Industry news

The sale of 4G mobile spectrum should be used to create affordable housing and provide funding for newcomers to the housing market.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls announced at the Labour party conference said that the expected revenue of £3-4 billion from the sale, should be invested in creating 100,000 new affordable properties, saying:“So with this one-off windfall from the sale of the 4G spectrum, let's cut through the dither and rhetoric and actually do something.”

Invest in construction would also provide work for the building industry, helping to slow the fall of jobs in construction.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) have given the go-ahead to Vodafone and O2 to merge elements of their networks in order to increase the speed of 4G services rollout in the UK.

The new joint venture will be called CTI Ltd and will see the consolidation of UK network infrastructure while remaining individually competitive.

CTI will have access to an infrastructure containing as many as 18,500 masts which will allow for greater coverage, Ronan Dunne, CEO Telefónica UK, said: “One physical grid, running independent networks, will mean broader coverage and, crucially, investment in innovation and better competition for the customer”.

Three major Xstrata shareholders plan to oppose the merger, with the prospect of other shareholders turning against the merger.

Opposition to the deal includes Threadneedle Investments which owns 0.29 percent of Xstrata and Knight Vinke, owners 0.5 percent.

Despite the opposition to the move, the deal is expected to be confirmed by a majority stake. The Independent reported that shareholders, despite opposing the move, were resigned to the fact that the deal would go ahead, after Qatar as main stakeholders backed the move.

Just before the final deadline, Glencore and Xstrata have reached agreement regarding a £56 billion merger between the two mining giants.

Xstrata is prepared to a recommended the deal to shareholders after differences regarding the board composition were dealt with.

The agreement was finalised just hours before a deadline, which would have seen both sides walk away from the deal.

Google’s €75 million Dublin datacentre has become operational. The centre is the location for critical services for Google products including; cloud services , Gmail and Google maps.

The new state of the art datacentre, which took nearly a year to complete, reduces power requirements through harnessing the surrounding the climate.

The new centre will create a range of opportunities within the Irish job market, including such roles as IT support, security and mechanical and electrical engineers.

Richard Bruton, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, said of the opening: “Cloud computing forms a key part of the government’s action plan for jobs. Our technological infrastructure is improving and cloud computing is one area where our climate gives us advantages”.

Microsoft has backed the payment of $5 billion to the US government, to allow for more visas, in order to reduce an expanding IT skills gap.

The H-1B visa allows for foreign workers to gain temporary employment in specialist sectors, which Microsoft promotes to fill increasing IT vacancies.

Microsoft proposed the $5 billion payment as a way to improve education in the sectors that increased visa applications would fill.

Brad Smith, general counsel for Microsoft, wrote that “We believe this approach could raise up to $500 million per year – or $5 billion over a decade – that the federal government could use to distribute to states where the STEM education investments are needed”.

UK government departments including the DSA, DfE and the UKBA have offered up IT testing services valued at £400 million for tender.

Required services include various large scale computer testing systems. Separate services include a national system for DSA test centres, educational testing services for DfE and citizen tests for the UKBA.

All of these contracts will provide national coverage, with testing services to be provided to hundreds of thousands of UK users, with room for expansion in many of the contracts.

G4S has been selected along with eight other possible suppliers to provide smart card and access control technology to educational facilities.

The three year contract for IT framework services includes the delivery of hardware and software as well as installation, management and support to over 1,400 educational establishments.

The announcement comes shortly after the resignation of two G4S directors following the failure of the company to deliver on the 2012 Olympic security contract.

The European Commission has revealed plans to created 2.5 million new jobs over eight years from increasing the uptake of cloud computing.

Along with 2.5 million jobs the strategy also aims to increase GDP by €160 billion by 2020.

The EC pointed to the economic advantages of cloud computing but highlighted the absence of clear guidelines set by governments and industries. The new strategy will help to shape such guidelines according to the EU.

EC vice-president Neelie Kroes, said: “Cloud computing is a game-changer for our economy. Without EU action, we will stay stuck in national fortresses and miss out on billions in economic gains”.

Cisco has move to acquire ThinkSmart who specialise in Wi-Fi data collection for an undisclosed amount.

The purchase is the sixth acquisition made by the global networking company, aimed at providing mobility technology to the company’s networking systems portfolio.

Hilton Romanski, vice-president and head of corporate business development at Cisco, said: “The acquisition of ThinkSmart reinforces Cisco’s commitment to deliver an intelligent network by providing customers with enhanced tools, such as location analytics, that increase the value of the network.”