 
Getting the lean advantage in telcos
GCC telecom operators need to reduce waste and can achieve cost savings of up to 30 per cent, according to a new study by the Boston Consulting Group. “While some companies have set up rigorous cost reduction programs to protect profit margins, one-off cost reduction measures like cutting marketing spend, travel, advisory, and renegotiation of major vendor / supplier contracts are the usual suspects for immediate scrutiny,” says BCG. |
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Repositioning critical for Middle East’s mobile network operators
Challenges include funding constraints which lead regional operators to deploy ‘CAPEX light’ infrastructure models while incumbents are looking to optimise the returns on their network assets. Increased competition in the home market means it is imperative for incumbent operators to consider selective mergers and acquisitions while global operators are also reviewing their portfolio of assets and exiting unprofitable geographies. |
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Cybercriminals have 2012 Olympics in their sights
World Cup 2010 confirmed an ever-increasing trend of cybercriminals exploiting social engineering, particularly online users’ insatiable search for news – be it current affairs-, celebrity-, or sports-related. Search engine optimisation (SEO) poisoning where cybercriminals use popular search terms to push their infected sites higher in the rankings of popular engines continued to rank high on the list of malicious activity during World Cup 2010. |
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Gartner says number of worldwide mobile payment users to reach 108.6 million in 2010
"We continue to see strong growth in developing markets in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa for mobile payment, while adoption in North America and Western Europe lags behind due to the plentiful choices of payment instruments that consumers have," said Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner. "Developing markets have found the right formula for mobile money services — functions that users want and an ecosystem that can sustain the service." |
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Cyber safety and climate change
Improving computer, network and internet security will facilitate this and consequently will indirectly help to reduce pollution by creating a safer environment to encourage more commerce to be conducted online, resulting in more efficient use of transport. Obviously the improvement of security and safety on the internet is of paramount importance in any case but if climate scientists are correct then this is perhaps a more urgent task than might otherwise be apparent, according to Louis Leahy. |
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Spam Report: May 2010
PayPal, eBay, HSBC and Facebook remain the most popular targets for phishers, with 50.4 per cent (-4.2 per cent) for PayPal, 13.4 per cent (+1.9 per cent) for eBay, 8.5 per cent (-1.1 per cent) for HSBC and 6.9 per cent (-1.8 per cent) for Facebook. |
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