David Legard

Rich Western nations should support information and communication technology (ICT) progress in developing countries by providing the technology at more affordable prices, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Wednesday at a meeting of the G15 nations in Jakarta, according to Malaysia's government news agency Berita Nasional Malaysia.

British Telecommunications PLC (BT) has exited the Malaysian telecommunication business with the agreement in principle to sell its 33 per cent stake in Maxis Communications Bhd. BT is selling the stake for 350 million pounds (US$503 million) to local conglomerate Usaha Tegas Sdn. Bhd., already a significant Maxis shareholder, BT said in a statement Friday.

China has 230 million fixed-line and mobile telephone subscribers, a penetration rate of 20.1 percent, according to the head of the country's Ministry of Information Industry (MII), Wu Jichuan.

Australian broadband communications technology company QPSX Ltd. has filed a patent infringement writ in Germany seeking 125 million marks (US$57.6 million) in compensation from Siemens AG and Deutsche Telekom AG over a technology called SAR (Segmentation and Reassembly).

Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (SingTel) and its new A$17.2 billion Australian acquisition, Cable & Wireless Optus Ltd. (CWO), are well-positioned to succeed in Asia but face a formidable challenge from dominant carrier Telstra Corp. Ltd. in Australia, according to telecommunications analyst Paul Budde.

Australia's 3G (third-generation) mobile spectrum auction closed Thursday with the six bidders agreeing to pay a total of A$1.17 billion (US$580 million) for 48 of the 58 lots on offer, the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) said in a statement. The figure falls well below the A$2.6 billion the government originally estimated it would gain from the auction.

The recent market downturn has turned sentiment against the Internet portal concept, and the next 12 months will see a lot of consolidation among portals in Asia-Pacific, according to a report released Friday by market analyst International Data Corp. (IDC).

Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp.'s joint Wintel juggernaut failed to spot the emerging trend away from the desktop PC as the centre of the computing universe, according to John Dean, managing director of equity research, computer storage for Salomon Smith Barney Inc.