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Despite the sluggish global economic environment in 2002, IT spending among Asian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) grew 4.1 per cent. It was the highest growth rate compared to other groups such as large corporations, government, education, and consumer markets.

Telecommunications users in Africa are skeptical that recent developments in the sector will bring substantial improvements in quality of service.

BT Group PLC in London has once again run into criticism for outsourcing work to India after The Times newspaper in London reported this week that BT is using Indian software developers for core software development work such as creating IT systems and help desk software.

Dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) will finally open up its digital subscriber line (DSL) infrastructure and allow local Internet service providers (ISPs) to resell the service, a company official said last week.

A coalition of European privacy groups kicked off a campaign this week to ground the transfer of airline passenger data to U.S. authorities, claiming that the information exchange flies in the face of European Union privacy laws.

Louis Frissore runs data centres. Alexander Cedrone, a data warehouse manager, makes CRM work. Susan Bradley is a human resources manager who has honchoed PeopleSoft Inc. implementations.

Sweden's Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson plans to cut nearly 14,000 jobs by late 2004, after posting yet another quarterly loss.

Add CeBIT Home Electronics, scheduled to take place in Shanghai in China, to the list of Asian electronics shows and conventions on hold due to fears over severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).