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Vodafone 'toys with Tiscali buy'
Speculation is growing that Vodafone is preparing to buy one of the UK's fixed-line telecommunications operators. The Sunday Telegraph reported that Vodafone has identified Tiscali as a possible takeover target, as part of a push to expand its product offering. Bulldog, Cable & Wireless's broadband ISP, is said to be another option, despite its track-record of poor customer service. Vodafone described the reports as "speculation". Vodafone currently just offers mobile services - unlike rivals such as Orange, which is aggressively pushing a strategy where it offers both fixed-line and mobile services. With convergence such a hot issue in today's telecoms market, Vodafone is under growing pressure to become more than just a mobile player. Last month, some analysts argued that the company should even consider bidding for BT.
DirecTV still covets DISH
DirecTV is still interested in buying smaller rival EchoStar but doubts U.S. regulators would allow such a deal. The two companies tried to merge in 2002, but the deal collapsed under opposition from the Federal Communications Commission, which believed it would be anti-competitive.Mike Palkovic, chief financial officer of DirecTV, said a merger would be "desirable but not feasible" as the market environment had not changed.
"We'd be nuts not to look at it," Palkovic told Reuters. "But the regulatory issues haven't gone away." According to Leitchman Research Group, DirecTV has 55 per cent of the satellite TV market, or 15.1 million subscribers, and EchoStar Communications Corp. has 45 percent, or 11.9 million subscribers.
DirecTV said in February it was in talks with EchoStar to create a wireless high-speed network, which would put them in a stronger position to compete against cable operators and telephone companies that sell Internet, video and phone services.
Virgin Media braced for increase in complaints
Virgin Media is expecting an increase in customer complaints as formerly disenchanted customers of NTL:Telewest test the newly rebranded company and its claims about improved customer service. A senior Virgin staffer admits many customers will have been making do with poor service to-date but may have greater expectations of the Virgin brand since they noticed the name on their digital TV start-up screen change three weeks ago. Bryn Jones, director of business architecture at Virgin Mobile, said Virgin Trains witnessed a three-fold increase in complaints when it took over the running of two rail franchises in the UK - the West Coast mainline and the Cross Country link. .
ENISA calls for stronger persecution of cyber criminals to combat 6 ...
ENISA is launching its latest Position Paper: on 'botnets', i.e. silent, 'hijacked' computers. The paper identifies roles and structures of criminal organizations for creating and controlling botnets, and trends in this type of cyber crime. In particular, it is often overlooked that browser exploits account already for more than 60% of all infections. Clicking on a malicious link may be enough to get infected. The main problem is uninformed users. Consequently, ENISA calls for an agreement to address this security threat in a more consistent way. The paper also identifies online tools to identify and counter malicious code. What are botnets? Botnets are a set of computers managed by criminals and organized crime for fraudulent online activity. Bots are silently installed, unnoticed by the owner of an infected computer, and commonly managed remotely from a Command & Control (C&C) server.
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