(Guardian) Ofcom announced the first full-scale review of the telecommunications market since the privatisation of BT but denied that the exercise is designed to lead to the break-up of the company. The review will take the new regulator most of next year, and will look at all aspects of the British market, from broadband services to the cost of making mobile phone calls. News of the most comprehensive scrutiny of the industry for almost 20 years took BT by surprise but was warmly welcomed by the rest of the industry, which had feared that Ofcom's responsibility for regulating broadcasting and the media would distract its attention from issues in the telecoms market. see The Ofcom Strategic Review of Telecommunications and Press Release.
(Heise) Bei der Vorstellung des Tätigkeitsberichts 2002/2003 der Regulierungsbehörde für Telekommunikation und Post (RegTP) zog der Behörden-Chef Matthias Kurth eine "insgesamt erfreuliche Bilanz über die Fortschritte des Wettbewerbs im deutschen Telekommunikationsmarkt". Die Wettbewerber machten dem Marktführer Telekom immer stärkere Konkurrenz. In allen wesentlichen Geschäftssegmenten habe sich deren Marktposition verbessert und den Verbrauchern günstigere Preise beschert. siehe auch Monopolkommission empfiehlt Lockerung der Telekom-Regulierung. Die Monopolkommission hat wegen des zunehmenden Wettbewerbs in der Telekommunikation in Teilbereichen eine weitere Lockerung der Regulierung empfohlen. Die Monopolkommission kommt in einem Sondergutachten Telekommunikation und Post 2003 zu dem Ergebnis, dass "die Wettbewerbsentwicklung im Bereich der Telekommunikation deutlich positiver verlaufen ist, als noch vor zwei Jahren zu erwarten war".
(ZDNet UK) The amount of spam moving around the Internet has increased from one spam in every eleven e-mails at the end of 2002 to one spam in every 2.5 e-mails today; a more than fourfold increase. According to an end-of-year report published by e-mail-outsourcing firm MessageLabs, the Sobig.F virus is to blame for a large proportion of the increase. Before Sobig.F, spam made up less than half of all e-mail traffic, but in the latter part of the year, in the wake of Sobig.F, spam levels pushed past the 50 percent mark, bringing the average for the year up to 40 percent.
(Heise) Das SMS-Geschäft in China boomt: Die im Nasdaq ablesbaren Aktienkurse der drei chinesischen Megaportale Sina.com, Sohu.com und Netease.com befinden sich im Höhenflug. Grund dafür sind die hohen Einnahmen aus dem SMS-Geschäft. Mit ihren überaus erfolgreichen SMS-Allianzen haben die großen Service Provider ein 'Erotik-Netz' in nie gekannter Weise in China aufgebaut.
(Reuters) One of the darlings of the Web and a pioneer of electronic exhibitionism - Jenni of JenniCam fame - is turning off the lights after seven years. Jennifer Ringley, 27, became a quasi-celebrity when she installed video cameras in her room at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania in April 1996 and launched JenniCam.org. Over the years the cameras have followed the redhead's every movement 24 hours a day. Now, her Web site has a notice saying it will be closing on Dec. 31. While Ringley did not provide a reason on the site or respond to an e-mail query, it appears that her undressing may be her undoing. A spokeswoman at online payment company PayPal confirmed that they were closing her account because the frontal nudity on her Web site violates the company's acceptable use policy.
(Economist) Could South Korea hold the key to the next generation of online computer games?
(Guardian) An early driving force in the success of digital television has been live sport, and the industry believes the next big driver will be interactive TV betting. A marriage of the two seems to have been made in heaven. But decent live sport is expensive and not easily acquired, so why not make it up? On Sky Digital, a new channel called iSportsTV is now screening the world's first virtual interactive TV horse racing programme. You see the race track, and the crowd, you see the start and the finish, you hear the thundering hooves. And you can gamble to your heart's content. It seems real but it's all made-up: the horses, the stands, the race - it's all created by a fancy computer programme.
(vnunet.com) Wireless gaming is well on its way to becoming a mass-market product in the US. Over the past year wireless games topped the list of entertainment applications downloaded to mobile phones, according to analyst IDC.
(New York Times) Anyone searching on Google for the phrase 'miserable failure' was sent to the official White House biography of President Bush. The episode is another example of a form of cyber-graffiti known as 'Google bombing.' It is a group prank. If enough Web pages link a certain Web page to a phrase, the Google search engine will start to associate that page with the phrase - even if, as in the case of Mr. Bush's official biography, the phrase does not occur on the destination Web site.
(CNET News.com) A new standards group, anchored by Microsoft and Universal Music Group, is developing a technology that members hope will let music, movies and other content be distributed more efficiently online. The Content Reference Forum is hoping to create a kind of intelligent file that can be distributed through file-sharing networks like Kazaa, Web pages, e-mail or almost anywhere else online. Instead of containing a song or movie itself, the file would set up a process that automatically delivers files in the right format and potentially triggers an automatic payment system that could be changed moment to moment by the content distributor.
(BBC) According to new figures, 78 million Chinese will be using the internet by the end of the year. China is second only to the US in terms of the number of internet users and it hopes to be the world's biggest web market in four years' time. One in nine internet users worldwide is in China. It is an astonishing rate of growth for a country which only began hooking up to the internet in 1994. Officially there are 32% more internet users in China than this time last year. But the increasing use of the internet is a matter of some concern for the Chinese government, which has been struggling to exert its control over content.
(Guardian) The internet is rapidly catching up with traditional media, with Europeans now spending more time surfing the web than flicking through magazines. The explosion of news and entertainment sites on the internet, combined with a decline in daily newspaper reading means the internet now accounts for an average of 10% of media consumption in Europe. Magazines by contrast now account for just 8% of media consumption, according to the research, which was carried out by Millward Brown for the European Interactive Advertising Association. Even newspaper reading is only slightly ahead of the internet, accounting for 13% of the time spent on media. And although television remains by far the biggest medium, accounting for 41% of people's media time, 45% of those surveyed said the internet meant they now watched less television. Radio accounted for 28%.
(vnunet.com) Regulator Oftel has claimed the UK has three million broadband customers. The organisation said that broadband adoption rates are running at a record 40,000 households and businesses a week, although its figures include 128Kbps connections, which it recently classed as broadband. see Internet and Broadband Brief.
(Guardian) Broadband is finally conquering rural areas - and just in time for many businesses. Last autumn, around 67% of the UK population had access to broadband through an economically realistic method. By this autumn, 80% of Britons had access, and trigger levels - customer demand levels required for an exchange upgrade, measured by registrations on a BT website - were available for a further 10%. BT has announced trigger levels for a further 2,300 exchanges, which would take coverage to 99.1% if pilots to extend the range of each exchange bear fruit.
(IHT) Until the last few years, voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP, phone service was illegal in many developing markets, including Greece. During the past few years, the relationship between VoIP providers and government regulators has slowly warmed. Deregulation and a more passive, if still vague, stance by telecom watchdogs have reduced the circumstances in which running a VoIP service was akin to running opium and guns. In a report, the research firm Ovum concluded that the VoIP market had fewer than 200,000 users worldwide and fewer than 20,000 in Europe. Obviously VoIP is not yet a real challenger to what is sometimes referred to as POTS, or plain old telephone service.
(ZDNet UK) The first UK mass-market service to encourage users to send voice calls over the Internet is an aggressive move by BT against its cable rivals. BT has become the first UK telco to offer a mass-market consumer voice over IP (VoIP) service. Its Broadband Voice package is primarily targeted at NTL and Telewest customers but will work just as well with an ADSL connection. BT says that it is a ground-breaking product that will let cable customers save money on voice calls, but rivals have dismissed Broadband Voice as little more than a second phone line.
(New York Times) The battle over the future of U.S. telephone service intensified with an announcement from AT&T that it would offer unlimited long-distance and local calling using Internet technology, at a lower cost than conventional phone service. The move follows similar announcements from Time Warner Cable that it would provide phone service to many of its cable television customers with access to high-speed Internet connections and by BT Group of Britain of its own plan to offer such a service.
(JANUS) The European research project JANUS (Joint Analytical Network for Using Socio-Economic Research) is organising the third in a series of workshops on challenges for socio-economic research into the Information Society.The workshop gathers high-level experts on the Digital Divide and E-Inclusion from IST research projects, the European Commission and public authorities. It aims to address the issue of a geographical digital divide between members and new members of the European Union, explore ways to influence the hard and soft factors leading to a Digital Divide and derive policy recommendations that help to bridge this divide.
(ITU) A New Initiatives Workshop will take place 4-5 March 2004 in Seoul, hosted by Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC). This joint ITU-MIC Workshop will follow an ITU-MIC New Initiatives Symposium to be held on 3 March 2004 on "Shaping the future broadband convergence network". Both events will be made possible through close collaboration between the ITU's Strategy and Policy Unit and Korea's MIC and International Cooperation Agency for Korea IT.
(Guardian) New media super-regulator Ofcom has appointed a telecommunications watchdog to oversee its independent consumer panel. Colette Bowe has been named as chairman of the panel, which has been set up as part of the Communications Act to represent consumers' interests across the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors. Ms Bowe is chairman of the council of the telecoms ombudsman service, Otelo, which settles disputes in the industry. She will stand down from this post when she takes up her new role.
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