AOL and Time Warner have said the combined company will open its cable system to other ISPs after the proposed multibillion dollar merger. In a filing to the US Federal Communications Commission the companies expanded on the open access issue they addressed in a memorandum of understanding signed in February. Open access has been at the heart of regulators' concerns over the proposed deal between the ISP and media giant that is now valued at $127 billion.
Sources familiar with the regulators' review of the deal have said they are concerned that AOL-Time Warner would dominate high-speed cable lines in cities where Time Warner, the second biggest US cable provider, now operates cable TV systems. Their concern stems from AOL's dominance in the Net arena and Time Warner's dominance in the cable world.
NET'S GLOBAL GROWTH: Nielsen//NetRatings, the Net audience measurement service, has released the first examination of global Internet access and penetration, finding more than 295 million people across 20 countries with access from home. The information for Europe reported that approximately 82 million people aged over two have access to the Internet from home. which equates to one household in five
MP THREATS: A federal judge has ruled that the music-sharing service MP3.com willfully violated the copyrights of record companies and ordered it to pay Universal Music Group $25,000 per CD, or roughly $118 million. US Judge Jed S Rakoff said it was necessary to send a message to the Internet community to deter copyright infringement.
NEW TO MARKET: The Irish Stock Exchange's ITEQ - a new market especially designed for technology companies - makes its debut today. The market is accompanied by a new ITEQ index and the establishment of an advisory group representing the interests of the technology sector.
FIRST PRIZEBUY: Prizebuy.com, www.prizebuy.com, a new e-tailer dealing exclusively in home appliances and entertainment products has been launched promising to offer "the greatest product choice ever to the Irish consumer".
FUNNY BUSINESS: US Federal regulators last week announced actions against 33 companies that allegedly used the Internet to defraud investors by manipulating prices of small-company stocks. The cases involved so-called "pump and dump" schemes, in which promoters push up a stock's price by making false claims about the company, then later sell their own shares to cash in on the artificially high price.
ESAT X-CHANGE: Esat has won £1.5 million sterling worth of orders for its Esat-X Internet exchange centre. The group expects further "significant contracts" from US-based dot com and multi-national companies, with a predicted boost to revenue of £4 million sterling over the next 12 months.
ENSEMBLING ONLINE: Multimedia and new music masters, the Crash Ensemble go live this week as the ensemble-in-residence at Project Arts Centre in the Temple Bar. The ensemble's first concerts are devoted to "Spectral Music" and take place on Friday and Saturday from 8.00 p.m. To coincide with them, the Ensemble's website, www.crashensemble.com, has been launched and it allows anyone exposed to their music keep abreast of recent trends through links, interviews, audio clips and articles.
SEX SCAM: A US adult Web operation will have to pay $37.5 million for operating an illegal billing scam, charging the credit cards of consumers who had not visited its sites and thousands who didn't own a PC at all. The Federal Trade Commission brought the suit after a complaint was filed in January 1999 alleging that the defendants billed consumers without authorisation. The companies have over $20 million in assets, but it isn't clear that the full amount of the penalty will be available to pay back consumers.
FREE PHONE: International PC-to-phone service provider, Go2Call, www.go2call.ie, has announced a strategic partnership with Dublin Tourism. The partnership allows Dublin Tourism visitors anywhere in the world to place free phone calls to Ireland directly from its website using technology powered by Go2Call.
PRIVATE PAYMENTS: American Express is to offer disposable credit card numbers for safer online shopping. Private Payments will be offered free next month to AMEX customers and small business cardholders in the US. Private Payments allows customers to buy online without transmitting actual card numbers over the Internet. For each online purchase, the customer obtains a random number from an American Express Web site that expires after the transaction.
MS PHILIPS DEAL: Philips is to license Microsoft's Enhanced TV software for use in its set-top boxes and collaborate with the software giant on developing new products. The combined Philips and Microsoft products are expected to enable features that combine properties of the Internet with traditional television as well as digital recording similar to TiVo and privately-held Replay. The first Philips set-top boxes running Microsoft TV software are expected to be available in 2001.
IN BRIEF...
Openet Telecom has signed a £500,000 hardware contract with HP Ireland and its e-business partner Mentec. . . The UnoFirst Group, which employs over 400 people in Ireland, has been named as "Best Global Internet Bank" by The Banker - an industry magazine published by the Financial Times. . . The entertainment listings website, Entertainment Ireland and online.ie, have launched Ticketmaster's online booking services on their sites. . . Italian ISP Tiscali is buying troubled Dutch rival World Online International in an all-stock deal valued at about $5.2 billion. . . Nintendo plans to open more than 10 overseas stores selling products based on its Pokemon characters, starting in New York and London early next year. . .