German incumbent Deutsche Telekom has apparently seen off the threat of industrial action by reaching agreement with its labor unions, reports Automated Trader, citing Dow Jones. DT management and representatives from the Verdi union said they had shaken hands on a 3.15 percent wage increase for the carrier's 60,000 or so employees, effective from April 1. (See DT's Shares Rocket on AT&T Deal and Euronews: March 18.)
In France, Orange has joined forces with utility Veolia Water to form a new operator, m20 city, which plans to target local authorities with a smart-metering offering that will be able to collect relevant data from various environmental sensors as well as recording and processing water usage information. (See Orange Teams on Smart Meters, DT Rolls Out Smart Metering in T-City and BT Launches Smart Grid Consortium.)
With the help of colleagues in Korea, boffins at Edinburgh University have come up with a way of improving memory storage in handheld devices such as smartphones, MP3 players and cameras, reports the BBC. It apparently involves the use of a carbon nanotube and a tiny mechanical arm that somehow translates data into electrical signals. Sounds like a clever wee beastie.