Oftel makes BT pay for local loop fiasco

Oftel will force BT to pay compensation to operators if it doesn't meet agreed service levels in its unbundling of the local loop, the regulatory body announced today. The new directive from Oftel will see BT pay out up to ?20m a year if it breaks its contract, and operators will receive immediate compensation if service levels drop. Oftel has also given operators the right to bring in an independent expert to intercede in disputes with BT, as well as being able to refer problems to Oftel itself. ...more

Seven UK cities and London areas go wireless

Wi-Fi operator The Cloud has announced plans to provide blanket wireless Net access across seven UK cities and three London boroughs. Hotspots will be installed in caf?s, pubs, shops and railway stations as well as street furniture such as lamp posts. They will support online gaming and VoIP phone calls as well as normal Net usage such as surfing and email. ...more

LiSA v3.0 speaks of new mail

A new version of LiSA Speaking Assistant sees a boxed edition of the product being made available in the UK through the distributor SoftWide. LiSA v3.0 is designed to humanise your interaction with email, taking the guess work out of the content of new messages. ...more

Spoofed spam sibling sent to slammer

Following the first trial of its kind in the US, a brother and sister have been convicted of sending hundreds of thousands of spam emails. A third defendant Richard Rutkowski was cleared of charges. Finding the two defendants guilty of three charges each of sending emails with spoofed addresses, the jury recommended that Jeremy Jaynes be sentenced to nine years in prison and fined Jessica DeGroot $7,500. ...more

PlayStation 2 hits the shelves - not!

Unless you've been living on the moon, you probably already know that the PlayStation 2 arrives in the UK today. The 128-bit console is the most powerful games machine available today and features Sony's graphics-busting "Emotion Engine" chip. The unit costs ?299 and, although that is quite expensive, the machine can play DVDs movies too, so you are getting two pieces of gear for the price of one. ...more