EoW July 2013

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Transatlantic cable
July 2013 19
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.
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.
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,” 20th 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 16th 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.