SkypeOut with Skype

Skype, the company that lets users make computer-to-computer calls for free is launching a service that makes computer-to-phone calls for less than 2 cents a minute in some areas.

The new feature, dubbed SkypeOut, is designed to give tiny Skype Technologies an edge on large telecommunications companies by undercutting their prices.

SMS TV

From SmartMobs:French satellite channel Tchatche TV features several programs targeted to 15-25 year-olds. They are about movies, music or video games but what is unusual is that the program itself is only displayed in a small window on the upper corner of the TV screen, while the rest is of the screen is taken up by text messages sent in by viewers - which scoll by like credits to a movie.

Meanwhile, Malaysia's guardian of Islamic law has banned Muslims from using text messaging to take part in prize-winning competitions, ruling that the practice is a form of gambling, according to Reuters.

The ruling by the National Fatwa Council, a group of Islamic scholars appointed by the king, means Muslims caught sending text or short messaging service (SMS) messages in the hope of winning a prize could find themselves in a sharia court.

Update: It seems like SMS Contests would continue in our country according to this report.

Streamyx Customer Service

TMNet Sdn Bhd announced yesterday that it has outsourced the Customer Interaction Centre (CIC) of its Streamyx broadband service to VADS Bhd, a Telekom Malaysia subsidiary, due to increasing customer calls and enquiries.

VADS acting chief executive officer Dennis Koh said the company employs over 150 customer service representatives (CSRs) to handle Streamyx's subscriber calls."We have a dedicated quality team listening in on calls to ensure QA[quality assurance] guidelines are being practised and processes being followed. All CSRs are progressively trained in-house to ensure their performance meet the ever changing customer expectations," he added.

Streamyx's CustCare number: 1300-88-9515

Saving Sirim

From theedgedaily.com:

Imagine having a limited budget for research and development. Instead of focusing on your best ideas, you have to apportion some money to an area you know will not bring in financial returns. In fact, you will likely have customers who cannot pay you even on an installment basis.

This is the position SIRIM BHD finds itself in today.

Sounds from Santubong

This year's Rainforest World Music Festival was held from 9-11 July. This pic was taken during the performance of a 17-piece Sundanese band from Indonesia on the festival's second day. Let's see whether streaming broadcast can be done for next year's event!

The huge turnout at this year's Rainforest World Music Festival.

Swiss National Park

The Swiss National Park will be the first test-bed for WebPark, a European Union sponsored consortium project. It is a research plan and technological implementation program to develop personalized value-added Location Based Services (LBS) for recreation in coastal, rural and mountainous areas. ...involving the integration of expertise in GIS and multimedia content, device-sensitive delivery and adaptive terrain and landscape intelligence. Geographically relevant location-based information services are delivered directly to users in protected recreation areas via the mobile Internet.

Selling Practicality

Jeff Ooi opines:

"Broadband ISPs should realise that they are not in the business for charity, or to champion narrowing the digital divide. Their duty is to rollout broadband services in areas that should drive the country’s economy and global competitiveness.

Big organisations that have embraced Internet revolution should know how to deploy broadband without much delay. Residential users would not be contributing much to the national penetration grid. They are the rich esoterics. I feel that ISPs peddling broadband should develop this neglected segment, traditional industries which are facing severe shake-ups due to technology change. ISPs should sell them not just a broadband account, nor just connectivity. I think it will be better if they partner with application service providers to offer broadband-plus services."

Jeff has hit the nail on the head here. He continues:

"I can also immediately sense opportunities for our colour-separators, a sunset subset of the printing industry, to start marketing their services using broadband. They could receive finished artworks from big overseas publishers and deliver the colour- separated printing films across broadband Internet. As an added service, they could also provide secure FTP (file transfer protocol)services for their clients - and clients’ clients – such as storage space for their pre-output printing film materials, which could be efficiently transmitted via broadband by now."

We need to network and form working partnerships between ourselves urgently. State governments must give top priority to local ICT companies when it comes to state ICT projects. A public-private partnership is crucial to success. This must be visible to all of us without further delay.

Swedish Cell Phones Exceed Population

There are more cell phones than people in Sweden:

"Having ballooned by 10 percent over the past year, the number of Swedish mobile phone subscriptions reached 9.07 million by the end of March...In a country that is home to only 8.98 million people, the cell phone subscription penetration rate is thus 100.1 percent.

The higher number of subscriptions than inhabitants in Sweden is largely due to the fact that many Swedes have one cell phone for personal use and one for work....In light of the latest statistics, Sweden has the highest mobile telephony penetration of all the Nordic countries, followed by Norway, then Finland and finally Denmark. The number of fixed-lines in Sweden meanwhile slipped by two percent in 2003 compared to the 2002 numbers to 5.4 million, according to statistics from the Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency."

Small Gift From A Big Man

Bill Gates signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia's Ministry of Education for a RM10 million deal aimed at benefiting around 10,000 primary and secondary schools over the next five years. The money, comprising grants for kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, will be used to train students and teachers in information and communications technology (ICT) skills and integrate ICT into the educational curriculum.

The deal is part of Microsoft's US$253 million initiative for its global Partners In Learning (PIL) programme over the next five years to government agencies and schools around the world. On whether cheaper versions of Microsoft software is enough to counter the threat of Linux adoption in Asia, Gates replied:

"People are working in the commercial area and building their own intellectual property — they don't want to work in a place where all their work has to be given away. They want to create intellectual property so that every country that is making a contribution gets the payback for the investments they are making."

SIP Phone in Sarawak

The SIP phone works using the Internet broadband (Streamyx in Malaysia) through a Local Area Network (LAN) cable into a broadband router via an inbuild Ethernet Card.

Once connected, the SIP phone can dial direct to another SIP phone, or to Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) for calls such as Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD), mobile or International Direct Dialling (IDD).However, SIP users need to subscribe to a broadband service and has to register themselves with the service provider gsn2u for a month subscription of RM12.50 to benefit from the cost saving using VoIP calls.

Calls from SIP to SIP phones are free of charge while calls from SIP phone to PSTN phones will be at special gsn2u IDD rates that are even below 10 sen for international calls.