David Legard

Singapore's Ministry of Defence (MinDef) has moved away from a predominantly Microsoft Corp. desktop policy by installing the open-source OpenOffice productivity software on 5,000 desktop computers.

Vietnam's fast-growing mobile telephony market has moved a stage closer to deploying 3G (third-generation) technology after awarding a large contract to China's ZTE Corp. for a CDMA 2000 1X network.

The United Nations, through its International Open Source Network (IOSN) will organize the first annual Software Freedom Day on Saturday in an effort to educate Asian users about the benefits of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and encourage its wider use in the region.

A number of Chinese software companies have joined forces with overseas vendors such as IBM Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp and Novell Inc. to form the China Open Source Software Promotion Alliance, China's first open-source software organization, several Chinese media reported Wednesday.

A virus designed to demonstrate security holes in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows CE operating system but not to cause damage was identified by security companies over the weekend.

Vietnam's information and communications technology (ICT) industry was worth US$2 billion over the last 12 months, 38 per cent higher than in the previous year, the Ho Chi Minh City Informatics Association (HCMIA) reported Tuesday.

Vague regulations, overlapping responsibilities and infighting between different Chinese regulators are threatening the development of a potentially huge market combining telecom networks and media content, according to Marcia Ellis, a Hong Kong-based lawyer with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

Pursuing its goal of becoming a regional telecommunications and Internet service provider, Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (SingTel) signed a deal Wednesday with Norwegian satellite services provider Nera ASA for the supply of two-way satellite broadband systems.