Bell Canada invests in Lycos
WALTHAM – BCE, Inc.’s Bell Canada unit is investing $45.9 million in Lycos, Inc. to give its 10 million Canadian customers better access to Lycos products, such as Gamesville.com and Internet search engines, e-mail, on-line city guides and a variety of Canadian content. According to Bloomberg News, Lycos will contribute content only to the venture, no cash, and will receive a portion of the advertising revenue generated by the new service to be called Sympatico-Lycos.
iBasis teaming with Cisco in ‘mailbox’ venture
BURLINGTON – iBasis, Inc., which delivers a variety of voice calls via Internet style networks and Cisco Systems, Inc. are jointly producing a new line of “unified mailboxes” which will handle electronic mail, faxes, wireless and land-line voice mail and other communications through a single account. The companies plan a spring production through EffectNet of Phoenix and already report a backlog of 50,000 orders.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
Learn More
Berkshires bridge Internet service gap
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Unwilling to see their rural area stuck in the slow lane, businesses in Berkshire County have put together their own deal to bring high-speed Internet access to the state’s western mountains. And they say prices will be comparable to rates paid by firms in Boston and Manhattan. “This is every bit as important to the economy of the county as the coming of the railroad,” said Nathanial Karns, executive director of the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission.
Like many rural areas across the nation, the Berkshires were considered to be too small and too far away from Internet portals to interest providers. Still, they’ve bridged the digital divide without having to turn to government subsidies.
The businesses were celebrating partnership agreements with two companies, Global Cross Ltd. and Equal Access Networks Inc., to build and create a multimillion-dollar network of microwave towers and fiberoptic lines linking the county’s scenic villages and small cities with fast Internet access.
Protest rising over foreign students
WASHINGTON — When Hewlett-Packard Co. looks for workers to develop its next printer or software package, the Palo Alto, Calif., firm looks for top graduates from American colleges. But in some of the key disciplines, half of the master’s and doctoral students are foreign nationals.
With unemployment less than 2 percent in Santa Clara County and high-tech companies hiring at breathtaking rates, Silicon Valley is exerting its growing lobbying might to expand a special visa program called H-1B that allows foreign college graduates to stay in the country and work.
A temporary boost from 65,000 visas per year to 115,000 failed to satisfy the industry’s appetite, and new legislation is in the works to expand the visa program.
High-tech companies in Silicon Valley and elsewhere are scrounging for skilled workers. There were about 1 million jobs in computer-related fields nationwide in 1998 and some categories are projected to double within the next six years, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Hang up and drive: officials mull car phone bans
PHILADELPHIA — Patricia Pena once gave little thought to the dangers of using a cellular telephone on the road before an inattentive driver broadsided her vehicle and left her 2 1/2-year-old daughter dead. Now it’s all the Bucks County woman thinks about as she pushes for legislation to keep drivers’ hands on the steering wheels of their cars and off their cell phones.
Lawmakers in states and cities across the nation are considering legislation to ban drivers from talking on cell phones, spurred by critics who contend the act is as hazardous as driving while intoxicated.
Morgan Pena died a day after the Nov. 1 accident in Hilltown when a driver ran a stop sign and struck the car driven by Mrs. Pena. The driver of the other car admitted he was distracted while talking on his cell phone. The tragedy led to Hilltown being just the second community in the nation to pass a ban on cell phone use while driving.
Under the ordinance, which took effect last month, a driver cannot be stopped for using a mobile phone but can be fined $75 if pulled over for another violation. People calling 911 would not be cited, and emergency services workers are exempt.
The ordinance is based on one passed in March in Brooklyn, Ohio, where police have issued more than 80 citations with $2 fines. On Jan. 26, Conshohocken — another Philadelphia suburb — passed a similar ordinance.
A 1997 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that talking on a cell phone while driving quadruples the risk of an accident and is about as dangerous as being close to legally drunk behind the wheel. The researchers said that losing concentration, not fiddling with the phone itself, is what creates the hazard, so talking on a hands-free model is just as risky.
Excelergy releases new billing software
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Excelergy Corporation, of Cambridge, maker of software technology for the deregulated energy industry, has released the newest version of its advanced billing and customer care software, ABP (Advanced Billing Platform) 3000.
