European regulators need to allow phone businesses within a country to merge to avoid them being choked by network costs, a top industry group said yesterday.

At the age of 94, great-granny Lea has found her perfect little helper — Robot Robin.

The European Parliament yesterday voted to abolish roaming phone charges by the end of next year.

Irish people may soon be able to make calls from anywhere in the EU for the same cost as a call in Ireland.

Cash-strapped households are giving up their fixed broadband faster than most other EU citizens, instead favouring accessing the internet on their smartphones.

Ireland has one of the highest monthly charges for Broadband in the EU.

Getting a job is no longer just about reading and writing — it’s about searching and coding. The message is get online to get employed.

Speculation linking mobile phone giant Vodafone to a £60 billion takeover swoop from AT&T was shot down by the American firm today.

Irish ambassador for European Code Week, which runs from Nov 25 to 30, Julie Cullen spoke to Vincent Ryan about her busy working day.

Lampedusa casts shame on us all

The EU is aiming to finally kill off roaming charges and make the cost of phone calls, downloads, texts, and internet searches on mobile devices the same as at home when travelling around Europe.

So let’s see if we can find the thread that connects some recent news from the technology world.

The National Broadband Scheme is a disaster area, according to a leading lobby group.

Just four observations is all it can take to predict who will end up in hospital, a nursing home, or dead within the next six months if they do not receive the care needed.

The cost of using a mobile phone abroad will be slashed from tomorrow under new EU rules.

European roaming charges are now over 90% cheaper than in 2007, as the EU has again lowered roaming caps.

Despite being the hottest European start-up, Trustev founder Chris Kennedy is still living on the breadline working to ensure that the company survives to fulfil its billion-euro potential.

GERMANY, FRANCE GOING SEPARATE WAYS?

UPC, the European division of Liberty Global, an international cable operator, is confident of Ireland’s economic future, a gathering of business leaders heard in Brussels yesterday.

Facebook’s head of safety has told a cyberbullying conference that the social network’s anti-cyberbullying standards have “come a long way” in the past four years — but “we are not here to censor content”.

Some call it Europe’s Got Talent for geeks. Teams of scientists from across the continent are vying for a funding bonanza that could see two of them receive up to €1 billion over 10 years to keep Europe at the cutting edge of technology.

Rural dwellers’ access to ‘superfast’ broadband is at a 25% maximum versus the 89% coverage accessible to those living in Dublin, according to a new EU study.

Ryanair has described as “rumour and speculation” reports it has offered to pull a number of Aer Lingus routes if it is allowed to take over the rival airline.

Mobile phone roaming charges will fall again from July following a European Parliament vote.

MEPs in Brussels have today approved new rules that will see significant cuts to mobile roaming charges.

Joanne O’Riordan, the Cork schoolgirl who wowed the UN in New York last month, hopes boyband One Direction will sing a charity single based on her life.

Death threats against a journalist and attempts to intimidate the media by a neo-Nazi party that won 21 seats in the Greek election has fuelled fears for the political stability of the country.

The Dutch government, one of the most vocal critics of European countries failing to rein in their budgets, quit after failing to agree on a plan to bring its own deficit in line with EU rules.

More cuts in mobile phone roaming charges are on the way — the latest move towards reducing the gap between domestic and foreign call rates to almost nothing by 2015.

The European Commission and European Parliament have reached a preliminary deal which will see a cap put on data roaming costs.

A bid to scrap all mobile phone “roaming” charges by 2014 was defeated today, as a war of words broke out between the European Commission and Vodafone over a continued crackdown on the sector.

Greek prime minister Lucas Papademos was yesterday shuttling over and back between the troika, the creditor banks and political party leaders desperately trying to conclude a deal on new austerity measures.

Greece was fighting to avoid economic disaster tonight amid political stalemate, nationwide strikes and controversial claims that the country could leave the eurozone without triggering a single currency crisis.

Under intense pressure from bailout creditors, Greek party leaders were seeking a long-delayed agreement on harsh cutbacks demanded to avoid looming bankruptcy, as a general strike disrupted public services nationwide today.

Greece leaving the eurozone would not be a disaster for the other single members, a European Union commissioner said today.

Europe’s commissioner for the digital agenda Neelie Kroes today vowed to sort out confusion surrounding cross-border access to film, music and pay-per-view football games.

A DEVICE that automatically calls the emergency services when a car is in an accident could be compulsory in every car by 2015.

The first measure to ensure that by 2015 cars can dial emergency services automatically in the event of a serious accident has been adopted by the European Commission today.

The European Commission has announced a major crackdown on "outrageous" charges for using the internet when travelling in the EU.

The European Commission has announced a major crackdown on “outrageous” charges for using the internet when travelling in the EU.

MOBILE phone operators who charge customers three times more for their calls when abroad are facing a raft of new rules to force them to drop their prices.

MORE cuts in mobile phone roaming charges apply today — with the European Commission intent on closing the gap between domestic and foreign call rates to “almost zero” by 2015.

ONLY two social networking sites protect the privacy of minors by default, an EU study has shown.

IRELAND was one of a minority of EU countries that did not have a freephone hotline for missing children in place by yesterday’s deadline.