Free Republic

Wiring an old hotel for wireless Internet access can easily cost more than $1 million in construction and cabling costs, and that doesn't even factor in the lost revenue when rooms are unavailable due to the work. But some hotels have found a way around that problem using power line communications, or PLC, products, from TELKONET Inc. The company's technology, also known as "broadband over power line," is installed in the basement of a building and connects to its existing electrical system. To get wired broadband access, guests simply plug a modem into any electrical outlet. "It did not make...

Excerpt - American Express, Converse, Gap and Giorgio Armani are joining with Bono, the rock star, to sell products under a new brand, called “Red”, which will dedicate some of its revenues to fight Aids in Africa. The effort will include the creation of an AmexCo Red credit card that will be marketed first in the UK, targeting an estimated 1.5m British “conscience consumers” who are seen as more likely to buy products associated with a social benefit. AmexCo believes this figure will rise to 4m within three years. Other Red products available this spring will include Converse sports shoes...

As fireworks boomed across nearby New Delhi and families lit candles and incense and prayed late into the evening, thousands of call-center agents reported to work at a gleaming office tower here. Donning headsets and fake American names, they placed and fielded phone calls to and from the United States, collecting bills, selling products and raising credit limits. For a few minutes each shift, though, the workers hurried outside to take part in their own celebration * * * In India, call centers are part of a burgeoning industry known as "business process outsourcing," or BPO -- a new world...

Robert De Niro and American Express are being criticized for a new 30-second TV ad airing in the U.S. and the U.K. which includes shots of the now barren site of the World Trade Center. In the ad, directed by Martin Scorsese, De Niro walks through New York, referring to "My East .. my West Side." When he arrives at Ground Zero, he remarks, "My heartbreak." (The spot's tagline is: "My life. My card.") Brand Republic, an online publication covering advertising and marketing, said that the spot is drawing flak for exploiting the 9/11 tragedy.

Pretend princess An toinette Millard is showing some real gall: She's suing American Express for $2 million for allowing her to go on a nearly $1 million shopping spree she couldn't afford at some of the city's priciest stores. Millard's filing says she "was suffering from anorexia, depression, panic attacks, [and] head tumors," and the credit-card giant "knew or should have known that [she] was acting impulsively and irrationally." That argument hasn't moved American Express, which got a court order this week to freeze her assets.