Vodafone and Telefónica (the owner of O2), are to pool their two networks to share costs on infrastructure, sparking talk of a price war…

The formerly bitter rivals are expected to fund cheaper calls for customers with their savings of “hundreds of millions of pounds” in this current climate.

As they become one, thousands of masts will be decommissioned as they share antennas and base station sites in Ireland and masts and power supplies in Spain and Germany. In Britain They will be consolidating their 2G and 3G infrastructures, providing better call coverage, and much more choice with services such as mobile broadband for their customers (with the hopes to supersede an unsuccessful deal that Vodafone had previously struck with Orange).

Competition regulators are keeping a close eye on this merger; it is initially set to cover the UK, the Irish Republic, Spain and Germany. However the two companies are insisting they will still be competing fiercely on services and price, and will keep their total of 549 million customers worldwide separate.

Although both Vodafone and O2 insist that competition on the retail side of the business would remain highly competitive, however it’s important to note neither has actually committed to using the savings to cut tariffs for customers…..

Welcome Internet Explorer 8 (IE8)

Prettier. More Secure. Time Saving.

Im not so sure.

Yes, although Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser, Firefox, Google and Opera are right on its heels. They’ve been testing the new browser for over a year now, and it has finally been released. It’s the first update to IE7 since 2006. Mozilla Firefox, widely known for its safe and secure aspect, nudged Microsoft to up their game.

“With Internet Explorer 8, we are delivering a browser that gets people to the information they need, fast, and provides protection that no other browser can match.” Microsoft boss, Steve Ballmer

Internet Explorer was seen as big on features but poor on delivering performance. However this new version, can apparently spot dubious websites and alert you if you’re about to get sucked into a phishing website, the beauty being it constantly updates its list of dodgy sites.

However I find a browser is still very much a personal choice. Some may like it simple and fast, while others like me like features to make life easier, all the while being relatively fast. This is why my tried and tested browser remains Firefox, but I may try out IE8 one of these days, as it’s relatively new, I think waiting until all the bugs have been ironed out may be the way to go….otherwise I’ll be put off forever!