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UK telecoms regulator Oftel has announced that the UK now has 1 million broadband Internet connections. The number of broadband connections has risen from half a million to 1 million in six months, with new connections being installed at a rate of over 20,000 per week, according to David Edmonds, Oftel's director general of telecommunications. "Oftel has helped to create the most competitive broadband market in Europe...UK consumers now have access to some of the lowest prices for broadband services in Europe," Edmonds said in a statement.
Palm has launched a new handheld device, the Zire, aimed at the lower end of the market. Although somewhat limited in terms of features, the device is the first PDA from a major manufacturer to retail at less than USD100. The Zire is lightweight and aimed at first-time users who want a personal organiser but do not require advanced features.
Mobile operator Orange is to launch advanced location-based services (LBS) across Europe early next year. Through a multi-million euro deal with Webraska, a specialist in LBS applications and platforms, Orange will offer its 30 million-plus European customers a range of LBS via WAP, Web, text and multi-media messaging. Among the services to be offered are interactive map displays and access services such as the "Buddy Finder", through which customers can discover the location of their friends.
More than half of European businesses have implemented a Web services strategy, according to research carried out by SWR Worldwide for BEA Systems. A survey found that 54 percent of European companies have adopted Web services, and 59 percent of respondents said their employers clearly understood the benefits of doing so. Nonetheless, one in five survey respondents said they were dissatisfied with their experience of the technologies involved, and concerns about security were cited as the biggest barrier to the take-up of Web services.
Consumers who access the Internet at work spend more than those who use the Net at home, according to a survey by ad and media agency Avenue A. Of over 3,000 survey respondents, 64 percent of at-work Internet users made on-line purchases in the past three months. This compares to 39 percent of at-home surfers who bought on-line in the same period.
Research company IDC predicts that over 60 billion e-mail messages a day will be sent by 2006. This year, the average number of daily e-mails sent is 31 billion. IDC says that more than half of all messages sent in 2006 will be person-to-person e-mails.
IBM is releasing new eServer software that aims to improve UNIX server utilisation. The software, AIX 5L Version 5.2, enables customers to harness unused power within UNIX systems. IBM says the software helps to lower costs by providing mainframe-style workload balancing and the ability to add resources on the fly. The company says users of the new software can manage their servers with twice the precision as that provided by competing systems from Sun.
The Internet worm Bugbear is starting to slow down, according to a report by Reuters. The worm can open back doors on computers and log keystrokes, as ElectricNews.net reported last week. After travelling around the Net at twice the rate of this year's worst worm, "Klez," Bugbear now appears to be slowing, said a virus research engineer at Network Associates. The researcher noted that Bugbear's risk rating would probably be lowered from high to medium risk on Tuesday or Wednesday.
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