'Mobiles for millions of women'

7 October 2010 Last updated at 11:02 ET <!-- Embedding the video player --> <!-- This is the embedded player component -->

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Cherie Blair: "There is so much you can do with a mobile phone"

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A woman living in sub-Saharan Africa is 23% less likely than a man to own a mobile phone, according to research.

This figure rises to 24% in the Middle East and increases again to 37% for a woman living in South Asia, found the study by the GSM Association.

In total, it found, 300 million fewer women than men in developing countries owned a mobile.

An initiative called mWomen proposes to halve this "gender gap" within three years.

The programme, championed by Cherie Blair, the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aims to provide 150 million women around the world with access to mobile phone technology.

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"Start Quote

It's really difficult to do business without a mobile phone"

End Quote Samanthi Small business owner in Sri Lanka

Mrs Blair said there were many benefits a mobile phone could bring to women.

"There is so much you can do with a mobile phone," she told the BBC World Service.

"It can help with literacy. It can help with health programmes and projects and it's a way of helping women develop small businesses and get financial independence."

'Essential item'

As part of the initiative, there will be tariffs created especially for women as well as the development of a female-specific handset. It will also create projects to educate men about the positive aspects of women owning a mobile phone.

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Samanthi, small business-owner in Sri Lanka: "A phone is an essential item" (video by GSMA mWomen)

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Seventeen global mobile phone operators have already signed up to the mWomen programme, pledging more than $10m (�6.2m) between them.

According to a survey by the GSMA, more than half of all female business owners in poor countries reported earning more money because of their mobile phone.

One such woman is Samanthi, who lives in Kandy, Sri Lanka, and has a small business selling charcoal stoves.

"It's really difficult to do business without a mobile phone," she said.

"A phone is an essential item. My customers can contact me anytime, from any place."

'Transformational effect'

Mrs Blair said it was not just the women who would benefit from the initiative.

"If you help a woman set up a business, you're not just helping her, you're helping her children and her family. That has a ripple effect on the wider community," she said.

Samanthi in Sri Lanka agrees- she said that the money she earned could go towards her children's education.

The potential benefits are not solely financial. Reports suggest 93% of women feel safer because of their mobile phone; 85% say they feel more independent.

Mrs Blair was confident the initiative could achieve results.

"If we can reach 150 million women across the world and you multiply the effect of those women reinvesting in their family and in their local community, we are talking a potential transformational effect in development."

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Facebook unveils &#39;groups&#39; feature

6 October 2010 Last updated at 18:06 ET By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

Facebook has introduced a raft of features aimed at giving users more control over their personal data.

A groups feature will allow users to specify circles of friends with whom they want to share different data.

For the first time, users will also be able to download all the data they have uploaded onto the site.

They will also find it easier to see how individual applications are using personal information, Facebook's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said.

"The changes today are about giving people more control over how they share in a lot of different contexts," Mr Zuckerberg told BBC News.

"One of the things we have heard is that people just want to share information with smaller groups of people.

"It will enable people to share things that they wouldn't have wanted to share with all of their friends."

He added: "There are some things you are comfortable saying to all your friends at once but a lot of things you only want to share with your close co-workers or your family and there just hasn't been a great way to do that until now."

Behaviour change

The groups feature will allow users form online havens around a discreet circle of people just as they do in the real world.

Members will then be able to share information with people specific to that group.

Continue reading the main story

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All the information that is on Facebook comes from people sharing it. It is not our information, it's the people's"

End Quote Mark Zuckerberg Chief executive of Facebook

A list feature on Facebook already lets users create subsets of their friends but Mr Zuckerberg said that only about 5% of its 500 million users use it.

"Groups will change behaviour," Augie Ray a senior analyst with research firm Forrester told BBC News.

"It's possible that people will join Facebook because they will feel they can control who sees their information. I am a very open person and blast everything I say on Twitter or Facebook but now something like this will allow people to think more deeply about who will see what they say, and will increase engagement."

Another analyst Ray Valdes of Gartner called groups "a major milestone in a very long road that represents part of the ongoing evolution of our social connections".

'False security'

Facebook said its engineers had been in lockdown for the past 60 days working on these new products.

One of the new tools called "Download Your Information" is designed to enable users to download everything they have ever posted to the site, such as photos, status updates and wall posts.

The tool is a major departure for Facebook, which has come under criticism in the past for not allowing users access to their own data.

This effectively locked Facebook users into the site, unable to port their data to other sites.

"All the information that is on Facebook comes from people sharing it," said Mr Zuckerberg.

"It is not our information. It is people's information. We just have this strong philosophical belief that people own that information and they should be able set exactly who can see it, move it to different applications and use it how they want. They should be able to take it away if they want."

The groups feature is the one the company touted most heavily and one that Mr Zuckerberg seemed most proud of.

"We think that what we have out of the box, version one, blows away everything else," he said, referring to "groups" services offered by internet stalwarts such as Yahoo! and Google.

Privacy has been a constant thorn for the world's biggest social network whenever it introduces new products or changes settings on the site.

"Mostly I am happy they are giving users more control and I think the groups aspect for the most part does give you this added control," said Larry Magid, co-director of ConnectSafely.org.

Phone sync worries

"The only worry I have is that friends can add people to the group, so if you create a group and are in a group you have to be aware of not only who you add but who others add.

"As long as you are aware of who is in the group it can be a great privacy tool. If it gets out of hand it could give you a sense of false security."

The roll out of new products comes amid reports that a syncing feature on the iPhone lets Facebook access contact data and share it on the site.

"It's very possible that your private phone numbers - and those of lots of your and their friends - are on the site," said Charles Arthur of the Guardian newspaper.

Another tech blogger, Kurt van Moos, who was the first to warn about this feature in January, outlined his concerns.

"Phone numbers are private and valuable. Most people who have entrusted you with their phone numbers assume you will keep them private and safe," he said.

In a statement to the BBC, Facebook confirmed that the site allowed them to sync their friends' contact information.

"The ability to sync their contacts is used for the purpose of connecting [users] with their friends," it said.

"All of this information is private and is not shared with any friends or any third party.

"Even if someone wanted to, they could not share any of this information with other friends, for example."

Facebook added that users could easily delete contacts copied over from their phones.

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BT required to open fibre network

7 October 2010 Last updated at 06:00 ET

Ofcom has required BT to allow competitors control of its fibre cables in a move designed to promote the take-up of superfast broadband services.

The regulator has also told BT that it must give rival ISPs access to its underground ducts and telegraph poles to build their own fibre networks.

BT, the UK's largest ISP, will be able to set its own prices for access.

The regulator said its decision would support the government's ambitions to roll out superfast broadband.

But it warned that there was still "a long way to go to deliver the networks of the future that the UK needs".

The government wants all homes to have access to basic 2Mbps broadband by 2015.

However, this target - originally planned for 2012 - means it will fall foul of the European Union.

The EU wants member states to provide citizens with a minimum of 30Mbps broadband by 2020 and basic broadband connections by 2013.

'Room to improve'

Ofcom's decision follows a consultation which began in March this year.

It said that the new measures recognised the fact that "different areas require different solutions".

"In areas where BT invests in fibre, the remedies will enable other providers to offer competing services, based on BT's facilities," it said.

"Elsewhere, access to BT's ducts and poles should encourage investment by other providers, enabling the provision of superfast services and increasing competition."

TalkTalk, the second-largest provider of internet access in the UK, will be one of the first ISPs to start selling superfast broadband by relying on BT's line.

It welcomed the regulations but said that it thought there was "room to improve" the deal further.

Ofcom hopes that others, such as Sky, will now follow.

Andrew Ferguson, editor of broadband news site ThinkBroadband, said the framework should increase the amount of fibre in the UK, and particularly in rural areas.

"Access to BT ducts makes it a lot easier and a lot cheaper and faster to rollout fibre," he told BBC News.

"Access to poles has a good chance of providing extra infrastructure in the last third of country where no one has said they will specifically [roll out services]."

BT has committed �2.5bn to next-generation broadband, which aims to reach 17m homes by 2015. Around 4m homes will be connected by the end of the year.

Last week, the firm announced that it would roll out fibre to up to 90% of homes in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, in the biggest rural fibre optic roll-out in the UK to date.

The project, due for completion in 2014, was part funded by the European Union.

The firm said that it was "pleased" with Ofcom's "regulatory clarity and certainty".

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