30 May 2003

Extortion and unbundling IRELAND -- Eircom is threatening to postpone up to €1 billion in much needed investment after being told to cut prices by the Irish Communications Regulator. The decision to review its five- year investment plan could seriously undermine the national telecommunications infrastructure. Eircom has issues with ComReg imposing a much lower interconnection fee than it wanted other companies to pay to use the local loop. Jamie Smyth: Eircom warns it may delay €1bn investment Jamie Smyth: more on Irish unbundling x_ref15

Canada to establish national knowledge network for health informatics DISA org -- A group of universities, health information associations and companies in Canada will createa knowledge management and collaborative e-learning platform for health informatics to serve Canadian health systems and educational institutions. Data Interchange Standards: Canada to establish national knowledge network for health informatics x_ref1482

Spam controlled with e-mail standards INTERNET WEEK -- Nearly every major Irish technical mailing list deails with anti-spam tactics. Recent commments dealt with the Anti-Spam Research Group's plans to combat the growing nuisance. The plan is significant because, "The ASRG has the prestige to get its proposals put in place." One major initiative: enabling technology that makes it diffocult to send emails with false email addresses. This alone would be a major boon, since it would allow countermeasures to be taken against known spammers. Other rpoposals include trusted sender technology, reputation systems, spam reporting systems, and more. Mitch Wagner: Major Internet Standards Group Working On Fast Plan To Can Spam x_ref1482

Another sign PDAs are hitting mainstream PALM -- In what heralds the arrival of mass market PDAs, Palm announced the sale of 1m entry-level Zire devices. Richard Shim: Zire tops 1 million units sold Erin Joyce: Zure stands out in sluggish PDA stats x_ref133