News Wrap: mobile masts, telecoms woe, e-tailer closes

Kent County Council has banned the building of mobile phone masts on its land and property, which includes more than 1000 sites such as public libraries, schools and parks.

The council, which also called on the government to implement the recommendations of the Stewart Report published last May, said the ban is to "protect residents from the possible [adverse] effects of mobile phone masts".

Deutsche Telekom adds to telecoms gloom

German telco Deutsche Telekom (DT) has reported lower than expected preliminary results for the year.

Following the disappointment at the low valuation of the Orange flotation by France Telecom yesterday, DT preliminary figures showed net profit at 7.4bn euros. Although up from 1.25bn euros on the previous year, it was below analyst expectations of 8bn euros.

Atlantic Telecom axes staff

Telecoms provider Atlantic Telecom is to axe about a third of its 1000-strong UK workforce as part of a cost cutting exercise.

Atlantic said the job losses, which will mostly be in London and Manchester, will save the company £30m a year from 2001 to 2002.

The company, in which Marconi has a 18.7 per cent stake, estimated at the end of last year that it had seven per cent of the small and medium sized business market in the UK.

Monsoon closes online shopping operations

UK clothes retailer Monsoon is to shut down its online shopping operations after failing to attract buyers to its site.

The retailer said it was unable to generate enough sales to justify the £400,000 a year investment into its ecommerce operations. Its website will continue to operate but purely as a marketing tool.