Man stops robbery via live video of his house !

Sao Paulo, Brazil
Reuters, December 15, 2006

A Brazilian businessman travelling in Germany watched by live video as a burglar robbed his house on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in Brazil.

He alerted the police, who rushed to the house and arrested the robber as he was trying on his clothes.

The businessman, Joao Pedro Wettlauser, was in Cologne this weekend when he received an alert on his cell phone from the security system in his beach house in Guaruja in Sao Paulo state, police said on Tuesday.

He logged on to his laptop and via the Internet saw live images of the burglar at work. He then phoned his wife, who was not at the house but called the local police.

"She told us the details about the thief and where in the house he was as we surrounded the house," police officer Americo Rodrigues told Reuters.

The burglar used a ladder to break into the house. When the police entered, he had a pile of goods such as the stereo system in the kitchen ready to be taken away, Rodrigues said.

"He was surprised when realized he was being seen by cameras connected to the Internet," Rodrigues said.

BSNL broadband will soon be at 2 mbps in India

Times News Network

The state-owned BSNL will offer high speeds of up to 2 mbps broadband connectivity to its existing subscribers who were till now getting the connection at 256 kbps, announced communication and IT minister Dayanidhi Maran at India Telecom 2006. BSNL would offer high-speed internet broadband at the existing price. “It is now for the private operators to match it or beat it.”

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Bangaloreans thirst for broadband

Google AdWords ‘Click-to-call’ launched in India

Thursday, December 7th, 2006

Google logo Today, Google announced the availability of Adwords ‘Click-to-call’ – a ground-breaking online advertising product, in India. With ‘Click-to-call’ ads, users can speak directly to an advertiser they find on a Google search results page; over the phone and absolutely free.

The new google ‘click-to-call’ ads are identified by a green telephone handset located next to the ad text. Clicking on the title of the Google ad will result in the ad expanding to display a field to enter a telephone number. Once the phone number is entered and the user clicks ‘Connect For Free,’ a call will be placed to the number provided and the user’s phone will ring. On answering, the user will be connected directly to the advertiser. In addition to providing speed and convenience, Google click-to-call ads will protect user privacy by blocking the users’ phone number from the advertiser.

“Click-to-call is in line with our mission of looking for new ways to help our advertisers reach their customers and will increase the usefulness of the Internet for shoppers, merchants and advertisers in India. It will be particularly valuable for merchants or advertisers who may not have a website or as a supplementary channel for those who currently use local directories to reach potential customers. Google Click-to-call ad can also be used to generate added leads for clients that offer services via phone or call center to their clients,” said Sundararaman K, Head of Sales, Google India.

Union minister: Internet to go full speed from January

Rajesh Chandramouli | Times News Network

28th Nov 2006

Chennai: Are you tired of just 256 kpbs and annoyed with your service provider for not upgrading to give you higher speeds? Well, wait till January. For, the government is planning to 're-write' broadband speed to make it unlimited.
Union IT and communications minister Dayanidhi Maran said that 2007 will be the year of broadband Internet.
"Next year will be very interesting. There will be tremendous activity on the broadband front. State-owned MTNL and BSNL are readying provocative pricing for Internet at unlimited speed. The present 256 kbps will be a thing of the past. Users will be in for a pleasant surprise. We are opening up superhighway to cyberspace," Maran said while inaugurating Ericsson's R&D centre.
The minister said the country was adding a meagre 5.5 million personal computers a year as against six million mobile connections a month. "We are working out schemes to increase PC penetration in the country," he said.
The details of the plans will be announced by MTNL and BSNL separately in the next few weeks.
The Union government's target of 250 million mobile phones by 2007 is sure to meet its destiny.
"At the present growth rates, we will achieve that by the third quarter of next year," he said and added that the country as of October had 176 million mobile phones.
"We now want to set 500 million as the target by 2010. That would mean 47% coverage and one in four people having a mobile phone. All these are happening in the telecom front because of lowering international long distance (ILD) prices and reducing the license fee for National Long distance (STD). The government is also welcoming the move by cellular operators to share towers. A single antenna for all operators in a locality will only lower the costs further," Maran said.
The universal services obligation fund (USO) will also become active in deploying connectivity in rural areas. The government hopes to cover 2.50 lakh remote villages across the country, even if it has only one household under this scheme.
Mats Granryd, managing director, Ericsson India said that the R&D centre in Chennai will work on cutting edge charging and multimedia solutions besides value added services.

ISD bandwidth prices to drop
Times News Network

New Delhi: International long distance (ILD/ISD) bandwidth pricing is set for a dramatic makeover. Telecom minister, Dayanidhi Maran has directed DoT to accept Trai’s recommendations on ‘Measures to Promote Competition for International Bandwidth in India’, a move set to permanently alter ILD costs and competitive landscape. Simply put, this permits the resale of international bandwidth, which telecom analysts say will alter the balance of power between incumbent VSNL and other service providers as well as boost the competitiveness of the ISP, enterprise and IT segments. Responding to minister’s directive, DoT has asked Trai to forward appropriate guidelines enabling the amendment of the ILD licenses Section 2.2 (a) and (b).