Thames Tech Wire - April 28, 2005

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THAMES TECH WIRE - April 28, 2005
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o BT Group Selects Eight Suppliers for 21st Century Network
o Pipex to Acquire Web Host Firm Donhost for £5.9 Million
o IGA Forms Global Media Group for In-Game Ad Networks
o Report: 2005 Online-Content Revenues to Reach 3 Billion Euro
o European Commission Announces Winners of IST Awards
o Briefly Noted: Reuters-Mobile News Service, BT Rich Media-
SPORTFIVE-Fifa World Cup 2006, Nokia N91-Mobile Music Phone
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o BT Group Selects Eight Suppliers for 21st Century Network

London -- BT Group Plc, the largest telecommunications company in
the U.K., announced on Thursday that it has selected Fujitsu, Huawei,
Alcatel, Cisco, Siemens, Lucent, Ericsson and Ciena as preferred
suppliers to build its 21st Century Network Programme (21CN). 21CN
is BT's £10-billion plan for transforming its existing network into an IP
network. Fujitsu and Huawei have been chosen in the access domain,
while Alcatel, Cisco and Siemens have been selected as preferred
suppliers for metro nodes. Cisco and Lucent will be 21CN's preferred
suppliers for core nodes. Ericsson has been selected in the i-node
domain, and Ciena and Huawei have been chosen in the transmission
domain. Shares in Marconi, a U.K.-based telecommunications
equipment maker, plummeted by as much as 40% in afternoon trading
on Thursday after the company failed to win a single contract.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?P48E26AFA
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o Pipex to Acquire Web Host Firm Donhost for £5.9 Million

London -- Pipex Communications Plc, a U.K.-based
telecommunications network operator, announced that it has made yet
another acquisition after agreeing to buy Donhost Ltd., a U.K.-based
web host firm, for approximately £5.9 million. "Having completed the
integration of Host Europe and Nildram over the last eight months, we
are now well placed to further strengthen the hosting part of our
portfolio with the acquisition of Donhost," said Pipex Chairman Peter
Dubens. With the deal, Pipex will gain more than 92,000 customers and
120,000 domain names, increasing its total number of domain name
registrations to more than 1 million. Pipex said that no jobs would be
eliminated at Donhost -- which last year reported revenues of more than
£1.3 million and pre-tax profits of more than £707,000 -- as a result of
the acquisition.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?N63012BFA
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o IGA Forms Global Media Group for In-Game Ad Networks

London -- IGA Worldwide, a provider of in-game advertising services,
announced that it has created a global media group that will focus on
the planning, serving and tracking of targeted ads within PC and
console video games. The company also announced that it has acquired
U.K.-based game advertising firm Hive Partners, which will form part
of the media group that will also include IGA Partners North America,
IGA Partners Europe and IGA Technologies. The game advertising
group will have offices in New York, London and Berlin, with plans to
expand to Paris, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Benelux in the coming
months. IGA's announcement follows the recent launch of in-game ad
networks by IGN Entertainment and Massive Inc.
http://www.ingameadvertising.com/press/05_04_22_IGA.pdf 
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=8309 
http://www.hivepartners.com 
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o Report: 2005 Online-Content Revenues to Reach 3 Billion Euro

Frankfurt -- According to the latest report by the European Information
Technology Observatory (EITO), Western European revenues for
consumer online content will nearly double this year, reaching more
than 3 billion euro. EITO also predicted that revenues would continue
to increase over the next few years, reaching more than 16 billion euro
by 2008. More than a third of the current consumer online-content
market is based on online video, generating more than 1 billion euro in
revenue this year alone. EITO said broadband access -- both wireline
and wireless -- was the main driver of the booming Western European
market. "We are creating very powerful broadband highways, and we
have to fill them with real content and value-added services," said
EITO Chair Bruno Lamborghini. "Online content is leading the way."
http://makeashorterlink.com/?G44E21AFA
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o European Commission Announces Winners of IST Awards

Brussels -- The European Commission announced the three Grand
Prize Winners of this year's Information Society Technologies (IST)
prize. Let It Wave, a France-based image compression technology firm;
Praxim Mediavision, a France-based computer assisted surgical
systems firm; and Cypak, a Sweden-based pin-on-card technology
company, were the top three winners, with each company earning a
200,000-euro prize. The European IST Prize recognises the best of
European IT innovation. The Grand Prize Winners were selected from
a total of 430 entries from 29 European countries. The Prize is
organised by Euro-CASE, with the sponsorship and support of the
Information Society Programme of the European Commission.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?S30023BFA
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o Briefly Noted:

(London) Reuters announced on Thursday that it has launched a mobile
news service in the U.K. and the U.S. Reuters said the free service
would deliver the agency's Top 10 news stories, complete with photos,
from more than 200 bureaus around the world. "As information and
images on mobile phones become more popular, there is a real
opportunity for a news brand like Reuters to expand our audience," said
Reuters Media Vice President Stephen Smyth. Reuters said the service,
which can be downloaded by typing in "mobile.reuters.co.uk" on a
phone's Internet browser, will be available on more than 70 different
Web-enabled mobile handsets, including LG, Motorola, Nokia,
Siemens, Panasonic, Sharp and SonyEricsson.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/rss/mobile.aspx 

(London) BT Rich Media, a division of U.K. telecommunications
bellwether BT Group Plc, announced that it has teamed up with
SPORTFIVE, a France-based sports marketing group, to stream
qualifying games for the 2006 World Cup, as well as international
friendly games, over broadband on the Internet. Under the terms of the
agreement, SPORTFIVE, which has the largest portfolio of European
qualifying games, will use the BT Rich Media platform for publishing
and distributing the video content. Live games will cost 9.95 euro for a
250k or 500k stream, while users will be able to download games and
save them to their PCs for about 6.95 euro.
http://www.qualifiers2006.com
http://www.soccernet.com 

(Amsterdam) Finland-based mobile-phone maker Nokia this week
introduced the Nokia N91, billed as a mobile-music phone with a 4GB
hard drive with room for as many as 3,000 songs. The phone will allow
for easy transfer of songs from a PC using a USB 2.0 port, or purchased
and downloaded through a carrier's mobile-music store. It will also
allow for playlist sharing using Bluetooth. Nokia said the N91 would
ship worldwide by the end of 2005. "What sets the Nokia N91 apart is
the fact that it is always connected," said Music at Nokia Vice
President Jonas Geust. "You can download new music while on the
move, add it to your favourite playlist and then share your playlist with
friends."
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050427/ukw006.html 
http://www.nokia.com/nseries 

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> AeA High Tech Government Dinner - Connecting Gov't and Industry

June 8, 2005 5:30-9pm. This is the largest gathering of our industry's
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