A contractor laying pipes severed a fibre optic cable on the Gold Coast this morning and a backup in southern Queensland also failed.

The problem affected telephone, internet, EFTPOS and other networks relying on the Optus infrastructure.

Company spokesman Maha Krifhnapillai says most services are back to normal.

“Unfortunately at 8:00am a backhoe dug up a fibre link on the coastal one which basically meant both our links were down,” she said.

“Very unusual for two of them to go down within hours of each other, in fact virtually unheard of throughout the country.”

Queensland Health Minister Stephen Robertson says the breakdown affected hospitals in the state’s south-east and south-west.

“Whilst losing communication, staff were able to keep treating patients,” he said.

The outage also forced baggage handling and check-in systems at the Brisbane Airport offline, causing flight delays of up to an hour.

In September last year the eBroker was launched as an addition to Open GI’s eCommerce portfolio.

It creates a method to trade over the internet by utilising the firm’s search engines.

Direct data capture is ensured via core back-office integration, eliminating the need for re-keying.

It is optional, for brokers wishing to implement eBroker, to be linked either to a scheme that has already been created, or to have a custom scheme specifically designed for them.

A diverse range of products are already available and more are to be introduced in the future.

Already pet, travel, overseas property, personal accident and public liability are tradeable, and have garnered a positive reaction from the marketplace.

Open GI’s sales and marketing director, Simon Hughes, has described the interest in eBroker as very encouraging.
Open GI’s eBroker solution is being extended to permit firms to quote online for schemes beyond the standard Open GI search engines.

In September last year the eBroker was launched as an addition to Open GI’s eCommerce portfolio.

It creates a method to trade over the internet by utilising the firm’s search engines.

Direct data capture is ensured via core back-office integration, eliminating the need for re-keying.

It is optional, for brokers wishing to implement eBroker, to be linked either to a scheme that has already been created, or to have a custom scheme specifically designed for them.

A diverse range of products are already available and more are to be introduced in the future.

Already pet, travel, overseas property, personal accident and public liability are tradeable, and have garnered a positive reaction from the marketplace.

Open GI’s sales and marketing director, Simon Hughes, has described the interest in eBroker as very encouraging.

The ZEW research institute said its closely watched indicator of economic sentiment fell 11.5 points to minus 63.9 points, the lowest level since the survey began in December 1991.

The previous low was minus 62.2 points, hit during a recession in December 1992, a ZEW spokesman told AFP.

“High oil prices, the strong euro, the crisis in the United States, an interest rate hike by the European Central Bank and weak domestic consumer demand are likely to put pressure on German companies in the coming six months,” a ZEW statement said.

The European single currency leapt to a record high point of 1.6038 dollars in London after the survey was released, as investor fears grew over the state of the US economy and its financial services sector, dealers said.

Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected the ZEW index to post a more gentle decline in July to minus 56 points.

A negative level indicates that financial specialists expect the German economy to decline in the coming half year.

A sub-index that measures sentiment on the current situation also fell markedly from an indexed 20.6 points to 17.

The new overall record “confirms that investors are getting increasingly worried about the effects of soaring inflation, the credit crunch and the ECB’s recent rate hike on economic activity,” said European economist Ben May at Capital Economics.

But, he added, “given that the headline index has previously been a fairly poor predictor of German GDP growth, we still expect a relatively moderate economic slowdown.”

At UniCredit Markets, Andreas Rees said that “the list of negative factors which weighed on expectations is long, not to say have become unmanageable.

“Above all, turbulence on financial markets has been on economists’ and asset managers’ minds once again.”

Financial markets have been rocked in the past week by sharp falls in the shares of two US mortgage-finance giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while investment giant Lehman Brothers and other US banks have also been roiled by falling confidence in the banking sector.

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The acquisition is the tenth for Giles since March this year, and is a key part of the company’s growth strategy.

Charthouse Capital Partners acquired a stake in Giles in March, and together with the Bank of Scotland has provided £500 million for the group to make acquisitions.

Through both acquisitions and organic growth Giles aims to reach £1 billion in turnover through both acquisitions and organic growth.

Paul Murphy Insurance Services offers a range of insurance, including personal and commercial cover.

Managing director Paul Murphy said that he is ‘extremely pleased’ with the merger.

Mike Jones, a manager at Giles Insurance, said that the acquisition marks the company’s determination to continue expansion across the UK, and especially in Wales.