EoW July 2013

Transatlantic cable

In the 27-member European bloc, crude steel production fell 4.9 per cent year-on-year in April to 14.1 million tons, as three of the country’s four largest steel producing members cut back production. Germany, France and Italy reduced their production by 0.9 per cent, 12.3 per cent and 11.6 per cent, respectively. Spain bucked the trend, its production rising 10.3 per cent compared with April 2012. Crude steel production in the Commonwealth of Independent States dropped 6.9 per cent year-on-year in April, to 8.9 million tons, re ecting a 4.3 per cent and 8.4 per cent reduction, respectively, in Russian and Ukrainian steel output. Crude steel production from Turkey, another large steel producer, dropped 0.7 per cent to 2.9 million tons. As to crude steel capacity utilisation worldwide, it reached 80 per cent in April, up from 79.1 per cent in March but down two percentage points from April 2012.

Now one of the biggest American phone companies, citing the damage in icted by Hurricane Sandy, is asking regulators to let it start switching residential customers from wired to wireless service.” Writing in the International Herald Tribune, Patrick McGeehan cited a proposal by Verizon to substitute a new form of wireless phone service, not only in storm-ravaged communities but also in other areas where it might prefer to discontinue maintaining the old copper wires. The switchover would, Mr McGeehan said, e ectively turn the home phones of customers in these areas into “tethered cellphones.” (“Wireless Home Phones: A Plan Strikes a Chord,” 20 th May) The New York-based telecom company had already started o ering the service, Voice Link, in a few places in the Northeast and also in Florida, where its copper wires have been damaged by storms or otherwise degraded. On 16 th May, state regulators in New York approved a trial of Voice Link on Fire Island, a beach community where many homes and businesses were without phone service since Hurricane Sandy hit last October. As described by Mr McGeehan, Voice Link is a device that plugs into an electrical outlet and connects standard home phones to a local cellular system. It replicates traditional residential service in many ways, but critics note that it lacks some capabilities that could prove crucial in an emergency. Unlike the service provided over copper cables Voice Link requires new batteries if electricity is out for two days or more, as it was for millions of residents in the Northeast after Hurricane Sandy hit. It also neither provides a connection to the Internet nor allows for data transmission.

Telecom

Verizon’s proposal to ‘cut the copper o ’ in rural areas: a practical workaround – or a ploy to drop vital services? “For more than a century, Americans have made and received phone calls in their homes over a network of copper wires.

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July 2013