In short

Other technology stories in brief

Mobile users can access eBay website

Customers of eBay's Irish website can now access the service by mobile phone. The deal between O2 and eBay will allow those using i-mode technology to log on to the site.

Customers will be able to access all their familiar "My eBay" features through the service and will be able to bid and pay for goods online by mobile phone.

UCD centre backs business ideas

UCD's campus incubator centre, NovaUCD, has announced its programme for the 2006 campus company development programme. The centre will offer 12 businesses run by academic entrepreneurs the opportunity to develop their ideas into fully developed viable businesses.

NovaUCD also announced that BT Ireland had committed €100,000 over three years to the centre. This funding runs alongside support from Enterprise Ireland.

Irish firm launches '.mobi' web domain

Dublin-based dotMobi, also called mTLD Top Level Domain LTD, is launching .mobi, a new internet domain for the mobile industry.

Select associations from the mobile sector will be the first to register for the .mobi domain name on Monday.

Trademark holders will follow on June 12th and individuals can start registering on August 28th.

Along with registrations, dotMobi is offering a guide for web development geared toward content developers and service providers.

The guide is designed to ensure new .mobi websites "can be viewed and navigated by any mobile phone", the company says.

Ion Equity closes deals over $150m

Ion Equity closed five deals worth a total of more than $150 million (€117 million) in the first quarter of the year.

The corporate finance and private equity house was involved in deals with companies based in Britain, Belgium, Germany and Ireland across a range of technology sectors.

IT Alliance to create 20 jobs

Outsourcing group IT Alliance is to create 20 new jobs at its Irish testing division.

The Dublin company, which provides testing services for companies in the telecoms, financial services, manufacturing and insurance sectors, will increase staff numbers in the area to 60. The group employs 250 people.

Global telephony sales to fall $100bn

Research from Informa Telecoms & Media says that revenues from voice telephony over traditional networks will decline dramatically over the next four years as telecom groups switch to VoIP.

Global public switched telecom network voice revenues will fall to $500 billion (€391 billion) by 2011, according to the report, a fall of 16.7 per cent or $100 billion from end of 2005 revenues.