Microsoft was expected to win a temporary stay of a European regulatory order to sell a Windows version without Windows Media Player included, which would give the Redmond, Washington software maker months before it would have to comply with the antitrust order. That doesn't mean, though, that anyone knows how the European Court of First Instance might rule later this year on permanently suspending regulators' remedies, Microsoft attorneys said. The company was also expected to appeal a European Commission antitrust ruling.
Just one day after he was charged with possessing child porn, a Canadian doctor apparently committed suicide. London Health Sciences Centre anesthesiologist Tenzin Rabgey had been charged after police reportedly found child porn images on his computer June 4, and he was found dead in his apartment the following day. A friend, Lobsang Mentuh, associated with the Tibetan Independence Movement, told the press he was stunned by Rabgey's death. Rabgey was Canadian born of Tibetan parents, who were reportedly out of town when their son was found dead.
BellSouth is finding prospects for Voice-over Internet Protocol-based business telephone service in Miami and in Columbia, South Carolina, saying they expect to start selling the service shortly. The service is reported to include hundreds of possible phone lines, each with call forwarding, hold, and intercom options, and as it's network-based, corporate customers won't have to build their own Centrex systems.
Not to be outdone, Primus has launched Lingo, a three-months-free, $19.95-per-month unlimited local and long-distance Internet telephony service, including unlimited calling between the U.S. and Canada and Western Europe. Primus is betting prospective customers like the idea of a broadband connection giving them alternative telephony good for up to an 80 percent savings.
It may not be Netless in Seattle that much longer: The city is said to be rethinking its decade-old decision to stay out of the Internet business, and is exploring becoming an Internet wholesaler by looking for unused resources and new technologies, including wireless. Among other goals is the hope that, by getting into the Net business, Seattle's Netizens might surf the Web and pay less than they pay now.
