Marc Furrer, President of the Federal Communications Commission (Comcom), will meet with representatives of telecoms companies on Monday. He wants to coordinate the construction of the future fiber optic network for data transmission, as reported by SDA. If the telecom companies did not work together, the construction would be far too expensive, said Furrer on Saturday in the Radio DRS program "Echo der Zeit". In addition, the telecoms companies would also have to agree on how the fiber optic network would one day be used.

According to Furrer, no decisions are expected on Monday. However, it is the start of a discussion.

Fiber optic cables have significantly higher capacities for data transmission than traditional copper cables. Unlike the latter, they allow symmetrical data reception and transmission, which is important for interactive services and Internet use, for example.

 Erika Bertschinger-Eicke, better known as Fiat Lux boss Uriella, wants to appear on a TV show on a private Swiss channel in the coming weeks. Icordo, spokesperson for the self-proclaimed mouthpiece of God, is quoted in the Sonntag newspaper as saying that it is time to comment on everything soon. So much nasty stuff has been written about Uriella recently. However, there is one catch, and that is Jesus. Because Fiat Lux is still waiting for his approval for the television appearance. "It could happen at any time. Jesus will tell us when exactly the right moment is." Let's hope he gives the green light soon - because who knows how much time the 80-year-old lady has left. And it would be a crying shame if humanity were to be deprived of this TV appearance.

 The takeover by software giant Yahoo just won't go away. Now the dispute between Yahoo management and major investor Carl Icahn is entering the next round. In an open letter on Friday, he called on Yahoo's top management to sell the company to Microsoft for 48.7 billion dollars. If the software giant does not agree to what he described as a "friendly and cooperative" offer, he would urge Yahoo to do business with Google, and major shareholder Icahn now wants to put his own candidates on the board of directors to force a resumption of merger talks with Microsoft. Yahoo's top management had rejected a 47.5 billion dollar offer from the software company as too low (see
In a response, Yahoo accused the billionaire of not having a credible business plan. At the same time, the company emphasized that it remains open to all transactions - including a sale to Microsoft - as long as they are in the interests of shareholders.

 At the beginning of June, the Credit Suisse employee magazine One was awarded the 2008 Bronze Anvil by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) in the "Magazines / Internal Audiences" category. The magazine, designed by the Zurich agency Process, is published in 38,500 copies in German, English, French and Italian. It is aimed at employees in Private Banking, but can also be subscribed to by employees in Investment Banking and Asset Management. The Bronze Anvil Awards were established in 1969 to recognize outstanding public relations products, individual elements or components of entire campaigns. In addition to this prestigious award, CS Magazine One also recently received two Astrid Awards from Mercomm Inc.

 The Federal Council wants to strengthen protection against deceptive offers such as address book scams and pyramid schemes. To this end, the tightening of the Federal Act against Unfair Competition (UCA) is to be drafted by the end of September. In addition to stricter material provisions on certain dubious business practices, the revision calls in particular for greater price transparency, an extended right of action for the Confederation and the legal basis for cooperation with foreign authorities, but above all the Federal Council wants to take aim at the rampant address book fraud. It stipulates that in future, the fact that an offer is subject to a charge, the duration, the total price and the form and distribution of the publication must be indicated in a clearly visible place and in understandable language. The sending of invoices for a register entry should be prohibited unless an order has been issued in advance. This is in line with the case law of the Federal Supreme Court and the Code of Ethics of the Swiss Directory Publishers Association.
The ban on distribution systems based on the snowball, avalanche or pyramid principle, which is already contained in the Unfair Competition Act, will be enshrined in the UWG. At the same time, demarcation criteria will make it possible to differentiate between legal multi-level marketing systems. Anyone who promises the delivery of goods, the payment of bonuses or other services on terms that will give the other party an advantage if other people are recruited is acting unfairly. One of the criteria is that the number of participants can increase rapidly and uncontrollably.

 On June 1, 2008, the traditional printing companies Farbendruck Weber and Benteli Hallwag merged. They now operate under the name Weberbenteli. The newly formed print and media service provider aims to offer its customers a wide range of services in the areas of media prepress, crossmedia, photolitho, web and sheetfed offset, finishing and logistics.immediately after the merger, the Swiss print and media service provider continued to modernize its machinery. In the sheetfed offset sector, the company invested in two new Roland sheetfed presses. According to a press release issued on Friday, the newly formed company intends to expand its position as a modern print and media service provider with high-quality products in Switzerland and throughout Europe.
Weberbenteli received the "European Printers of the Year" award for the fifth time in a row. The Biel-based company received prizes in the Magazine (silver) and Catalogs (silver) categories.

 The agency at the airport was honored for its loyalty campaign for Balgacher Vision Studios. The AFSP Award of the Austrian Federation of Sales Promotion was presented for the eighth time at the Euro RSCG Vienna. A total of 100 entries were submitted by 18 agencies. 53 campaigns made it onto the shortlist. Agentur am Flughafen from Altenrhein was the only Swiss agency to make it onto the podium, winning bronze with the destination party for the national holiday for Vision Studios.

 Friday evening's Arena on the subject of the SVP split will take place without the participation of the party concerned. The SVP had insisted that Ueli Maurer should appear instead of party president Toni Brunner, and Swiss television had insisted until the last minute that the SVP president should take part in the program, the SVP announced on Friday. In the opinion of the SVP, however, it would not have been Brunner but Maurer, as the party president of many years' standing, who would have been best suited to represent the party in the arena. By excluding Maurer, Swiss television was obviously pursuing the goal of marginalizing and denigrating the SVP. For its part, Schweizer Fernsehen points out that the Arena editorial team wanted to invite one of the representatives of the SVP leadership. However, both Toni Brunner and the vice presidents Adrian Amstutz and Christoph Blocher declined to take part.
The editorial team rejected the SVP General Secretariat's decision to send Ueli Maurer to the Arena. Marianne Gilgen, head of the editorial team, explained the decision by saying that they wanted to hold a forward-looking discussion. The issues under discussion should therefore be decided by the new party leadership, not by Maurer.

 The news network of Basler Zeitung, Berner Zeitung and Tages-Anzeiger can announce further additions: Philipp Löpfe, Rolf Löffler, Reto Knobel and Rico Bandle have joined the Internet project. 
Philipp Löpfe, the former editor-in-chief of the Tages-Anzeiger, has been writing a weekly analysis of the global economy on Tagesanzeiger.ch since the beginning of 2008. He will be working for Newsnetz in the broader role of economic expert. In the course of his career, Löpfe was editor-in-chief of Sonntagsblick, deputy editor-in-chief of Cash and editor-in-chief of Tagi from 1999 to 2002.
Rolf Löffler becomes Head of Production at Newsnetz. The 42-year-old historian began his journalistic career in 1993 as an editorial assistant at the Bieler Tagblatt. He also worked as a freelance journalist for the Solothurner Zeitung. After a foray into the PR sector, he has been in charge of the Thal-Gäu page at the Solothurner Tagblatt since 2006 and is the final editor.
Reto Knobel takes over the multimedia/digital editorial team. Knobel has been writing for Migros magazine since 2002, focusing on politics, business and sport. Prior to that, he was political editor at Cash and worked for various other media, including the weekly newspaper Internet Standard, Radio 100,6 in Berlin, NZZ and Sonntagszeitung.
Rico Bandle is taking over as head of the culture and society editorial team at Newsnetz. The graduate theater and media scientist, whose professional career also includes several years as a circus juggler and the management of the Variété Cosmos, which he founded, reported on the Swiss cultural scene for Blick. Since 2006, he has worked as a freelance cultural journalist and theater critic and is the editor of the web blog Kulturblog.ch.

 Tamedia announces a new investment. On June 1 of this year, the Swiss media company acquired a 15 percent stake in the start-up company Eload24. The operator of the advice portals Eload24.com and Ratschlag24.com currently offers over 400 e-booklets on a wide range of topics. Around 250 new e-booklets are to be published every year. The paid advice booklets are created by specialist authors and can be purchased individually or as a subscription. The most successful product is the flat rate. For an annual fee, customers have unlimited access to all e-booklets and can use the portal's entire range at no extra cost. Eload24 was set up in 2007 by journalist and IT specialist Jörg Schieb and the two founders of Smart Books Publishing, Ralf Seelig and Frank Seelig. The aim is to build a leading digital guidebook publisher in German-speaking countries, Tamedia announced in a press release on Friday. Tamedia's 15 percent stake in Eload24 will be increased to 49 percent in two stages by 2012. Christoph Tonini, Head of Media Switzerland at Tamedia, will also join the company's Board of Directors with immediate effect.

 Mariangela Wallimann-Bornatico is to become a member of the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television (UBI). The Federal Council appointed the former Secretary General of the Federal Assembly to the body on Friday. Wallimann succeeds Barbara Janom Steiner, who was elected to the cantonal government of Graubünden. Prior to her position in the Federal Assembly, the now 60-year-old lawyer was, among other things, deputy head of press at the SRG and personal assistant to former Federal Councillor Flavio Cotti.

 The European Championship also has something to offer fans of culinary delights. The internet cooking portal Waskochen.ch is producing short clips for the daily lunchtime program on Swiss television, in which European Championship snacks are presented. In 16 short films, personalities from each participating nation will present their very personal, traditional favorite dish. Over the next three weeks, for example, viewers will be presented with midsummer salmon by the Swedish ambassador in Bern, pierogi by a Polish restaurant owner in the Zurich Oberland, or Turkish mezze by a theater man in Lucerne. The culinary discoveries can be made for the first time on Sunday, June 8 at 12:30 p.m. on SF 1.