Twitter chief picked as Obama telecom advisor (AFP)

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – US President Barack Obama named Twitter's chief and a high-ranking Microsoft executive among a handful of technology veterans to be appointed as telecommunications security advisors.

"I am proud to appoint such impressive men and women to these important roles, and I am grateful they have agreed to lend their considerable talents to this administration," Obama said in a White House press release available online Friday.

"I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead," he continued in reference to those he picked to join his National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.

The list of appointees included Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo; Microsoft vice president of trustworthy computing Scott Charney; McAfee computer security company president David DeWalt, and Lisa Hook, head of global communications technology firm Neustar.

The final appointee to the committee was Jamie Dos Santos, chief of the group that handles federal government information technology at Terremark Worldwide.

Costolo replaced Twitter co-founder Evan Williams as chief executive in October in a move that gave the San Francisco-based firm's helm to a Google veteran with a mandate to help the microblogging sensation make money.

Microsoft's trustworthy computing unit specializes in identifying Internet threats and protecting systems operated by the Redmond, Washington-based technology firm's widely used software.

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China Telecom in touch with Apple on CDMA iPhone (Reuters)

HONG KONG (Reuters) – China Telecom Corp Ltd, the smallest of the country's three wireless carriers, has contacted Apple Inc to introduce the popular iPhone based on CDMA (code division multiple access) technology, Chairman Wang Xiaochu said on Friday.

Larger rival China Unicom is the only operator in China, which has 886 million mobile phone users, to offer the iPhone so far. However, some analysts say China Telecom could be next after an exclusive agreement with Unicom expires this year.

"We're not denying that we're in touch with iPhone (Apple), but I cannot comment on the progress," Wang told reporters after a shareholders' meeting.

Shareholders also approved an up to 90 billion yuan ($14 billion) bond issue, including 60 billion yuan overseas and the remainder domestically.

Some of the proceeds would be used to develop its CDMA network, executives said.

"From what we see now, we'll need money to acquire our parent's CDMA network. But other than that, we won't need to issue a huge amount of bonds," Wang said.

Wang also said China Telecom would consider Hong Kong as a first priority for issuing overseas bonds, although it had no immediate plan for a yuan bond in the Chinese territory.

China Telecom, a relative newcomer to China's mobile market, operates the country's largest fixed-line network and is aggressively promoting broadband over that channel.

China Telecom had 103.10 million mobile phone users as of April, including 17.84 million 3G subscribers.

China Telecom shares, which have gained more than 10 percent this year, were up 1.8 percent in Friday afternoon trading, outperforming the Hang Seng Index's 0.06 percent gain.

(Editing by Chris Lewis)

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