VoIP firms in RP ; News Corp/James Packer/Kerry Stokes ; Murdoch on Fairfax shares ; British risk defeat in Afghanistan

2 more VoIP firms approved



Inquirer

Last updated 08:49pm (Mla time) 10/21/2006


THE National Telecommunications Commission has allowed two more Internet call outfits to provide Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.

BC Net Inc. received permission to operate as a provider of VoIP services from Oct. 11, 2006 to Oct. 10, 2007.

Broadband2Go Communications obtained permission to resell VoIP services from Oct. 10, 2006 to Oct. 9, 2007.

The two bring the number of VoIP providers and sellers to 14.

The VoIP resellers are TransPacific Broadcast Group International Inc., Mozcom Inc., and KD Pacific Trading Development Corp. The VoIP providers are Cashround Inc., TechNetworks Corp., Crown Multimedia and Information Service Corp., BT&T Network Corp., Vonics Philippines, Pacific Netcom Inc., Pastels Inc., Fiber Telecommunications Inc., and Textron Corp. With INQ7.net




Copyright 2006 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



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Australia's media moguls in multi-billion dollar poker game



Agence France-Presse

Last updated 01:00pm (Mla time) 10/22/2006


SYDNEY -- Australia's media moguls have made their first bets in a multi-billion dollar poker game where power, profits and press diversity are at stake under liberalized ownership laws, analysts said Sunday.

Global political power-broker Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp have bought chips. So have Australia's richest man James Packer and television baron Kerry Stokes.

They are waiting for the game to start in earnest when the government's new media laws, passed by parliament last week, come into effect and allow an expected wave of takeovers, mergers and foreign investment.

"There is a very large poker game going on where large players have put themselves in a position to do some acquiring and be part of the process of deciding who else does any acquiring," said media analyst Jock Given.

The swift moves by the moguls have led critics to reinforce their warnings that the result of the new laws -- expected to come into effect early next year -- would be a further consolidation of media ownership in the hands of a few.

"If that's what ends up occurring I think it does concentrate political power to a very worrying extent," Given told Agence France-Presse.

The biggest play so far has been Packer's $4.5-billion Australian ($3.4 billion US) sale of half the media assets of his Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL) to a Hong Kong-based private equity firm.

Packer, who holds major television and magazine assets, is believed to be positioning the spin-off PBL Media to expand into newspapers.

Under the old laws this would not have been possible, but the new legislation allows a company to own two instead of just one out of three media -- television, radio and newspapers -- in any single market.

Industry analysts say a prime target for Packer is Fairfax newspapers, publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age in Melbourne and the Australian Financial Review.

But Rupert Murdoch's News Corp on Friday said it had bought a strategic $276 million US 7.5 percent stake in Fairfax, the main rival to its own stable of metropolitan newspapers.

"It's just a strategic holding. We don't have any particular plans for it -- certainly no plans to take over Fairfax," Murdoch told a News Corp shareholders meeting in New York.

Murdoch is seen as more likely to be interested in moving into television, but he has criticized the new laws as protecting the current free-to-air channels, which he said would be "expensive" to buy.

News Corp owns a powerful international stable of 175 newspapers, including The Times of London, The Sun tabloid in Britain, the New York Post and The Australian as well as cable television network Fox and satellite broadcasters DirecTV and BSkyB.

Fairfax newspapers are seen as more "left-liberal" and critical of the government of Prime Minister John Howard than Murdoch's more conservative stable, but even a takeover by Packer could change that.

"The Fairfax papers would struggle to maintain the kind of editorial position they have at the moment under Packer's ownership," Given said.

Of the three moves so far, the clearest was a $350-million Australian raid on the shares of West Australian Newspapers which secured just under 15 percent for Stokes, owner of Seven Network television.

"I think the Stokes move is the clearest because the asset that he's put his foot on, West Australian Newspapers, makes perfect sense commercially," Given said. "He has the top rating television station in (the West Australian capital) Perth -- it would make commercial sense for him to have the daily newspaper as well."

Analyst Alan Kohler, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, said the wave of activity had shown that the government's proposition that the new laws would promote greater diversity were "threadbare."





Copyright 2006 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.




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Murdoch defends News Corp's raid on Fairfax shares --Channel NewsAsia


Posted: 21 October 2006 1448 hrs


SYDNEY : News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch has defended his global media giant's surprise raid on Fairfax stock, saying he had no plans to control his main Australian rival or see it broken up.

Speaking for the first time on the matter, Murdoch said Friday's decision to snap up a 7.5 percent stake in Australia's second largest news publisher John Fairfax Holdings Ltd was not a hostile move.

"It's just a strategic holding. We don't have any particular plans for it -- certainly no plans to take over Fairfax," he told a News Corp shareholders meeting in New York, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Murdoch said he might gradually increase his holding in Fairfax but did not expect the newspaper group to be broken up once Australia's new media ownership laws take effect next year.

New legislation passed this week clears media companies to own two, not just one, out of three media -- newspapers, radio and television -- in any single market, and lifts a ban on foreign ownership.

Murdoch said his company's share raid was aimed a building a strategic stake in Fairfax ahead of any potential takeover bid for the newspaper group.

"Ours is more a friendly move for the existing regime at Fairfax now," he said.

He also ruled out swapping a Fairfax newspaper for one of his own.

News Corp owns a powerful stable of 175 newspapers, including The Times of London, The Sun tabloid, the New York Post and The Australian as well as cable television network Fox and satellite broadcasters DirecTV and BSkyB.

The global media mogul also said he is unlikely to make a play for an Australian TV network, describing all the commercial channels as far too expensive, but stressed News Corp was studying all of its options.

Fairfax has been at the centre of frenzied takeover speculation after parliament on Wednesday voted in the new laws easing media cross ownership rules.

Analysts said Fairfax was the obvious takeover target under the new laws as it is the only major Australian news group that does not have a single controlling shareholder, weakening its ability to ward off acquisitions.


- AFP/ir


Copyright © 2006 MCN International Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved.



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Britain risks defeat in Afghanistan, says ex-military chief --inq7.net



Agence France-Presse

Last updated 11:49am (Mla time) 10/22/2006


LONDON -- The former chief of the British military said the country's armed forces risked defeat in operations in Afghanistan due to a lack of clear strategy, The Observer newspaper reported Sunday.

Field Marshal Sir Peter Inge, the former chief of the defense staff, attacked Britain's military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and come on the back of the present army head saying British troops should leave Iraq "sometime soon" because their presence was exacerbating security problems there.

"I don't believe we have a clear strategy, either in Afghanistan or Iraq," Inge said at a meeting sponsored by the Open Europe think tank last week, the newspaper said.
"I sense we've lost the ability to think strategically.”

"Deep down inside me, I worry that the British army could risk operational failure if we're not careful in Afghanistan. We need to recognize the test that I think we could face there."

He said that despite the pressures on the armed forces, defense received neither the research nor funding it required, The Observer reported.

Government departments have "lost the knack of putting together interdepartmental thinking about strategy," Inge said.

Governmental administration "talks about how we're going to do to in Afghanistan, it doesn't really talk about strategy."

Inge served as chief of the defense staff, the professional head of the British armed forces, between 1994 and 1997.

Last Wednesday, Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted that British troops would stay in Iraq as long as necessary, as he battled to face down new criticism over his strategy in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

But he reiterated that Britain's policy was to progressively cut its troops in Iraq -- while warning that premature withdrawal would be "disastrous."

Britain has around 7,000 troops stationed in Iraq and around 5,000 in Afghanistan.




Copyright 2006 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.