Webwire: IBM mutes iPhone; Facebook price still sliding

IBM has told employees to disable voice assistant Siri from the iPhone 4S, due to concerns its employees' spoken queries may be stored in Apple databases.
MSN 
 
Facebook shares are now down 24% from the $38 (€30.49) IPO price, making the firm’s public debut one of the worst for any large company.
 
Alcatel Lucent chief Ben Verwaayen warns European operators risk turning the region into a “digital dessert” if they continue to shy away from network investments due to the sovereign debt crisis.
 
Sprint Nextel will shut down its Nextel Wimax network in June 2013, to concentrate on the LTE network it plans to deploy in the summer.
 
Research firm Gartner expects total transaction values from the global mobile payment market to climb to $171.5 million (€137 million) this year, up 60% from the year before.
 
UK operator BT is on track to meet its goal of deploying 500,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across London in time for the 2012 Olympics, including 1,000 hotspots in Olympic Park.
 
Japan's Softbank has announced a new smartphone with a built-in Geiger counter, in a bid to help Japanese citizens avoid radiation exposure following the Fukushima disaster.