In-brief: iPhone rival launches, military RFID, Berners-Lee gong

Mobile phone manufacturers will launch a low-cost flat-rate music service today to challenge the Apple iPhone in Europe and Asia, reports the Financial Times.

Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, 30 mobile phone operators and the EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner record labels are backing the MusicStation service. UK start-up Ominifone is behind the service, which will launch in Sweden first and then across Europe, Africa and Asia over the next few months. MusicStation says the handsets will be cheaper than the iPhone and predicts it will sell ten times more handsets than the 10 million Apple is aiming to ship over the next 12 months.

The US Department of Defense has awarded a $28m one-year follow-on contract to Unisys to continue work on an RFID programme that will provide almost instantaneous visibility into the location of supplies and shipments across the military's logistics supply chain. If the DoD exercises three one-year options on the deal the total value will be approximately $112m.

The UK is stuck in a culture of fixed hours and office "presenteeism" and lags behind the rest of Europe in offering employees more flexible working.

A report by the Equal Opportunities Commission says fewer than half (48 per cent) of UK organisations offer flexible working to their staff compared to 90 per cent in mainland Europe, and only 20 per cent give staff the opportunity to work remotely away from the office.

Norwegian state oil company Statoil ASA has awarded a three-year €9.3m contract to Orange Business Services to deliver network infrastructure and management of its international IP network across 40 sites in 23 countries worldwide.

Sheffield City Council has attracted 31 bidders for its ambitious Outstanding Sheffield programme to outsource the authority's IT, revenue and benefits, payroll and financial business transactions. The deal may also be extended to include HR, business transformation, property and facilities management. Liberata currently provides these core services to Sheffield in a contract that ends next year. The deadline for interested bidders is 27 June.

And finally, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web has been awarded the prestigious Order of Merit honour from the Queen for his exceptional contributions to science.