ACN in the News: 2007-2008

	2008 Success The July issue features Donald J. Trump and ACN was invited to be a part of the magazine in a 16-page special section given his endorsement of the company. The insert includes company and product information as well as success stories from leading representatives.
	2008 Success From Home Magazine In March, ACN became the first company to be featured in the magazine for a record third year in a row. The publication includes the latest information on ACN's products, training, history and more... plus the inspirational success stories of top leaders.
	2008 Direct Selling News The March issue includes ACN President Greg Provenzano in the cover story Products vs. Opportunity, which offers advice to direct selling companies on finding the right balance between their services and recruiting effort. ACN President Greg Provenzano was asked to provide his prospective in the Top Desk article for the May issue titled Remembering Our Past, Focusing on Our Future.
	2007 Success From Home Magazine ACN was the featured company in Success from Home magazine’s April issue. The magazine contained detailed information on the company’s history including Co-Founders Greg Provenzano, Robert Stevanovski, Mike Cupisz and Tony Cupisz. Plus the magazine highlighted ACN’s products, support system and leading representatives.
	U.S. Business Review In May, the magazine known for providing strategies, solutions and best practices for business leaders interviewed President and Co-Founder Greg Provenzano and profiled the successful practices of ACN, declaring that “its innovative direct sales distribution model allows it to seamlessly adapt to trends in the telecommunications industry.”
	Direct Selling News The June issue of Direct Selling News, which serves executives in the direct selling industry, featured a spotlight on ACN and its quality services, including Digital Phone Service with Video Phones and Wireless.
	Business Opportunity The June/July issue of the Quebec magazine focused entirely on ACN, detailing the home business opportunity available with profiles of top representatives in Canada, the company’s history, product information and more.

ACN News Archive (2006 - 2004) >>

Government of India (Ministry of Railways)
Railway Recruitment Board (RRB), Bangalore
18, Millers Road, Bangalore - 560046

Employment Notice No.02/2008

Applications in the prescribed format are invited from eligible Indian Nationals for filling up the following posts :

For South Western Railway (SWR) - Various Posts Recruitment From RRB

1. Section Engineer : 15 posts, Pay Scale : Rs. 6500-10500, Age : 20-35
2. Junior Engineer II : 48 posts, Pay Scale : Rs. 5000-8000, Age : 18-33
3. Enquiry cum reservation Clerk : 07 posts, Pay Scale : Rs. 4500-7000, Age : 18-33
4. Sr. Clerk : 06 posts, Pay Scale : Rs. 4500-7000, Age : 18-33
5. Senior Publicity Inspector : 03 post, Pay Scale : Rs. 5000-8000, Age : 18-33
6. Traffic Apprentice : 04 posts, Pay Scale : Rs. 5500-9000, Age : 20-33
7. Technician-III : 227 posts, Pay Scale : Rs. 3050-4590, Age : 18-30
8. Telecommunication Maintainer Gr.III : 02 posts, Pay Scale : Rs. 3050-4590, Age : 18-30
9. Chemical & Metallurgical Assistant Gr.I : 07 posts, Pay Scale : Rs. 5500-9000, Age : 20-35

To Apply: Visit http://www.rrbbnc.gov.in/ for further information and Application form. Applications complete in all respects alongwith the required enclosures should be sent by ordinary post to The Member Secretary, Railway Recruitment Board, 18 Millers Road, Bangalore-560046. Fee payable is Rs. 60 (Rs.40/- for the posts having pay scales less than or equal 3050-4590) (no fee for SC/ST/Ex-Serviceman candidates) in the form of Indian Postal Order only and IPOs should be in the name on "The Member Secretary, Railway Recruitment Board, Bangalore" payable at "Bangalore.

You Can Download the Advertisement Here
Last date : 15/09/08 (for candidates from far flung areas : 30/09/08)

Best Deal Business Phone is an independent telecommunications broker that, through innovative, clear and comprehensive analysis, finds the hidden charges and inefficiencies in your business’ telecommunications bills.
Best Deal Business Phone was born out of sheer frustration at the sneaky and deceptive ways some Telco’s do business. We were an Aussie business sick of having the wool pulled over our eyes so, with the help of industry experts, we decided to develop an innovative tool to help us contrast and compare different telecommunications plans for our business. We were so pleased with the results that we believe all Australian businesses should have access to this money saving tool.

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My name is David Ventzel and think of myself as a success practitioner and fortune philosopher. However, the purpose of this blog is much more precise than my extravagant self-proclaimed titles.

If you got the idea that this blog is NOT about ringtones, you are right. The purpose of this blog is to share some of my thoughts about the many new mobile services entering the market. When I say mobile services, I mean actual services that delivers real value, are innovative and utilizes the capabilities of the 3G+ mobile phones. My thoughts stem from my professional life as a business owner of a mobile service start up company and my five years at the business school with mobile business as my main focus. Thanks to my skilled partners, employees and network I am able to release some of these thoughts, but it is just not enough. I need you to listen as well;-)        

Because this is my first post, I want to start off by sharing my view on mobile services in more general terms. As a success practitioner and fortune philosopher (just had to say it again), I have fallen in love with mobile business. Because right now, mobile business is one of, if not, THE most interesting business to be in.  This is due to the fact that the mobile transforms the very way we live. The device is omnipresent and soon it will be omni-powerful. The emergence of the vast number of new services that can be accessed through the mobile phone makes it the future remote control for life. However, not all services are fitted for the mobile phone. The nature of the mobile device is action oriented, and the types of services that will succeed are services that deliver on site value by helping users perform a certain task. The power of these services increases heavily as people gain access to high speed Internet (UMTS, HSPA, LTE etc) from their mobile device and context and location awareness is made possible through various technologies. An advanced mobile service will in many instances be able to help the user save a lot of time and solve a problem, because it provide the user with a helpful tool in a given situation. An example of a mobile service that does exactly this is (yes here the hidden advertising comes) Glubbin that I am co-founder of. With Glubbin young people can get live information about events on nightclubs and buy tickets directly from their device. But this blog is not about Glubbin but about all the other interesting and helpful services out there.

My intention is to describe and give my uncensored view of one or more new mobile service every week. If you know of any interesting mobile services you think I should be aware of, I would love if you wrote me an e-mail (dezeign@hotmail.com) and I will look into it.

If all goes well, it means that Malaysians will enjoy new Internet experience, being connected everywhere. Imagine being connected with WiFi at home, then handoff-ed to Wimax as you move out, and transferred to WiFi again as you reach office. Honestly, I enjoy more imagining myself laying on beach. But those who appreciate Internet more will certainly welcome this future.

Wimax is a Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) technology. It could be used for Fixed, or Mobile; the latter is more what many people will be concerned about.

If we refer to 7 Layer of Open System Interconnection (OSI) as below,

Wimax only covers the first two layers, Physical and Data Link. It is based on IEEE 802.16 standard. These two layers are called Physical Layer and Media Access Control (MAC) layer. These layers provide services to third layer, Network which could be IP network (IPv4/IPv6) or ATM. The physical layer of Wimax determines what transmission medium to be used, maximum transmitter power, digital modulation techniques and so on. Whereas MAC layer is concerned with security (encryption, integrity), Quality of Service (QoS) management and so on.

Wimax is based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). This modulation technology have all its carriers orthogonal to each other. Hence, theoretically, these carriers can be very close to each other with no interference, making OFDM a highly spectral efficient modulation technique. This is especially important as our spectrum is getting crowded with all sorts of technologies and services.

While spectrum space is infinite, technology limits us only to lower frequencies. In Malaysia, due to our tropical climate, we are having problem to even get above 23GHz as raindrops prove to be causing major deterioration to our air transmission quality. In fact it was mentioned in recent SKMM Lecture Series that as low as 5GHz links are already affected by rain. Hence being spectrally efficient is extremely important in Malaysia, so that we could maximise utilisation of lower spectrum.

So the future is coming (d'uh). Wireless technologies is full of wonderment, but for me getting connected everywhere is not really wowfully amazing. Instead I am dreaming to be less connected electronically, more connected spiritually and intellectually. Maybe I dont belong to current generation. Yesterday, I just knew that my 15-year old Go friend actually used Blackberry.

But to play Go, Shogi, Chess, Scrabble, Xiangqi anywhere? Now that is interesting !!

Also, when we dial in to check our own voice mail and messages, why does this count against our minutes? And, again, when checking our own messages, there's that pre-recorded voice again listing all the options out to waste time. Fortunately, usually we can just press a number to skip this and get to the function we want.

I understand that instructions are very important, especially for newer users, and people who are new to this area. But, can they have a little bit more urgency to them? Or, can they not make these count against our minutes? Or at least bill us by the second, instead of always rounding up to the minute.

Which brings us to another related issue on billing. I again wonder if this is purposely done to increase the likelihood of taking more money away from customers. The monthly cycle for billing usually falls near the middle of the month or some number that's not intuitively obvious. Well, at least not as obvious as it would be if it just simply started at the beginning of every month. Of course if the customer really wanted to, she can probably go online or check somewhere how many minutes she has exactly used so far in present billing period, but many of us do not and just go by feel and memory, and that brings wide smiles to those companies. When our body naturally goes from first of month to end of month, it is harder to remember from the 13th of one month to the 12th of another month.

My bank does this as well and I end up with all these charges of making too many withdrawals or transfers in a month, but of course it is according to their idea of a monthly cycle.

All this is no excuse as most can adjust and avoid unnecessary fees if they wanted to. But, it's just a bit disconcerting for customers when having to consider whether these companies plan to do this to make things less obvious.

Most don't argue over a few minutes here or there, or the exact dates of a monthly cycle but, over time, a minute here or there, multiplied by millions of customers here or there, and that becomes a lot of minutes lost by us, and a lot of money gained by them. Is that why so many things are just not clear cut and obvious up front? When I first sign up for services, I never get told about exact dates, cycles, and how minutes work. We trial and error, we use, we often just pay without being aware, and are not told about the exact rules unless we ask ourselves. And sometimes we don't bother asking, or complaining, because it'll just end up costing us more minutes, more time, more frustration as we wait...

-Patrick Law

An statement from the Iranian armed forces said it was the first launch of the domestically-built satellite, the official news agency IRNA reported.

In February, Iran said it had sent a probe into space on the back of a rocket on a mission to prepare for the satellite launch.

Iran has pursued a space programme for several years, and in October 2005 a Russian-made Iranian satellite named Sina-1 was put into orbit by a Russian rocket.

Sunday's launch comes amid tensions between Iran and the international community over Tehran's refusal to suspend sensitive uranium enrichment activities -- which some Western countries fear could be used to make a nuclear weapon.

See a video of the launch:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7566898.stm

The continued uptick, which compares to 5.5% growth in May, came even as demand weakened: Construction activity slowed in the first quarter as indicated by a 3% dip in approved building permits to 22,787 from a year before.

All commodity groups in the retail price index posted higher annual growth rates. Goods classified under miscellaneous construction materials registered the largest price gain at 23.1%, followed by electrical materials at 7.5%.

Electrical wires and accessories retailer Electrical Equipment Sales Co., for example, admitted to rasing prices in the past months.

"Factory prices became more expensive. Raw materials like rubber and wiring cost more so we had to adjust," a company official said in the vernacular.

Likewise, masonry materials were 5.8% costlier in April than the same period last year. Prices of painting compounds (4.3%), carpentry materials (2.8%), plumbing materials (2.1%), and tinsmithery goods (1.3%) also crept up.

Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines operations manager Vincent B. Castillo attributed the price gains to the cost-push of more expensive inputs.

"Coal prices went up," he said.

Growth in retail prices is likely to be sustained in the following months in step with the record high inflation rates of 11.4% in June and 12.2% in July. Already, the price of 40 kilos of cement in Metro Manila was up 5% in July than in the previous month, Trade department data show.

Brought to you by Danielle Hoffman / Christine Nadonza, Reuters

The move, implemented since May, was in accordance with a provision in the Tax Reform Act of 1997 that imposes a thirty-centavo documentary stamp tax (DST) on each P200 worth of transactions involving the transfer of money to the Philippines.

"Our legal counsels have been studying the ruling and we’ve decided to take the conservative side and implement it," Patricia Z. Riingen, regional vice-president for Western Union, told a briefing yesterday.

The DST on money transfers made by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) has been the subject of debate following the filing of a bill by Senator Manuel A. Roxas II, who sought the amendment of Section 181 of the Tax Code.

Critics, led by sectoral group Migrante International, have also scored the DST as another burden for Filipino workers who are already charged high remittance fees.

Ms. Riingen, however, pointed out that the DST does not form part of Westen Union’s remittance charges and fees but will be remitted to the national government.

"It’s not something we collect for Western Union but we pass it to the government," she said.

"They [OFWs] could go to their mayors and congressmen to lobby for them to be exempted from the DST," she added.

Western Union said it has slashed its remittance cost by 50% to $12 for every $800 worth of money transfer deals from the US to the Philippines. Fees for money transfers from the Middle East were similarly cut to 35 dirhams for every $500 worth of remittances.

The move was made amid stiffer competition and heeded a central bank call to bring down the cost of sending money home so that OFWs stop using riskier channels.

"We are constantly reviewing our pricing. It depends on the efficiencies of the market," Ms. Riingen said.

Remittances from some eight million Filipinos living and working abroad, expected to reach $15.7 billion this year, have been a major driver of the Philippine economy. The DST on remittances, which is also equivalent to 0.15% of the transacted amount, translates to $1.5 million additional revenues for the government for every billion dollars sent home by Filipino workers.

Brought to you by Danielle Hoffman / Christine Nadonza, Reuters

The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics on Friday reported the second quarter results, which compares to the first quarter’s 4% and contributed to first semester growth of 4.7%.

Agricultural crops, which account for almost half of total farm output, recorded a 9.82% gain in the second quarter.

The poultry subsector also posted an output rise of 7.76%, but livestock production fell 3.19% "because of pests and diseases that affected the hog industry," the Agriculture department said.

Fisheries growth fell to 1.65%, and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources director Malcolm I. Sarmiento said this was due to "high fuel costs and the typhoons and natural calamities that occurred during the period".

Fuel prices account for 60-70% of fisheries’ operating costs. Meanwhile, nine typhoons have hit the country this year.

Agricultural economist Leonardo A. Gonzales of the Sikap-Strive Foundation told BusinessWorld that the full-year government projection of 4.5-5.5% growth would be challenged by more typhoons and the high cost of fertilizers.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap declined to provide forecasts for the coming months, saying "it is too early to make a call on the third quarter figures."

He added "that means we are keeping the [4.5-5.5% growth] target for now."

Mr. Sarmiento, however, said the growth target for fisheries would be lowered to 7-8% from 10%.

On Thursday, economists said second quarter growth would most likely be lower or the same as in the first quarter, citing more expensive fertilizers and a series of typhoons.

The official results, however, showed palay production had gone up by 10.51% to 3371.87 million metric tons (MMT) in the second quarter. The government is eyeing a full-year output of 17.34 MMT, equivalent to 6.67% growth.

Sugarcane output surged by 113.85% to 6864.86 MMT. Double digit output gains were recorded in corn (24.01%), bananas (20.99%), pineapples (14.29%), and tobacco (11.88%).

In the poultry subsector, chicken output went up 10.62% to 250.26 MMT but duck and duck egg production fell by 16.99% and 9.59%, respectively.

Carabao and dairy output in the livestock subsector increased by 5.05% and 5.25%, respectively, while hog industry production contracted by 4.47%.

Brought to you by Danielle Hoffman / Christine Nadonza, Reuters

Vishal