ICTD News for 13 March 2007

[ICTD Newsmaster <ictdnews@undp.org>]

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CONTENTS

INTERNET GOVERNANCE
	Internet name system in growing danger
	Net copes with key character test

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
	Prizes, Not Patents

TELECOMM/INFRASTRUCTURE
	VOIP Nightmare for Mobile Operators
	The slow death of dial-up

POVERTY ALLEVIATION
	Africa Needs 7% Growth to Reach Millennium Goals UN, Microsoft Launch Technology Solution




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INTERNET GOVERNANCE
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---- Internet name system in growing danger
The Internet's key site identity system is in mounting danger from new techniques that could cause havoc by turning it into a free-for-all market, the World Intellectual Property Organization WIPO warned on Monday.
http://www.sdnp.undp.org/perl/news/articles.pl?id=9346&do=gpage



---- Net copes with key character test
Tests have been carried out to see if spelling internet domains with non-English characters will disrupt the smooth running of the net.
http://www.sdnp.undp.org/perl/news/articles.pl?id=9343&do=gpage




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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
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---- Prizes, Not Patents
Companies can recover their expenses thanks to patents, which give them a temporary monopoly and thus allow them to charge prices well above the cost of producing the drugs. We cannot expect innovation without paying for it. But are the incentives provided by the patent system appropriate, so that all this money is well spent and contributes to treatments for diseases of the greatest concern? Sadly, the answer is a resounding ?no.?
http://www.sdnp.undp.org/perl/news/articles.pl?id=9347&do=gpage




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TELECOMM/INFRASTRUCTURE
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---- VOIP Nightmare for Mobile Operators
An early adopting reader alerted us last week to the existence of Fring. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's free Skype-style client specifically designed for mobile phones. This South African reader had been making use of it to phone friends and business contacts. If the Fring thing catches on - particularly in those African countries with reasonable broadband capacity - then it looks set to put a hole in the revenues of the mobile operators. It does both voice and SMS for the cost of the data use from the mobile provider that is much cheaper than current voice rates.
http://www.sdnp.undp.org/perl/news/articles.pl?id=9344&do=gpage



---- The slow death of dial-up
But even though the dial-up modem is clearly on the way out, it will take a long time to die. ?The rumour of dial-up's death has been greatly exaggerated,? says Bernd Lienhard of Conexant, a company that is the leading supplier of analogue modem components. He would say that. But his firm will ship its billionth set of modem chips this year, a milestone that highlights the modem's continued role in keeping the world connected. Dial-up has life in it as a lowest common denominator and will linger on, even in the developed world, particularly among the rural, the elderly and the contrary?those too far from telephone exchanges for broadband, too timid to change, or all too happy with dial-up's limited speed.
http://www.sdnp.undp.org/perl/news/articles.pl?id=9348&do=gpage




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POVERTY ALLEVIATION
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---- Africa Needs 7% Growth to Reach Millennium Goals UN, Microsoft Launch Technology Solution
Regional and U.N. officials are in Addis Ababa to discuss promoting investment and industrialisation in Africa. Meanwhile, the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and Microsoft on Monday launched the prototype of a new technology solution, believed to be a key component of the UNIDO Africa investment promotion Agency.
http://www.sdnp.undp.org/perl/news/articles.pl?id=9345&do=gpage




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