Google to lauch cheap phone calls via GMAIL

Google enables phone calls from Gmail

It's VoIP, but not as you know it

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Google has said users of Gmail will now be able to call telephones directly from their e-mail, putting it in direct competition with Skype as well as more traditional operators.
While Google had already offered computer-to-computer voice and video chat services, it said, starting on Wednesday, it would now allow calls to home phones and mobile phones directly from Gmail for the first time.
Google promised free calls to US and Canadian phones from Gmail for the rest of this year and said it would charge low rates for calls made to other countries.
For example it said calls to the UK, France, Germany, China and Japan would cost two cents per minute.
Analysts said the service would likely be a bigger competitive threat to services like Skype than to traditional phone companies, which have already been cutting their call prices in recent years in response to stiff competition.
"This is a risk to Skype. It's a competitor with a pretty good brand name," said Hudson Square analyst, Todd Rethemeier.
Skype, which is owned by private equity firms and eBay and planning a $100 million initial public offering, has long allowed consumers to make calls from computers to phones. Skype became popular by first offering free computer-to-computer voice and video services.
Like Skype, Rethemeier said the Google service will likely be much more popular among users making international calls, than among people calling friends inside the country.
"Calling is so cheap already that I don't think it will attract a huge amount of domestic calling. It could take some of the international market," he said.
Another analyst, Steve Clement from Pacific Crest, said anybody who is tempted by Internet calling services has likely already disconnected their home phone. "The type of person who would use a service like that isn't the type of customer who still has a landline."
Google said making a call through its service works like a normal phone in that a user could click on the "call phone" option in their chat buddy list in Gmail and type in the number or enter a contact's name.
Calls that cost money will be charged from an online account that users can top up with a credit card, Google said. The service will not be available for making outgoing calls on mobile phones because other Google apps already cater to that market, the company added.
published by techcentral.
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Finland's right to broadband: kind of like access to electricity, water

Finland's right to broadband: kind of like access to electricity, water.



The government in Finland has made it official: access to a broadband connection of at least 1 megabit per second is now a legal right for the residents of that country. And by 2015, the government hopes to impose minimum connection of 100 mbps to its residents.

Granted, Finland is a small, sparsely populated country and about 96 percent of the country is already connected, according to a BBC report, so the whole legal right thing doesn’t bring about any immediate change.

Still, broadband as a legal right is an interesting concept. Increasingly, as the Internet becomes the pipeline for all types of information, its presence in any home in any country is more like that of a utility, comparable to electricity, water or a telephone. And like those instances, the utility is simply available. The service isn’t provided. Consumers still have to pay to turn the service on and a monthly bill for usage.

The only thing that’s required of the power companies or water companies is to make sure that a home has access to their services. It’s not required that they be provided for free. And, the utility companies don’t have to provide the products that utilize the services. After all, the electric company isn’t giving away table lamps to plug into the electrical outlets.

When you think of it like that, the burden here becomes that of the Internet service provider, which is now required to deliver at least 1 mbps of broadband, and soon 100 mbps, to every resident. Certainly, those providers would pass along their investment costs to their customers. But at least they would be in compliance with everyone’s legal right.

And now, when other technologies emerge - whether smart grid electricity or Internet-powered television - the people of Finland will be ready for it, ahead of the curve.

Hmmm. Ahead of the curve on broadband technology, huh? Wouldn’t it be nice for the U.S. to be in that tech camp again? Maybe - just maybe - Finland is on to something with this legal right to broadband thing.

Posted by Pc Clean
Created on www.zdnet.com

iPhone supplier has major suicide issues

Foxconn hands over suicide worker dormitories

Company argues suicides not work-related

Lifestyle Tech | 28 Jun 2010 :
Electronics maker Foxconn, under fire for its working practices after a string of worker suicides, will sign over management of staff dormitories at its complexes in Shenzhen, China, to other companies.

Ten suicides this year at the sprawling manufacturing base has brought intense scrutiny of Taiwan's Hon Hai, the owner of Foxconn, which makes the iPhone and other products for Apple and also counts Dell and Hewlett-Packard among its clients.

Hon Hai had said at its shareholder meeting earlier this month that it would look for others to manage the dormitories, which house the some 450,000 mostly migrant workers from China's poorer hinterlands that work at the plants.

Foxconn said it had agreed with two companies - Shenzhen CPM Property Management and Kaiyuan Property Management - to hand over management of 153 employee dormitories.

"Providing employees with basic necessities including a safe and convenient place to live at the work-site might have been sufficient in the past, but this arrangement no longer satisfies the needs of the young migrant workers of today," said Terry Cheng, Foxconn's corporate executive vice-president.

"They also want to have a life in the city in which they work," he said.

The suicides, which the company said were not work-related but which victims' families have blamed on tough conditions, triggered a wave of labour unrest in China as workers sought a better deal.

Over 1.5 Million BB users in Ireland now

Telecoms & Broadband | 18 Jun 2010 :
Communications Minister Eamon Ryan has welcomed the publication of ComReg's latest quarterly report. For the first three months of 2010, total Internet subscriptions stood at 1,615,032, with broadband subscriptions at 1,509,934. This represents an increase of 19% on the same period in 2009.

Speaking from the Shanghai Expo, Minister Ryan said: "When I entered Government, around 600,000 people in Ireland had internet access - now, we have grown to a point where well over 1.5 million people in Ireland now subscribe to a service.

This success is down to progressive policy on the part of Government and significant investment by the private sector. In the last three years almost €1.5 billion of public and private monies has been invested in Irish broadband.

Almost every week, we hear of a new announcement of higher speeds and better services for Irish customers. The Government's National Broadband Scheme will deliver broadband to every part of Ireland by autumn this year, 3 years ahead of the EU target. The cable operator is investing in 100Mb/s speeds, and in the last days, eircom announced that it is trialling speeds of 150Mb/s.

Broadband growth in Ireland continues apace - further schemes, and further investment will only serve to ramp up this success."

http://www.techcentral.ie/article.aspx?id=15196&newsletter=160