Saudi telco regulator suspends Mobily prepaid sim sales

(Reuters) – Saudi Arabia‘s No.2 telecom operator Etihad Etisalat Co (Mobily) has been suspended from selling pre-paid sim cards by the industry regulator, the firm said in a statement to the kingdom’s bourse on Sunday.

Mobily’s sales of pre-paid, or pay-as-you-go, sim cards will remain halted until the company “fully meets the prepaid service provisioning requirements,” the telco said in the statement.

These requirements include a September order from regulator, Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC). This states all pre-paid sim users must enter a personal identification number when recharging their accounts and that this number must be the same as the one registered with their mobile operator when the sim card was bought, according to a statement on the CITC website.

This measure is designed to ensure customer account details are kept up to date, the CITC said.

Mobily said the financial impact of the CITC’s decision would be “insignificant”, claiming data, corporate and postpaid revenues would meet its main growth drivers.

The firm, which competes with Saudi Telecom Co (STC) and Zain Saudi, reported a 23 percent rise in third-quarter profit in October, beating forecasts.

Prepaid mobile subscriptions are typically more popular among middle and lower income groups, with telecom operators pushing customers to shift to monthly contracts that include a data allowance.

Customers on monthly, or postpaid, contracts are also less likely to switch provider, but the bulk of customers remain on pre-paid accounts.

Mobily shares were trading down 1.4 percent at 0820 GMT on the Saudi bourse.

(Reporting by Matt Smith; Editing by Dinesh Nair)

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Is the electric car dying again?

A second administration of President Barack Obama will be forced to revisit the issue of subsidies for renewable energy and, with it, those for electric vehicles. Despite the millions of dollars spent on government incentives, marketing and promotion, sales of fully electric cars are well below projected targets. Investment in vehicle charging infrastructure also has fallen victim to budget cutbacks, limited usage and concern over the return on money spent.

Indeed, only last month, a leading automotive battery manufacturer, A123 Systems, was forced to declare bankruptcy. And the founder and CEO of Better Place, Shai Agassi, whose company (in which I was employed) promotes all-electric vehicles with batteries that can be both charged and replaced, was himself replaced due to low sales figures and high capital expenses arising from the deployment of battery-switching stations.

As a result, the question is now being raised: Are we again bearing witness to the death of the electric car?

Any such conclusion over the longer term may be premature. With declining costs and gradually improving technologies that can extend battery range beyond its current limitations, the electric car continues to hold promise. Rising gasoline prices and potential disruptions in oil supply favor alternative sources of energy.

To achieve mass market adoption, however, cars running on electricity — or any other alternative energy source — must satisfy the three “C’s”: cost, convenience and connectivity.

Few buyers are able or willing to pay more for a car running on clean energy unless the upfront cost of the car roughly equals or is below its carbon-powered alternative. Advertised savings over time in powering a car using alternative “fuels” so far have failed to persuade the average driver to buy. And while government subsidies play a role in reducing initial costs to consumers, such incentives so far have not been sufficient to attract large numbers of drivers to switch to electric vehicles.

Cars driven solely or partially by electricity or other alternative energies also must be at least as convenient as those powered exclusively by internal combustion engines. Drivers appear unwilling to sacrifice the expected hundreds of miles in driving range between refuelings. Likewise, drivers demand refueling times equal to what they are accustomed — about five minutes at the gasoline station.

Further, there must be adequate infrastructure in place to enable large numbers of drivers to connect to an alternative energy source before that source can be widely adopted. While a scattering of drivers simultaneously connecting to a power grid may not have much impact, large numbers of drivers doing so can cause major power outages that escalate absent the real-time balancing of energy loads across the network. Moreover, the environmental impact of the connected cycle between car and infrastructure, often referred to as the “well-to-wheel” balance, has to result in less pollution overall for alternative energy vehicles to achieve significant market traction.

Until the fully electric car can satisfy all three C’s, any assessment of projected vehicle sales must reflect a variety of energy sourcing options, both traditional and alternative, all competing for market share.

Gasoline and diesel likely will remain the predominant source of energy in the foreseeable future for new car buyers, with hybrid vehicles that run on both petroleum and alternative energy sources taking an increasingly larger share of the market. Although more costly than pure gasoline-driven cars, hybrids do offer a more environmentally friendly solution and provide the driving range demanded by car buyers.

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Ft. Lauderdale, Miami Beach flooding lingers

Superstorm Sandy is gone. And the moon’s pull has diminished.

But the ocean keeps pouring over State Road A1A in Fort Lauderdale and onto Alton Road in Miami Beach, causing problems in coastal communities where flooding has now been an off-and-on phenomenon for weeks.

On Thursday and Friday, water from the Atlantic pounded parts of the Fort Lauderdale strip. The power of waves destroyed chunks of a barrier wall and forced authorities to shut down northbound traffic from Sunrise Boulevard to Northeast 20th Street. It’s the second time the road has been closed in about four weeks.

After high tide, tourists and residents straggled over to take a look at the damage. Beach shower heads lay in the sand along with palm trees, and pieces of tile from the wall littered the ground.

Art Seitz, a freelance photographer who lives in a nearby high-rise, said the beach is a “mega mess.”

“The wall was completely toppled,” he said. “I’ve lived here for 25 years and never have seen anything like these.”

The culprit: a low pressure system, high winds and, yes, the lasting impact of Sandy, the mega-storm that wrecked New York and New Jersey.

“It’s a combination of everything,” said Barry Baxter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami.

Baxter said the system has generated northeast swells. At the same time, he said winds blowing from 15 to 20 miles-per-hour have been pushing for days now against the gulf stream, which builds up the seas over time.

Those factors pushed sea levels to eight feet in Palm Beach County, and to six feet in Miami-Dade and Broward, he said.

Friday’s convergence of wind and swells comes after the moon reached its closest point to the earth in mid-October, causing a rise in the tides. Later that month, Superstorm Sandy blew by the coast, causing a surge. Then the full moon rose.

And now, streets are flooded by tides again.

“It seems like it’s been week after week” of flooding, Baxter said. “Everything comes together.”

Baxter said erosion caused by Sandy is also contributing to issues where the Atlantic is pushing over the beach and onto streets.

In Miami Beach, the tides push Biscayne Bay water up through stormwater drains during seasonal high tides. But the problem has seemingly lingered longer than usual this year.

Flooding surfaced again Friday on Alton Road, though not nearly as widespread as they have been during the last month, or even the past week.

Still, sandbags lie outside some retail shops and city officials wonder when the problem will go away.

“We’re trying to set up a meeting with NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration],” said city of Miami Beach spokeswoman Nannette Rodriguez, “just to see when this is going to go away.”

Miami Herald reporters Carli Teproff and Maria Bernal contributed to this story.

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App of the Week: Instead

App Name: Instead

Price: Free

Available Platforms: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad (requires iOS 5.0 or later), Android

What does this app do? With Black Friday and Cyber Monday bookending the holiday weekend it is hard to imagine getting through the next few days without spending money in the spirit of the season. Whether you dole out your dollars for gifts or in some other way, such as a post-turkey cocktail with friends, likely you will be reaching into your pocket and opening up your wallet at some point. For those who want to donate some of their hard-earned money as opposed to spending it, there’s an easy way to give in a small, manageable way.

Instead, a micro-donation app developed by Ovenbits, LLC, gives consumers an opportunity to donate money from their mobile device to their favorite non-profit instead of spending that $ 20 on lunch or that $ 3.00 on a latte while out and about with friends.

Once you launch the app, Instead walks you through three steps on how it works: pick something to give up – that second cup of coffee, for example – choose how much to give, and then select a non-profit to which to donate. Tap on the “About” button, select “Donation Transparency,” and the app explains exactly how your money is parceled out: 95 percent of your donation goes to the charity you select, and the remaining 5 percent goes to credit and debit processing fees as well as operational fees such as server maintenance and application hosting. Your donation, according to website, goes first to instead, inc, a registered 501(c)3, and from there the company sends a check to your chosen non-profit.

Select the “Give” button, choose the amount you wish to donate, and even type in what you’re giving up in place of your donation. The app provides a list of charities to choose from, such as The American Cancer Society. You can also suggest an organization to be added to Instead’s database. Submissions are reviewed by a volunteer committee.

Is it easy to set up? This is a lightweight app that allows you to log in with your Facebook account. The app makes a point of stating your donations through Facebook can remain private. However, you can skip that step and proceed without logging into Facebook, too.

Should I try it? Instead encourages you to develop your charitable giving muscle by showing you how easy it is to make small donations from time-to-time by giving up things you likely won’t miss anyway. Your payment, in the end, is processed through your browser, not the app itself, and therefore requires an extra step. If you’ve already sacrificed an impulse buy or gave up splurging on a night out at the movies, however, the hard part is over.

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Queens woman found dead in parked car in the Bronx

Police are investigating the death of a Queens woman found in a car parked in the Bronx this morning.

The woman, 22, was found unconscious at 4:30 a.m. inside a white Honda at the intersection of Bruckner Boulevard and Brook Avenue in Mott Haven by officers responding to a report of an assault.

EMS workers declared her dead at the scene.

Some blood was found coming from the woman’s nose, but that was the only obvious sign of trauma, police sources said.

A 40-year-old man who was with the dead woman was taken into police custody and brought to Lincoln Hospital for an injury to his left arm, authorities said.

Cops said the two knew each other, but their relationship was not immediately clear.

The medical examiner will determine the cause of the young woman’s death. Her name was not released pending family notification.

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‘App economy’ potential sizzles

Raymond Gonzalez, a Florida International University senior, is developing an iPhone application called Pet Finder that will allow users to browse the dogs and cats at the local animal shelter or request an animal for adoption. He is also part of a team creating mobile apps that track bank failures, issue alerts about earthquakes and organize homework assignments.

It’s a well-calculated effort to learn as much as he can about mobile technology as quickly as possible. “My goal is to make all these apps free and open source while using the knowledge gained to build my startup company after graduation,” said Gonzalez, who is majoring in information technology.

Whether he starts his own company or works for someone else, Gonzalez is preparing to be a player in a high-paying, sizzling new industry, one that might provide the United States with a big opportunity to increase its exports in coming years.

While the overall economy still lags, the “app economy” has created nearly 500,000 jobs in the United States since 2007, when there were none.

Companies even worry that the nation isn’t moving fast enough to produce new talent for thousands of unfilled jobs as consumers demand more and more gizmos and gadgets for their smartphones.

As a result, salaries are rising quickly: Mobile apps developers can expect pay increases of 9 percent next year, among the highest of any jobs, putting them in the range of $92,750 to $133,500 a year, according to a survey that the staffing and consulting firm Robert Half International released last month.

If the United States can maintain its dominance in the industry, many say the app economy could make a big dent in the country’s federal trade deficit. Last year, for example, more than 20 percent of the apps downloaded in China were made by U.S. developers.

“There is unprecedented opportunity for America to capitalize on exploding international markets,” Peter Farago, the vice president of marketing for Flurry, a high-tech startup in San Francisco, testified in September before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade.

Farago said his company had more than 100 employees and 50 open positions and that “we literally cannot find the talent we need fast enough.” He told members of the subcommittee that the app economy would become increasingly international and that the United States should do more to improve education and retraining programs and to make it easier for companies to bring and keep more talent from foreign countries.

“We’re in a human capital crunch,” added Rey Ramsey, the president and chief executive officer of TechNet, a network of technology executives that promotes the industry.

According to a TechNet study released earlier this year, the 466,000 mobile-tech jobs created since the iPhone was introduced include programmers, designers, marketers, managers and support staff for Apple, Android, Facebook and other platforms. California is by far the most dominant player in the industry, accounting for nearly one of every four jobs. New York ranks second, followed by Washington state, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, Georgia, Virginia and Florida.

Among metropolitan regions, New York ranked first, followed by San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara and Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue. Miami-Fort Lauderdale ranked 19th.

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Firefighters battle warehouse fire in Northwest Miami-Dade

Thick white smoke from a Miami-Dade warehouse could be seen for miles Friday morning.

Dozens of Miami-Dade firefighters battled the massive blaze, which started in a warehouse bay in the 5300 block of Northwest 35th Court and quickly spread.

In addition to pouring out of the warehouse doors, smoke and flames were also coming from cracks in the roof caused by the fire’s intense heat. Just after 9 a.m. a part of the roof collapsed.

There were no injuries reported. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

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Federal help to Connecticut for Sandy tops $7.6 million

HARTFORD, Conn. — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says Connecticut residents have received more than $7.6 million in federal help with disaster expenses related to Superstorm Sandy.

He says 9,164 residents in Fairfield, Middlesex, New Haven and New London counties, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and Mohegan Tribal Nation have registered for federal help.

Most of the money — about $7.3 million — has been approved for housing assistance, including short-term rental assistance and home repair costs.

In addition, 6,883 disaster loan applications have been issued by the federal Small Business Administration.

AP

Engineers stand next to the destroyed home of Benjamin Barton as they assess damage to homes from Superstorm Sandy along Fairfield Beach Road in Fairfield, Conn.

The Hartford Courant reports that William Lehman, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, says that when property inspections are complete and paperwork is submitted, approved residents can receive help in three to five business days.

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Allure of Brickell, downtown Miami drives up rental rates

When Brett Smith rented a condo at Axis Brickell last year, there were still sweet deals to be found, but when the lease came up for renewal last month, he got a sour note: The rent was spiking 15 percent.

The three-bedroom, three-bath condo would cost $3,800 a month, up from $3,300.

“We actually looked around at other places, and most looked to be around the same price range,” said Smith, a 25-year-old construction project manager who shares the apartment with two friends. “We decided with the cost of moving, we would just stay.”

Smith, who loves the urban lifestyle — “It’s great, and it’s getting better,” he says — has lots of company.

In greater downtown Miami and Brickell, residential rental rates per square foot jumped 10 percent in the first nine months of 2012 from a year earlier, according to a study conducted for Miami Downtown Development Authority by Coral Gables-based Focus Real Estate Advisors.

Rents for the sizzling Brickell neighborhood leaped even more sharply. The average monthly rental rate for Brickell jumped 17 percent to $2,242 in the first nine months of 2012 from the same period in 2010, while the rent per square foot spiked 28 percent over that period, according to additional data from Focus Real Estate Advisors and MLxchange.

Fueling the price increases: Strong demand for rental units and the growing popularity of the downtown and Brickell areas as new restaurants and entertainment spots help mold an urban core that is attractive to young professionals and students but also to an increasingly diverse crowd.

“It’s become like a restaurant Mecca in Brickell,” said Denise Sicuso, sales manager for Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realty’s Brickell downtown office, which handles lots of condo rentals and sales in the area.

With Brickell CitiCentre, a massive $1.05-billion mixed-use complex with retail, entertainment, office and residential, going up at 701 South Miami Avenue, “the interest in the neighborhood is only increasing,” Sicuso added. “When we get rental listings, they’re gone within a week.”

More than 95 percent of rental units in the greater downtown Miami area are occupied, according to the Downtown Development Authority study.

Demand for rental units is strong for many reasons: Tough lending standards for mortgages are making it difficult for many people to buy a home. Coming out of the recession and housing meltdown, many people have credit histories that exclude them from becoming buyers. Others simply don’t want to own.

At the same time, a steady influx of foreigners and others relocating to Miami is bolstering rental demand, as is the gradually improving economy that is enabling some young people who had moved back to the nest with their parents to get their own place.

“There is pent-up demand for rentals, not unique to the downtown or Brickell area,” said Craig Werley, president of Focus Real Estate.

Another factor: Many of the professionally managed rental apartment buildings in South Florida were converted into condominiums before the real-estate market crashed.

Professionally managed apartment buildings account for just 10 percent of Miami’s rental market, down from 20 percent in 2000, according to Werley.

While there is a major push by developers and institutional investors to build more multifamily rental units in South Florida (and around the country), the lag time before new rental units would come to market means supply will be tight for some time.

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What’s open and closed for Thanksgiving

Thursday is Thanksgiving. Here is a list of what’s open and closed for the holiday on Thursday and Friday.

Federal offices: Closed Thursday

State offices: Closed Thursday and Friday

Miami-Dade and Broward county offices: Closed Thursday and Friday

Miami-Dade and Broward courts: Closed Thursday and Friday

Public schools: Closed Thursday and Friday

Post offices: Closed Thursday

Stock markets: Closed Thursday, closing early Friday

Banks: Closed Thursday

Tri-Rail: Will run a weekend schedule Thursday

Miami-Dade and Broward transit: Will run a Sunday schedule on Thursday

Garbage collection: Normal schedule in most cities

Malls: Closed Thursday, many opening very early Friday

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