UK notches up 2 million broadband connections

Oftel has announced that the UK now has 2 million broadband connections, a total which has doubled in just seven months. David Edmonds, Director General of Telecommunications, said, 'It took two years to reach one million connections, but only seven months to reach two million, as increased competition and lower prices have boosted connection rates.' Cable companies NTL and Telewest recently announced they had reached the 1 million mark, so the split between DSL and cable connections falls roughly equal, although Oftel does consider BT's monopolistic power to be a powerful factor in taking an increasingly larger percentage of new sign-ups. ...more

Regulatory compliance cost UK business ?1.6 billion in 2006

The extra ?1.6 billion spent in 2006 on complying with regulations is dulling the UK's competitive edge, a leading business organisation has warned. In its 2007 Burdens Barometer report, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) showed that the cost of regulatory laws hit ?10. ...more

Sun moves to simplify Java development for Sun One

Sun has announced the availability of a developer studio for Sun ONE (Open Net Environment). This is Sun's platform for delivering Web services, a rival to Microsoft's .Net offering. ...more

Microsoft could face huge EU fine

Microsoft could face a fine as high as $2.5 billion and be forced to drop features from Windows, according to confidential documents seen by The New York Times. According to the US newspaper, the documents reveal that the European Commission is alleging that Microsoft illegally used its Windows and Office software to, 'muscle into the fast-growing market for corporate and Internet computer software,' and that it, 'illegally sought to dominate music and video software for the Web. ...more

Palm embraces wireless services

Palm Computing is moving away from being just a consumer-centric hardware manufacturer to a wireless services provider, with the acquisition of Extended Systems. The move will see Palm getting involved with rival software such as the EPOC, Pocket PC and Handheld PC operating systems and standards such as Bluetooth. Extended System's main business is providing data services and synchronisation to corporates across a wide range of devices. ...more