TELEVISIONS - CzechInvest said LG Philips Displays will have to repay 650 million Kc ($26 million) in investment incentives plus penalties if it does not make good on its promise to employ 3,250 people by 2007. The company, which is reportedly having a bad year, only has 1,300 employees.

CALLING - Cesky´ Telecom (CT) has said it plans to begin offering flat-rate peak calling during the upcoming year. The monthly subscription rate would increase. The provider is also expected to decide by year's end what it will do with unwanted real estate.

DEBT - CT will during the last quarter repay its remaining debt for the purchase of 49 percent of mobile carrier Eurotel, company CFO Juraj Sedivy´ said Nov. 7. CT, which bought Eurotel from U.S. consortium Atlantic West, took a loan worth hundreds of millions of euros in December 2003 to finance the deal.

SUIT - The Czech Telecommunications Office (CTÚ) has refused alternative provider Tiscali's request to force CT to pay overdue invoices for dial-up Internet services shared by the two companies. CT allegedly accrued 30 million Kc in debt between April and September. Tiscali will file a complaint with the CTÚ council.

COMPUTER - Third-quarter sales of new personal computers increased nearly 25 percent to 152,692 units. Demand for laptop computers saw a sharp spike, with sales increasing 84 percent to 67,276 units. Sales of desktop PCs, however, fell nearly 3 percent to 85,416 units.

MEDICAL - Nanospider, a new technology for producing nanowires developed in Liberec, north Bohemia, could be valuable in a possible bird flu pandemic outbreak, said Ladislav Dedek, director of Elmarco, the company that helped produce the technology. Small enough to catch microorganisms, the wires could be used to make facial masks.

HEALTH - Production and sales of health care technology have increased in the Czech Republic, according to a report by the Industry and Trade Ministry. Sales have spiked more than 60 percent since 2000 to 9.3 billion Kc. Imports of health care technology, which are still twice as high as exports, rose by 7 percent during the same period, while exports were up nearly 30 percent last year.