Also: Verizon to shut off free NYC hot spots; IBM, Cisco to link voice products; NY Attorney General goes after spyware; China’s biggest bank plans to deploy Linux
It’s not the first time he’s shown a preference for it and likely won’t be the last, but Microsoft Chief Software Architect Bill Gates last week said he’d like the Bush administration to do away with the limitation on foreign engineers U.S. companies can hire. The stance isn’t popular with technology workers, particularly those who have watched their jobs go offshore over the past few years. According to an Associated Press report, Gates said the government should eliminate the limit of 65,000 for overseas workers who can be hired each year by American firms under specialty H1-B visas aimed at drawing engineers, scientists, architects and doctors to the U.S. “The whole idea of the H1-B visa thing is, don’t let too many smart people come into the country,” Gates told a panel discussion at the Library of Congress. “The thing basically doesn’t make sense.”
Verizon says it will decommission the 380 free Wi-Fi hot spots in New York City it turned up for its DSL customers two years ago. The carrier said usage was low – fewer than half were generating more than 80% of the traffic. Verizon will instead steer mobile business customers to its cellular EV-DO BroadbandAccess service, which costs $80 per month. All hot spots will be shut down in two months. Verizon initially planned to run up 1,000 hot spots in New York by the end of 2003. With up to 54M bit/sec speeds within a 300-foot radius, Wi-Fi is considered by some to be an attractive network access offering for mobile business users in hotels, airports, restaurants and on busy street corners. The business model for Wi-Fi hot spots has been elusive, however, as potential users might be turned off by the cost for access, spotty coverage and limited roaming. Wi-Fi pioneer Cometa shut down last year after failing to garner support from carriers to fund its hot-spot rollout. But some carriers continue to forge ahead on expansive Wi-Fi coverage. Sprint recently announced that it added 5,000 hot spots over the past month to 19,000. The carrier plans to have 25,000 hot spots for its Sprint PCS customers by year-end.
IBM and Cisco last week announced plans to link some of their voice products to make it easier for organizations to develop and deploy self-service speech applications. The two vendors have been working to integrate IBM’s WebSphere Voice Server and Cisco’s Customer Voice Portal, and expect to deliver a combined offering by mid-year. Organizations increasingly are looking to provide speech-enabled applications that let customers conduct transactions over the phone instead of requiring help from a live customer service agent. One goal is to alleviate traditionally high labor costs in call centers. IBM’s Business Consulting Services division estimates labor-related expenses – such as payroll, staff turnover, training and retention – can comprise 75% of call center costs. IBM’s WebSphere Voice Server software pairs its application server technology with tools for developing and deploying speech-enabled applications. Cisco’s Customer Voice Portal is interactive voice response software that combines call-management features with support for speech recognition and text-to-speech technologies.
In an effort to challenge spyware and adware marketing practices, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer last week went on the offensive by suing Los Angeles Internet marketing firm Intermix Media for deceptive practices. In a civil suit that targets the company – but not advertisers themselves – Intermix is accused of deceptive practices in downloading its software to computers of Web surfers, who are then presented with pop-up ads. Spitzer’s office alleges the software adds unnecessary toolbar items and redirects users to unwanted Web sites. The lawsuit accuses Intermix of violating General Business Law provisions, as well as trespass under New York common law.
China’s biggest bank plans to deploy Linux on servers across its network of 20,000 national branches in a project that might be the biggest Linux deployment yet in China, according to an executive involved with the deal. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) plans to gradually roll out the Turbolinux 7 DataServer operating system for all its front-end banking operations over a three-year period. Financial terms were not disclosed. With $640 billion in total assets, ICBC is China’s biggest bank, serving 100 million individuals and 8.1 million corporate accounts at more than 20,000 branch offices. When the project is completed, many of ICBC’s 390,000 employees will be accessing applications hosted on Linux servers on a daily basis.
