BT is set to announce this week that 35,000 jobs have been lost as it tries to return to profitability, reports The Sunday Telegraph. British Telecom had promised to cut 15,000 jobs this year in addition to the 15,000 jobs cut in 2008.

However, BT is set to announce that it’s actually exceeded its target of 30,000 and cut an extra 5,000 jobs. It’s thought that most of the jobs lost were in the UK but most of them were either agency or temporary jobs.

It’s thought that BT is also hoping to cut another 5,000 jobs this year and if it manages to do this then BT’s workforce will have fallen from 162,000 to 122,000. In the year to April BT is expected to have made savings of £2bn.

BT is expected to reveal the news on Thursday when its pre tax profits are expected to be announced as in the region of £1bn and £1.1bn. This comes after a loss of £134m last year. It’s also thought BT will issue an update on its plans to connect 10m homes to superfast broadband by 2012.

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Source: The Sunday Telegraph

Driving business diversification – In an attempt to move with the times telecommunications company Telekom Austria has unveiled exciting new plans to turn its public telephone boxes – which are in danger of becoming obsolete due to the advancement of mobile phones – into battery recharging stations for electric cars…

The company, which provides of a range of fixed line, mobile, data, and Internet communications services in Austria, confirmed the scheme was still in the very early stages but explained that it came up with the idea to turn its 13,500 phone boxes into recharging stations for electric vehicles – cars, scooters and bicycles, as it looks into alternative uses for the facilities.

According to reports, there are currently 223 electric cars registered in Austria together with 3,559 hybrid cars – from a total of 4.36 million cars on Austrian roads. But the Austrian motor vehicle association – VoeC, expects this number will rise to approximately 405,000 by 2020.

After revealing its first prototype phone booth incorporating an integrated electricity charging station in Vienna earlier this week, Telekom Austria’s chief Hannes Ametsreiter advised the company’s aim is to convert 29 more phone boxes by the end of 2010.

During the trial period electricity will be provided free of charge and for future use the phone booths have been fitted with a mobile payment feature allowing customers to pay for their electricity by phone using Paybox or SMS, or alternatively by using an RFID card or chip.

An electric car needs about 6.5 hours re-charge, an electric scooter 80 minutes and an electric bike roughly 20 minutes.

Sources: Space Mart / TMC Net

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Microsoft is developing a tool which will bring all of a user’s social media sites together meaning they don’t have to keep logging on to different websites, reports The Daily Telegraph.

The software tool is called Spindex and will show users all their social media activity which Microsoft says will “Make sense of your social overload”.

In a blog on the Microsoft site, the general manager of Microsoft’s Fuse Labs said that Spindex was going to be available in a preview form. Lili Cheng said it brings together streams from various sources including Facebook, Twitter and Bing. She said it will make it easier for users to see “what’s new, see personalised trending topics, and generally make the most of the time you spend being social on the Web”.

Spindex is currently only available to those at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco and is one of a number of projects developed recently by Microsoft’s Fuse Labs which include a Bing-Twitter coming together so that users can see where their friends are tweeting and a tool to integrate documents into Facebook.

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Source: The Daily Telegraph

Microsoft’s browser, Internet Explorer had a market share of 95% in 2003 but this figure has now fallen to 60%, reports BBC News Online. Figures show that while Internet Explorer (IE) still has the largest market share of any web browser, it is losing ground to other browsers.

Firefox is catching IE with a market share of 24.5% while Google’s Chrome is in third place with 6.7% market share.

It’s believed that Microsoft has been losing market share because there have been concerns over the security of Internet Explorer, especially Internet Explorer 6. However, a new version of IE is due out soon and it’s thought this will address many of those concerns.

While some experts blame security issues for Microsoft’s loss of market share others say it may be down to an increased awareness of other available browsers. In March European computers received a list of available browsers to choose from after a dispute between Microsoft and the European Union. Customers now get a choice of 12 browsers and they choose which one to make their default browser. However, it’s thought this will not have affected these market share figures just yet.

The figures do show however, that Microsoft isn’t having things all its own way and competition is getting tougher in the browser market.

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Source: BBC News Online

GCI Telecom Group is set to acquire network provider NetServices for £3.2 million, reports The Business Desk. To include the sale of WAN Services Limited, Netservices is set to request shareholder approval at the next general meeting however, 53% of shareholder representatives have already agreed to vote in favour of the deal with GCI, which trades as Edge Telecom and IPI.

NetServices chairman, Graham Norfolk acknowledged that the disposal was the “best way forward” for the company and its shareholders, and said:

“At the Preliminary results in November 2009, we reported the various successes of the business, including becoming a Cisco Premier partner. However, despite a significant restructuring and a refocused strategy, revenues were difficult to predict and were taking time to come through. Therefore, we believe the assets of the business will perform better within the larger GCI group”

Upon successful completion of the sale, Netservices will change its name to Accumuli Plc and will concentrate on acquiring companies operating in the IT services, technology and communications sectors.

Source: The Business Desk

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After all the hype about the Apple iPad it appears that it’s quite popular. The Daily Mail reports that Apple has sold a million iPads since its launch a month ago which is twice the number of iPhones sold when it first came out.

The 3G version of the device came out on Friday which helped Apple to reach this milestone for the iPad. The firm said in only 28 days sales of the device had reached 1 million. The chief executive of Apple, Steve Jobs, said it took 74 days for the iPhone to reach the same number of sales. He added that demand was still exceeding supply.

The 3G version of the iPad is more expensive than the original model – the short range Wi-Fi tablet and the device is yet to go on sale internationally. International pre-orders will begin on 10 May and the iPad is set to go on sale in nine new countries later in the month.

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Source: The Daily Mail

As reported by Mobile News – BT staff may consider strike action after pay negotiations with the CWU (Communications Workers Union) broke down last week.

According to the CWU, negotiations with BT have halted after it rejected BT’s “final offer” of a two per cent pay increase for all non-management staff – despite the CWU demanding a five per cent rise in February and originally expecting negotiations to be concluded by the end of April.

Representing approximately 50,000 BT employees, CWU argued that it helped BT to save almost £1.6 billion in 2009 and that the telecoms giant is also expected to show an 11% increase in profits to £1.5 billion in its end of year financial results due out this month.

The CWU further accuses BT of similar tactics to those used by mobile network operator O2 earlier this year – by offering a deal based purely on the CWU recommending it to its members.

BT has responded by advising that staff are due to receive a cash bonus of £250 based on targets, however, they have not disclosed further details regarding what those targets would be. The Union believes it would be “crazy” to accept such a deal.

A spokesperson for the CWU added:

“The CWU has bent over backwards to help BT over the past 18 months or so. If we don’t get any further there is now an open threat of balloting for strike action. In terms of any timetable we don’t have one. But we have told BT in no uncertain terms its offer is unacceptable. The offer only exists if we recommend it as it’s much more likely to be accepted by our members. BT says it’s its final offer so we are now at a stand off”

Source: Mobile News CWP

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A survey of broadband suppliers has revealed that, for the second year running, O2 has come out top as best broadband supplier, reports The Guardian. The survey – the 2010 Broadband Customer Satisfaction Report carried out by uSwitch.com, questioned over 7,000 broadband customers.

Customers were questioned on 11 categories with 92% of O2 customers being satisfied overall. One of the main stumbling blocks for suppliers was customer service. While 92% of O2 customers were satisfied over all only 44% of Orange customers said they were happy with their firm’s customer service.

It seems to be the more established broadband suppliers such as AOL and BT, who are coming bottom of the league table while new suppliers such as O2 and Sky are leading the way.

O2 won 10 out of the 11 categories including best value for money, best customer service, best technical support and best quality of connection.

O2 offers a basic broadband package for £12.50 a month. However, if you’re an existing mobile phone customer or you top up £10 every three months on pay as you go, you pay £7.50. And O2 are about to launch their home phone service which will offer line rental and calls in a broadband bundle. It means other phone suppliers will have to up their game to match O2.

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Source: The Guardian

THE UMIP Premier Fund, which is managed by MTI Partners, has invested £650,000 in telecoms power provider PowerOasis, forming part of a total £1.15 million investment round.

PowerOasis is a UK based company offering telecoms base station operators – turn-key solutions to help reduce power costs. The company’s products enable diesel generators to be supplemented or replaced with renewable energy as and when required, which can significantly reduce diesel use (at least by 50%).

The company reports a significant growth in demand from networks in areas that are not connected to reliable grids, including parts of India, Africa and Asia Pacific and will utilise the investment to increase sales resources, provide operational support and help the development of the next generation of product.

Nick Smailes, chief executive of PowerOasis, said:

“PowerOasis is very pleased with the investment from MTI, it enables us to scale up our operations to meet the significant growth in demand for our telecoms networks power optimisation products and services, and accelerate into this multi-billion dollar market”

Source: The Business Desk

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The generation brought up with Facebook and other forms of social networking will change the way offices work, reports The Daily Telegraph. A study which saw contributions from Microsoft, found that this Facebook generation will rely on mobile technology, remote working and pop up offices in order to carry out their jobs.

The study was backed by the Institute of Directors and public sector think tanks and it noted that IT departments would in the future, not be supporting workers in an office environment but would be helping to ease their way into working from home and other ways of remote working.

A national technology officer at Microsoft, David Coplin, said “Companies will be a bit more aggressive with how much office space they need”. He added that 45% of office space was wasted which accounted for 45% of office costs.

The study suggested that companies will eventually have to let staff use online collaboration tools and social networks in order for them to carry out their jobs and that companies will benefit from this in the long run.

Mr Coplin said that previously there had been talk about the end of the desk phone. Now he says “…we are talking about the death of the desk. It’s not just about working from home. There are compelling reasons for working from a variety of locations”.

So according to Microsoft hot-desking and working from home is the future for the office. But will it lead to workers feeling increasingly isolated because they are no longer mixing with other members of staff on a regular basis? Food for thought.

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Source: The Daily Telegraph

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