Keeping drivers off their cellphones

NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Highway Safety and Technology (HST), an Akron-Ohio based company, has developed a technology that detects drivers talking on their cellphones. Instead of a police officer observing a cellphone in use, the system automatically detects a cellphone call and records which car was making the call.

The system uses sophisticated electronic sensing equipment, which can either be pole-mounted or installed on a mobile unitThe company has a US patent pending for automated detection of mobile telephone usage by drivers of vehicles.

Broadband penetration worldwide: over 300 mn

There are more than 1.1 billion of the world's estimated 6.6 billion people online and almost a third of those are now accessing the Internet on high speed lines.

According to Internet consultancy Point Topic, 298 million people had broadband at the end of March and that is already estimated to have shot over 300 million. In terms of total broadband users, the US leads with over 60 million broadband subscribers.

But second-placed China is fast closing the gap. From 41 million broadband users a year ago, it now has more than 56 million. Based on broadband penetration, South Korea is by far the world's top broadband user with nearly 90 per cent of households online.

The US "� with broadband penetration at just under 53 per cent - is in 24th place. Penetration in China, meanwhile, is 14.35 per cent while in India "� often mentioned in the same breath as China in discussions of emerging markets "� broadband penetration stands at just 1.15 per cent of the country's estimated 200 million households.

(Compiled from the web)