AT&T said Friday that it would eliminate the jobs of about 4,650 workers, trimming the managerial ranks in its fading home phone business after more than $100 billion in acquisitions.

The decision covers about 1.5 percent of the work force, AT&T, the largest American phone company, said in a regulatory filing. The dismissals are in addition to the 10,000 announced with the $86 billion purchase of BellSouth in December 2006, a spokesman, Walt Sharp, said.

Most of the reductions apply to the local phone business, Mr. Sharp said.

That unit lost 1.6 million residential lines last year as customers switched to cable and wireless phone service. AT&T, which had about 310,000 employees as of Jan. 31, has sought to reduce overlap in its operations since buying BellSouth and the former AT&T Corporation. It plans to cut annual costs by about $7 billion by 2009.

AT&T plans to book a pretax cost of about $374 million for the job cuts in the first quarter. Before the announcement, analysts on average predicted AT&T would report net income of $3.95 billion for the period.

The company is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings on Tuesday. In the previous quarter, sales fell short of analysts’ estimates after some customers failed to pay their bills, hurt by slowing economic growth.

The cuts will occur in all parts of the United States, Mr. Sharp said. AT&T provides home phone service in 22 states. With new hires in other parts of the business, the company expects overall head count to remain stable this year, according to the filing.-Nytimes

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F-Secure Corporation, the global leader in providing security as a service through mobile operators and Internet Service Providers, today announced its award-winning Mobile Security solution for the Windows Mobile platform. The solution brings new levels of protection for Windows Mobile Smartphone and PocketPC users.

F-Secure Mobile Security enables smartphone users to enjoy the full potential of their devices without the fear of mobile threats. The application combines real-time antivirus and antispyware functionality with a firewall, ensuring complete protection in today’s connected lives. A firewall provides additional security for all mobile devices that access public networks like Wi-Fi. The solution also delivers automatic over-the-air antivirus updates.

F-Secure Mobile Security prevents malware from:

• causing unwanted billing as they try to spread or call premium rate numbers
• deleting valuable information from the device
• making the device unusable
• sending information from the device to third parties

With this latest launch of its Mobile Security product, F-Secure now provides a complete security suite with firewall, antivirus and antispyware functionality for all the main mobile platforms running an open operating system: Windows Mobile, Symbian S60 and UIQ. F-Secure Mobile Security can be subscribed from selected mobile operators as a service, purchased directly from the F-Secure eStore at: http://www.f-secure.com/estore/ or bought from resellers worldwide. The product will be available during the second quarter.

The list of supported devices is constantly expanding and consists today of over 150 smartphones. The up-to-date information can always be found from the mobile-device optimized F-Secure Mobile Portal under http://mobile.f-secure.com.

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Subscribers to Malaysian Internet service provider JARING’s Internet telephone service will be able to make and receive direct calls to Malaysian mobile service provider Celcom subscribers .

This marks the first interconnection for an Internet telephony system to a cellular operator in Malaysia that was approved by the government agency Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) in February.

According to Dr Mohamed bin Awang Lah (picture), chief executive of JARING Communications, “We are proud MCMC gave us the opportunity to boost up TSoIP development in Malaysia, placing Malaysia at par with other developed countries.”

“This move makes JARING’s MY015 service virtually borderless, allowing our subscribers to make and receive calls from anywhere in the world at a fraction of fixed line and mobile rates, simply because every call is routed through the Internet ,” added Dr Mohamed.

Telephony Service over Internet Protocol (TSoIP) allows subscribers to make a call directly from a computer, a special TSoIP phone, or a traditional phone connected to a special broadband phone adapter. Also, wireless “hot spots” in locations such as airports, parks, buildings and cafes allow subscribers to connect to the Internet and use the VoIP service wirelessly.

Subscribers to JARING MY015 services are given one phone line and phone number with a prefix of 0154.

JARING’s MY105 service can be used through multiple communications devices ranging from mobile phones, soft phones on their PCs and laptops and even physical IP phones on their premises.

JARING has been allocated with 0154 81X XXXX numbering block by MCMC that enables JARING to serve as many as 100,000 subscribers and more with additional blocks of numbers.

This is a non-geographic numbering system that allows subscribers to communicate with each other at a distance-independent call rate anywhere through broadband connection – even on an airline flight equipped with WIFI access.-ComputerWorld Malaysia

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January

• Internet access and international telephone calls throughout Malaysia and most of Asia were disrupted for weeks due to an earthquake in Taiwan that damaged the underwater Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 link. Everything returned to normal in February after repairs by ship were completed.

• TIME Engineering Bhd signed an agreement with MSC Management Services, a subsidiary of Multimedia Development Corporation, to provide wireless broadband nationwide via WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) and WiFi. Read the rest of this entry »
  
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Dr.Web, an IT security solutions provider, has launched its latest solution for Windows Mobile devices. The Dr.Web Anti-virus for Windows Mobile is designed to protect Windows Mobile devices from viruses and other Internet-threats.

The mobile anti-virus is not for sale.

Read the rest of this entry »

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GRISOFT, the developer of AVG Internet security software, today announced the latest addition to its growing security products portfolio, AVG Mobile Security. AVG Mobile Security is currently in the BETA testing stage, and available for free download from www.avg.com with a registration to a BETA portal, http://beta.grisoft.cz/beta/index.php?lang=2. The system currently protects Symbian UIQ 3.0 platform mobile phones, compatible with Sony Ericsson P990i, M600i and W950i devices and will be extended to protect additional mobile phones.

The new AVG Mobile Security features anti-virus and SMS anti-spam to protect against unwanted messages and advertising. It also includes advanced functions such as comprehensive system settings, planning and scanning exceptions that are offered with other AVG products.

The estimated number of mobile viruses and threats to mobile phones today is about 350 and continues to increase. According to recently published studies, the number of virus attacks on mobile phones rose fivefold within the last year, affecting customers of more than 80% of mobile operators worldwide. Thousands of mobile phones have been targets of successful attacks, resulting in disabled phones or high bills caused by unwanted messages and calls.

“As our first product for mobile phones, the new AVG Mobile Security platform was designed to help users keep their mobile communications secure at all times,” explains Larry Bridwell, VP Global Security Strategies at GRISOFT. “Hackers are now finding ways to access mobile phone data and we want to ensure that our users stay protected. We look forward to building upon this product and extending AVG’s comprehensive and unobtrusive security to protect as many mobile phones as possible.”

The new user group will be attached to forum that will be a portal for users to share their experiences testing the software and gain useful advice and insight from other users. AVG Mobile Security is continuously undergoing updates through a worldwide professional distribution system of more than 10,000 servers, allowing rapid reaction to emerging threats.

GRISOFT continues to offer a full security software portfolio to protect computers. The latest editions of AVG Internet Security and AVG Anti-Virus with Anti-Spyware are available online and through various retailers nationwide.

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