Mobitel launches mobile MBA (Sri Lanka)
Mobitel, a leading Sri Lankan mobile service provider has come together with Scotland’s Edinburgh Napier University to launch the first of its kind mobile MBA for aspiring Sri Lankan executives. This new MBA programme allows students to follow lectures in an interactive virtual classroom and will be delivered via Mobitel’s mLearning platform. The online degree will be on par with other Edinburgh Napier University MBA degrees enabling busy executives to graduate with a UK qualification. Further, students will also have the option to spend a semester at the Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland.
As per reports, Professor George Stonehouse, Dean of Edinburgh Napier University’s Business School, has said that they are delighted to extend one of their post graduate programmes to Sri Lanka as well. The unique feature about pursuing one’s studies via the mLearning platform is that all environments have been created to promote interactivity among students and lecturers whilst enhancing a student’s learning experience without requiring physical presence in the university. He further added that the most important fact is that due to its design and unparalleled functionalities, ambitious students with the thirst to broaden their knowledge can now confidently do so with the help of Mobitel’s mLearning platform.
Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel’s Senior General Manager, Corporate Planning & Marketing Mr. Janaka Jayalath has reportedly said that through Mobitel’s mLearning platform, they have harnessed the education pertaining to many industries in their nation, via partnerships with prominent educational institutes. Their partnership with a reputed university such as the Edinburgh Napier University, will enable students to pursue their higher studies at their own convenience by bridging the gap between time and accessibility, via mLearning.
Walkinghighlands teams up with ViewRanger app (Scotland)
Walkinghighlands has joined forces with mobile phone app ViewRanger, developed by Augmentra, to allow users to download detailed walking route guides for Scotland onto their mobile phones.
Around 1,300 Walkinghighlands routes have now been added to ViewRanger’s downloadable trails database. The ViewRanger app now has almost 10,000 routes nationally covering walking trails and cycling routes.
Schools to search mobile phones under new English laws
Under new proposals that make up part of a larger revamp of Education laws in England, school teachers will be given the authority to search mobile phones without the pupil’s consent.
Currently, teachers in schools and colleges have the ability to confiscate mobile phones where necessary, but cannot look at the content they contain.
The new law, to be debated next week by Parliament will give school headmasters the ability to search, and also delete content from the phones.
The laws have been proposed as a way of discovering evidence of cyber bullying where people harass others via means of text messages. It is also hoped that the move may clamp down on sharing videos of attacks – so-called happy slapping – that take place outside school.
The changes mirror those recently passed in parts of the USA, where laws allowing police to look inside items found on a person were extended to include the contents of mobile phones, when found on a suspect.
However, the civil-rights group, Liberty condemned the move as being proportionate for terrorism investigations, not breaches of school rules.
According to spokesman for the Department for Education, this is a power not a duty – it will be down teachers to use their professional judgment when to act. Pupils have the right to go to school without being bullied and parents have the right to expect their children to be safe. The laws apply to England only – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own laws.
Ofcom wants BT to reduce wholesale broadband product prices (UK)
BT has suffered a setback as the telecoms regulator Ofcom proposed cuts in the price of its wholesale products. Ofcom wants BT to reduce the price of its wholesale broadband products in order to improve internet access in rural areas.
The regulator also drew a lower-than-expected estimate of BT’s cost of capital the assumption of what it costs BT to fund its business. According to analysts, it could cut BT’s earnings by up to 8%.
Ofcom is aiming to ensure that broadband prices fall for consumers in rural areas and, potentially, to increase download speeds available to them. To achieve this, it is proposing that BT should cut the price of wholesale broadband products in parts of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, together with certain English rural areas.
These areas where BT is the sole provider of wholesale broadband services: mainly places not covered by infrastructure owned by Virgin Media, TalkTalk or British Sky Broadcasting. In those areas, Ofcom is proposing annual cuts in the price of BT’s wholesale broadband products of between 11% and 15% over the next three years, after inflation.
Ofcom’s calculations of its price controls for BT are partly based on its estimate of the company’s cost of capital.
It proposed a lower cost of capital for BT Openreach, the subsidiary that provides the company’s rivals with access to its fixed-line connections running to homes and offices.
According to BT, Ofcom’s proposed cost of capital for BT Openreach could reduce annual wholesale revenue by low tens of millions of pounds. It added that the regulator’s price controls for its wholesale broadband products should strike the right balance between control and incentives to invest in rural areas.
BT to offer 41 market towns super-fast broadband? (UK)
UK’s fixed line incumbent, BT has revealed the 41 towns that will benefit from the next phase of its high speed fibre broadband launch.
Almost 300,000 business and consumers in these areas, which include Sandwich in the South East, Ripley in the East Midlands and Dalkeith in Scotland, will be able to access broadband at download speeds of up to 40Mbps over the fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) network from spring 2012.
The 41 market towns join the 785 exchange locations across the country that BT has revealed under its fibre rollout plan to date. These locations serve around eight million premises in total, around half of BT’s total fibre deployment plan.
The company is investing up to US$3.9 billion to deliver fibre broadband to approximately two thirds of UK homes and businesses, subject to an acceptable environment for investment. Openreach, BT’s local network business, is responsible for the deployment of fibre to these areas. The technology will be available on an open, wholesale basis to all companies providing broadband services.
