News and Events - February 2002

Fri 22nd Feb, 2002

Fujitsu and Sagam to develop 3G phones

"Fujitsu, the Japanse electronics group, and Sagem, one of France's largest mobile phone makers, are to develop advanced third-generation phones", the FT reports, adding that mobile phones' "capabilities are becoming similar to those of PCs".

Fri 22nd Feb, 2002

Web sales at Reed Elsevier head for £1bn

The FT writes "Electronic sales at Reed Elsevier topped £1bn last year as the Anglo-Dutch media group increased pre-tax profit by 43 per cent". Crispin Davis, chief executive, said "Reed Elsevier would continue to spend on internet services "on the same scale" when its current plan to spend £750m over three years on web services ended in December". Lex adds that "This year, further margin improvement is expected from driving internet penetration at Harcourt Science Technical and Medical"

Wed 13th Feb, 2002

Apple delays launch of QuickTime 6 because of MPEG-4 license terms

"Apple announced at the QuickTime Live! Conference today that there's a public preview of QuickTime 6 with full MPEG-4 support ready to ship, but the terms of the proposed MPEG-4 license are holding it back," says a Slashdot report from the conference. See the Apple news release featured in the FT for more detail.

Thu 7th Feb, 2002

Broadband internet claimed to need subsidy in rural areas

"Areas with less than 20,000 homes and businesses linked to a local exchange simply aren't viable for broadband today", Sir Christopher Bland, Chairman of British Telecommunications, told the Commons select committee on culture, media and sport on Tuesday. In its article on the hearing the Financial Times reports that Sir Christopher told MPs that the provision of broadband or fast internet access would not be commercially viable in sparsely populated areas for another 10 to 20 years.

Wed 6th Feb, 2002

PDA-phone use set to expand rapidly

"The market of PDA-phones will grow from only 0.2 million units in 2000 to nearly 19 million units in 2007 for a compound annual growth rate of 87.5 percent" comments Michael Pastore in an article in CyberAtlas.

Mon 4th Feb, 2002

MPEG-4 licensors propose a "use fee"

EE Times reports that the MPEG LA LLC, the agency that licenses MPEG-4 video compression technology, has imposed a `use fee' for disseminating video data.