The paperless airline ticket, so far a mostly North American phenomenon, may be ready to break out around the world.
IBM said Wednesday it's working with the International Air Transport Association to create a system that allows airlines around the globe to exchange e-tickets.
Also:
China in trouble on Y2K
Study calls Net analysis 'spin'
A challenge to NTT in Japan
Cisco posts strong quarter- - - - - -
A growing percentage of US travelers are already choosing electronic tickets to speed check-in and protect themselves against lost tickets. In May, United Airlines said 51 percent of its 7 million tickets were electronic, not paper. But the procedure has been slow to take hold among overseas flyers, in part because of the incompatibility of each airlines e-ticketing systems, an IBM spokesman said.
Working with the IATA, IBM has agreed to help design a centralized e-ticket system and then develop and manage it. The system will be designed to run on IBM mainframe computers and will link airlines that already do e-ticketing, allowing them to exchange information. Airlines that now have no e-ticketing capability of their own may opt to use the new centralized service, eliminating the need to develop and maintain their own systems.
- Back to topChina's Y2K woes: China is claiming good progress in making air travel, banking, and telecommunications safe from the millennium bug, but thousands of state-owned firms are still fumbling for solutions, a key official said on Wednesday.
Many companies "don't have a clear idea how to address Y2K," said Zhang Qi, the official in charge of China's Y2K preparation. "Little importance has been attached to embedded systems, especially at large-scale, state-owned enterprises."
That worries outside analysts.
It's "very, very late" to be tackling embedded systems bugs, said William Holmes, an expert on the issue for Solutions Plus, a US-based Y2K readiness consultancy. "Really the best strategy is to go and buy a new one."
Zhang, head of the Ministry of Information Industry's information technology department, also predicted rampant lawsuits by angry firms seeking to blame computer companies or business partners for lost revenues if the bug strikes.
6. Back to topWhy they say buy: Since most Internet companies don't make money, the bottom line hasn't been a very useful way to gauge their value. So what have those oft-quoted Net stock analysts been relying on?
"Spin," says a new study by a Stanford University business professor.
After interviewing analysts and industry executives, Professor Ezra Zuckerman found many companies "are actively promoting the metrics that would make their stock appear attractive relative to their peers. Thus, story or spin is increasingly important for both analysts and companies."
One Internet company official told Zuckerman that the ratings process can work in a backward fashion, with analysts seeking a rating that would be consistent with a stock's performance.
The study also notes that analysts are not the only ones who have the power to hype an Internet stock. The press is also highly influential – and Internet companies are savvy about making use of the press. Several of the companies and analysts interviewed for the study suggested that the Internet industry averages at least four times the number of press releases as normal businesses in more mature industries. In the absence of hard financial data, these releases often help boost a stock price.
6\. [Back to top](#top)__Connecting Japan:__ Softbank on Wednesday announced a plan to provide what it said would be the cheapest, fastest flat-rate Internet access service in Japan. And the flagship enterprise of billionaire investor Masayoshi Son will do so with the help of Microsoft.
The two companies, along with Tokyo Electric Power, jointly plan to set up a company next month to offer the service, Son told a news conference in Tokyo. The company said it will begin providing service to both consumers and corporate clients in the greater Tokyo area next summer.
The new service is expected to cost half as much as the flat-rate Internet access service that NTT, Japan's largest telecommunications company, is planning to introduce. NTT, the nation's former domestic phone monopoly, has been criticized for stifling growth of the Internet in Japan by charging too much for local phone calls. The Softbank-led venture will also offer 10 years of free access to schools in Japan, it said.
The backbone of the new system will be the existing fiber optic network owned by Tokyo Electric Power, the world's largest electric utility, the companies said. Son said individual customers will be able to access the Internet at a speed of at least 1 megabit per second, and corporate clients at a speed of 1 gigabit per second.
The company will be capitalized at 6 billion yen (US$52 million), with each of the three partners owning 31 percent. Yahoo Japan, a Softbank unit, will own 5 percent. The remaining 2 percent will be owned by other companies, which Son did not name.
6\. [Back to top](#top)__Net boosts Cisco:__ Cisco posted another solid quarter, with the giant in data-networking reporting on Tuesday a profit of 21 cents a share in the quarter ended 31 July. That was a penny above the consensus analyst estimate, per First Call.
Cisco ([CSCO](https://www.wired.com/stocks_quotes.asp?symbol=csco)) continued to benefit from the surge in global demand for Internet access with deployment of high-speed Internet access over phone wires and cable modems now underway. Also, increasingly, businesses want to transmit voice, data, and video over data networks.
Analysts and investors, however, were already peering off into the future, wondering how Cisco will sustain the momentum, especially as sales to its largest customers grow more slowly. One way: The networking kingpin is looking to increase sales to small- and mid-sized businesses and to telecommunications providers.
Cisco, Lucent Technologies, and Nortel Networks are racing to develop next-generation communications gear that will transmit voice, data, and video using Internet Protocol. "Whoever can provide the best product at the best price will be the winner," said analyst Michael Cristinziano of Gerard Klauer Mattison in New York.
*Reuters contributed to this report.*
