The first residential treatment center for internet addiction in the United States has opened in Seattle. The center, called ReSTART, is ironically located near Redmond, headquarters of Microsoft. For US $14,000 it offers a 45-day detox program to help users kick pathological computer addictions including gaming, texting, Facebook, eBay, and Twitter .
Verizon COO and communications president Dennis F. Strigl is retiring at year end.
Strigl, 62, was formerly CEO and president of Verizon Wireless, before taking his current role in 2007.
Alcatel-Lucent has signed a deal with German cable company Tele Columbus to introduce interactive television applications to its independent cable networks throughout Germany. The service will go live in Q4 using Alcatel-Lucent’s Interactive Media Manager solution.
Google’s high-profile China chief Lee Kaifu is resigning from the company where he has been China president and a Google global VP since 2005. He will go to work for a start-up, mainland media reports said.
BT Wholesale has launched a new wholesale broadband service Wholesale Broadband Managed Connect (WBMC) over IPstream Connect which will accelerate end-user migration to next-gen broadband and reduce overall operational costs. Currently, BTs next-gen broadband services are available from exchanges serving 40% of UK by spring 2010, it will jump to 55%.
The GSMA has selected comScore to be its measurement partner for the GSMA’s Mobile Media Metrics (MMM) commercial implementation in the UK. The GSMA, comScore and the five UK operators, Vodafone, Orange, O2, 3 and T-Mobile have now reached a formal agreement to launch the GSMA MMM services in the UK with initial data available in Q4. A full commercial launch is slated for early 2010.