■ Telephony
AT&T could cut 10,000 jobs
AT&T Inc plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs, mostly through normal turnover, if its US$67 billion purchase of BellSouth Corp is approved by shareholders and regulators, AT&T's chief financial officer said. The work force reduction would take place over three years, AT&T's Rick Lindner said on Monday. Before the cuts, the combined company would have around 316,000 employees, including Cingular Wireless LLC, which is now an AT&T-BellSouth joint venture. The new company would be the US' largest phone company -- with nearly half of all lines. It would also be the largest cellphone carrier and the largest provider of broadband Internet service.
■ Telephony
Cingular offers video clips
Cingular Wireless LLC, the biggest US mobile-phone service provider, will begin providing sports and entertainment video clips to handset users. Viewers will be able to watch three- to five-minute clips from media companies including Fox News, ESPN and HBO, said Jim Ryan, a Cingular vice president. The service is available to subscribers who pay US$20 or more a month for broadband services. Carriers are racing to make viewing videos on handsets as easy as watching television. Verizon Wireless, the second-largest US carrier, began V-Cast for videos last year.
■ Computers
Sun sues Hynix
Sun Microsystems Inc, the world's fourth-largest maker of server computers, sued Hynix Semiconductor Inc over antitrust claims after four Hynix executives agreed to plead guilty to US criminal charges. The lawsuit, filed on March 2 in San Jose, California, claims Hynix, the world's second-largest maker of memory chips, and five other companies colluded to fix prices. A day earlier, the four Hynix executives agreed to serve prison sentences and pay fines of US$250,000 each in the US Justice Department probe of a conspiracy to set prices in the US$25.3 billion-a-year dynamic random access memory market.
■ Banking
UK card fraud down
Credit and debit card fraud fell significantly for the first time in 10 years last year in part due to the introduction of the chip and pin technology, figures showed yesterday. Total card fraud losses fell by 13 percent, from £504.8 million (US$886.3 million) in 2004 to £439.4 million (US$771.5) last year, according to figures from APACS, the UK payments association. "Seeing card fraud losses come down is cast-iron proof that chip and pin is doing its job," Sandra Quinn of APACS said in a statement. Chip and pin technology was introduced in 2003 and UK consumers are now no longer able to sign when paying with their cards but have to key in the four-digit pin.
■ Electronics
Hitachi plans robot
Hitachi is working on an R2D2-like security robot on wheels that can map out its surroundings using infrared sensors and a camera to detect missing items, suspicious packages and intruders. The 57cm tall robot, which looks like a trash can and is reminiscent of the small, beeping robot in Star Wars, has a swiveling camera that protrudes like a periscope, enabling it to watch for suspicious changes in the landscape and send photos to a guard, Hitachi said yesterday.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from