Mind-boggling numbers

There’s really no stopping this technological phenomenon.

As of end 2003, the Philippines has over 22 million mobile phone subscribers, or close to 27 percent of the population (27- percent cellular penetration rate).

Smart Communications and its sister company Pilipino Telephone Inc. (Piltel) top the list with a combined 13 million subscriber base, followed by Globe Telecom (and Innove’s Touch Mobile) with 8.86 million, and Sun Cellular (Digitel) with about 600,000. More than 90 percent of the total subscriber base is prepaid.

Globe has reported that its total subscriber base has grown 35 percent, from 6.57 million as of end 2002 to 8.86 million as of end 2003. Of the total, 8.17 million are prepaid subscribers (with Globe Prepaid Plus having 6.67 million and Touch Mobile, 1.5 million) while 685,000 are postpaid users.

On the other hand Smart has 10.1 million subscribers while Piltel has 2.9 million.

Mobile phone industry officials were earlier projecting the penetration level to hit 25 percent by 2005. With the 2003 figures already breaching the 2005 target, they are now estimating the level to reach between 33 to 40 percent by 2005.

If the figures are mind-boggling, check out the volume of SMS or text messages. Globe alone reported that about 55 million messages are sent every day, or an average of seven messages per subscriber per day. Assuming that Smart has the same volume, that’s over 100 million messages sent every day!

Microsoft Offers Reward

Here’s good news for those of you, who like me, are being pestered by virus-containing e-mail messages.

Microsoft Corp. has just announced that it will pay a $250,000 reward for information resulting in the arrest and conviction of those responsible for unleashing the MyDoom.B worm.

MyDoom.B is a variant of the earlier released MyDoom. A worm, also known as the Novarg worm, which has spread quickly infecting computers around the world. The release of this B variant triggered the first alert from the newly formed Department of Homeland Security’s cyber alert system.

So what is MyDoom.B?

First, it attacks the computers of unsuspecting consumers and automatically sends infecting e-mail to their e-mail contacts. Second, it blocks access to anti-virus vendor Web sites and www.microsoft.com <http://www.microsoft.com/> . Third, it leaves a "backdoor" into infected computers, allowing any hacker to modify the existing worm without the user’s knowledge, and fourth, it is designed to launch an attack against www.microsoft.com next month.

According to Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith, this worm is a criminal attack intended not only to disrupt computer users, but also to keep them from getting to anti-virus locations and other sites that could help them.

Residents of any country are eligible for the reward, according to the laws of that country, because Internet viruses affect the Internet community worldwide. Individuals with information about the MyDoom worm or any other worms or viruses should contact the following international law enforcement agencies: International/Interpol via the Interpol National Central Bureau in any of Interpol’s 181 member countries or at http://www.interpol.int/ , FBI or Secret Service via any local field office, or the Internet Fraud Complaint Center at http://www.ifccfbi.gov/

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